Dunlop Trailmax Mission in the UK

Matt.GS12

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Hi folks,

Well it's that time of year again which everyone goes "Oh no! Not again".

Sorry but after a fortnight of reading reviews and watching videos my brain is fried.

Does anyone actually know someone who's tried the new Dunlop trailmax mission tyres here in the UK or Europe?

I like the look of them and willing to give them a try, but still not sure what they'd be like on wet Scottish roads where I live.

My 2008 r1200 GS doesn't have anything fancy on it like ESA or ABS as I'm old school and it's just something else to go wrong in my mind.

I don't mind a bike moving around under me a bit, but don't fancy making my GS handle like a pig on rollerskates either.

Cheers, Matt
 
Why. It just buy a tyre you know works well?

As I only bought the bike in October last year and as yet haven't ridden it then I don't know what works well. Also, if we never try anything new then how will we ever know if things have improved?
 
Give these Dunlops a go. Developed from race wets they work really well as a road tyre, especially in wet and cooler conditions plus they can cope with easy, gravely off road if that's your thing :thumb2

<a href="https://andressotoscastello.smugmug.com/UkGSer/n-5CFLKf/i-VR4TFrc/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-VR4TFrc/0/3646f360/XL/i-VR4TFrc-XL.png" alt=""></a>

Andres
 
Hi @Matt.GS12 ,

Did you ever make a decision? I'm thinking of getting the missions for my 2008 F650 Twin.

I hear great things about them, but I ride all year on and off road including super sunny, rain and ice.

I actually did a Scotland trip a couple of years ago and had my bike turn around by itself due to snow and ice. It was beautiful though.

Did you get any long term experience with the missions in rainy, icy or snowy weather?

Yannick

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk
 
How much Offroad due you do ? Dunlop are also just launching the new Trailmax Raid which they reckon is a game changer for its on road performance, especially in the wet , for a proper 50/50 tyre.

The Meridian is a more Road based version of the Mission which a GS riding mate loved and stuck another pair on his KTM 1290. I’m considering swapping my Scorpion Rally’s for a pair as a I don’t ride off road.

Dunlop unfairly get a bad rep because their Asian dept offer cheap tyres as OE equipment to some of the jap manufacturers. They are definitely not of the same quality they offer to European manufacturers or the tyres sold as aftermarket and their premium tyres as as good as any other brand and often better.

Bridgestone commissioned an independent track test (dry and wet test) of their T32 when it was launched and the tyre that ran it closest at the time was the Dunlop Roadsmart 3 , which beat the ever popular Michelin PR5 especially in the wet test but everybody loves a Road 5.
 
How much Offroad due you do ? Dunlop are also just launching the new Trailmax Raid which they reckon is a game changer for its on road performance, especially in the wet , for a proper 50/50 tyre.

The Meridian is a more Road based version of the Mission which a GS riding mate loved and stuck another pair on his KTM 1290. I’m considering swapping my Scorpion Rally’s for a pair as a I don’t ride off road.

Dunlop unfairly get a bad rep because their Asian dept offer cheap tyres as OE equipment to some of the jap manufacturers. They are definitely not of the same quality they offer to European manufacturers or the tyres sold as aftermarket and their premium tyres as as good as any other brand and often better.

Bridgestone commissioned an independent track test (dry and wet test) of their T32 when it was launched and the tyre that ran it closest at the time was the Dunlop Roadsmart 3 , which beat the ever popular Michelin PR5 especially in the wet test but everybody loves a Road 5.
Hey,

Thanks. I didn't know about these. I'm doing more and more off-road. I recently did about a week of off-road riding. But when I don't I ride in the sun, rain and ice.

I would say I do about 30/70-40/60 on road off road, however when I do off-road riding I'm wanting to get more technical, so I need better tires.

I currently have Tourance Metzler tyres. I used these on a 10 day off road trip and they were ok, but wet grass and mud were soooo hard.

