off road tires on road?...

[Bruce H]

I an heading for Death Valley the first of April on a GS and would like to have knoby tires while in the park. How bad do these get used up when on the highway? Most of this trip is getting there and back, about 1800 miles then whatever I ride in the park. Am I just gonna kill a new set of knoby tires?

 

Last time I had tourance type tires and the off road traction wasn't the best but the road life was, about 6K is what I have been getting. If I do this with the knobby tires what kind of tire life have others experienced? Which tire would you use?

[Huzband]

I generally got about 5k on the rear TKC, maybe 7k on the front. I didn't baby them, either.

[Bruce H]

did they drive ok on pavement? does this seem like a reasonable thing to do for such a road distance. I am in the middle of a decision as the tires currently on the bike don't have enought left in them for the whole trip.

[David]

Traction is remarkably good. Some more vibration and lots more noise, but otherwise they are fine. Be sure to use different PSI on and off road.

 

I don't get more than 3,000 on a rear, though.

[Bruce H]

based on the tire information (continental TKC80) I decided 34psi front and rear on road and guess I'd cut that in half for off road?

[David]

No, that would be too low for a bike that heavy, and wheels without rim locks. I'd go with low 20s.

[Huzband]

I ran 38 front, 36 rear on the road.

 

Agree with David, low to mid 20's off road.

 

BTW, I probably got more mileage than David because of the difference between an 1150 & a 1200.

[SonnyAK]

The TKC's are surprisingly good on the highway...I'm always amazed how well they do on the wet roads...I always run them on my Adventure and it has been on some long trips - from the west coast to the east, and up to Alaska. The best mileage I have gotten out of them is 7,000 (rear) and 11,000 (front), which I was astonished at, but they were pretty shot...Great tires.