Yannick

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk
 
One man’s opinion

This guy loves them compared to the Anakee ..:thumb

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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jfNACd1j1Uc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
But all new rubber feels better than the outgoing rubber ?

Over the two GS's I've had i've had the following

Hexhead

Metzeller Karoo 1 pair

Avon Trail riders 1 pair

Metzeller Tourance 1 Pair

The Karoo's were noisy & scary in the wet so swapped for the Trail riders

The Trail riders were swapped for the Tourance's, only because no more Trail riders were available at the time

In order of :thumb2

Trail rider/ Tourance

(both bloody good tyres) the Tourances took a long time to scrub in compared to the Trail riders, so pipped by the Trail riders which were good to go in around 100 miles

Karoo


LC

Michelin Anakee 1 Pair

Avon Trail riders 2 Pairs


In order of :thumb2

Avon Trail rider

Michelin Anakee

The Anakee's were squared off when i got the bike so no way were they staying on lol


The only thing I've noted about the Trail riders, on the LC the fronts wear the same to the rear, so 2 rears to one front isn't an option.

But you do get about 7K out of a set, but the rears are definitely squaring off by that time, but still give the same levels of confidence and grip
 
I love the Tourance Metzler as well. They feel very safe on wet tarmac. However while they are fine off road, I'd like a little more wet traction off-road as I progress.

I was travelling through Europe with them all off road and while it's admittedly partly a skillset thing, I felt they didn't grip enough in wet grass and mud.



Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk
 
Thank you. :) I watched a lot of Mission reviews and they seem really amazing and have a lot of amazing reviews!

I now am looking at the Trailmax Raids after you mentioned it @Rushy. I can't exactly tell if they're better or worse for cold and wet tarmac than the mission. Like you said they're supposed to have good wet weather performance. I saw they have a better silicone heavy compound for wet weather riding of I got that right. However, I initially thought they were a slightly more street bias version of the mission, but am now also reading that it might be a more off road bias version of that mission. Hard to get a more detailed on side by side comparison for now.

I assume both would be better than my Metzler off road, but not sure about on road.

Yannick

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk
 
Thank you. :) I watched a lot of Mission reviews and they seem really amazing and have a lot of amazing reviews!

I now am looking at the Trailmax Raids after you mentioned it @Rushy. I can't exactly tell if they're better or worse for cold and wet tarmac than the mission. Like you said they're supposed to have good wet weather performance. I saw they have a better silicone heavy compound for wet weather riding of I got that right. However, I initially thought they were a slightly more street bias version of the mission, but am now also reading that it might be a more off road bias version of that mission. Hard to get a more detailed on side by side comparison for now.

I assume both would be better than my Metzler off road, but not sure about on road.

Yannick

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk

The Raids are definitely a more off road biased than the Missions, they are a true 50/50 tyre but they are brand new so not many reviews yet . Like you said their are loads of positive reviews on the Missions. In particular the Yanks who have a lot of fire roads, trails, non-metalled roads as they like to call them absolutely love the Missions.They are great for adventure bike riders who like to travel big distances including some off road travel.
 
I’ve had a Trailmax Mission on the rear for a lot of miles - I’ll have to check when I’m home and update but there’s still plenty left on it.
As a caveat, most of my mileage was at a steady speed.
They are very hard, which is good for longevity but not for wet conditions. I prefer K60s for wet roads - obviously K60s also have their limitations.
Any slippery surface showed their limitations - just slight mud and they were hopeless.
Great for gravel and dry rocky tracks.

I want longevity but would go back to K60s as imho they’re slightly better overall.

I’m going to go with the Trailmax Raid for my next trip as I’m happy to give up a little mileage for extra grip this time around.
 
Not sure if anyone is interested in this thread anymore but, just in case:
This Trailmax Mission has done just over 20K miles.
As I said they were, mostly, slow miles but a good mixture of surfaces.
 

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