| Avon | Gripster Gripster II |
95% street/5% dirt | Many owners' web sites rate this as a top choice for street-oreinted riding | Bridgestone | Trail Wing (TW) series | 80% street/20% dirt |
Good tires, but very broad product range means it's important to get the right TW for your bike and purpose. To help with that, a chart showing OE fitments is available at
this site
I'm pleased with the TW22 on my KLR650, now that I've added the fork brace. For gravel, dirt roads, prairie, the occasional mud hole and around the (dry) hoodoos in Drumheller, it works fine as long as the pressure is let down to about 16 PSI. On road at 24 PSI is good, with plenty of rubber right in the middle, right where the previous tire wore most for me. Now planning to fit the matching TW21 up front. |
| ED enduro series | 10% street/90% dirt | DOT legal | |
| Cheng Shin | C858 | 50% street/50% dirt | "Cats paw" or "claw" pattern popular with Japanese designers. Rider report (bottom of page) |
Continental Available at indy shops e.g. Performance Cycle. |
Enduro Pro | 90% street/10% dirt | street oriented |
| TKC80 | 50% street/50% dirt | Block tread design, developed for BMW, good reports on several European sites. | Dunlop | K750 | 70% street/30% dirt | OE tire on Kawasaki KLR650, pretty good all-around tire. | D604 Trail Max | 95% street/5% dirt | no reports | D606 | 20% street/80% dirt | new design DOT legal knobby | IRC | GP1 | 50% street/50% dirt | IRC's d-p tire for more dirt-oriented riding. This report talks about riding in Mexico's Copper Canyon; he mention tires were GP110s. |
| GP110 | 70% street/30% dirt | IRC's d-p tire for more street-oriented riding, although it actually looks knobbier than the GP1. | |
| Kenda | K270 | 50% street/50% dirt | Low price, but a surprisingly good reputation, especially in gravel. Extensive additional information below this table. |
| Kings | KT-966, 967 | 90% street/10% dirt |
Available at Walt Healey. |
| Maxxis | 6006 | 40% street/60% dirt | This is a great repeat great tire for touring, dirt, loose srocky slope climbing and descent, excellent mileage (5000 mi. rear) and cheap too! Try some! |
| Metzler | Enduro series (1-4) | 80% street/20% dirt |
no reports |
| Tourance | 90% street/10% dirt | no reports | |
| Karoo (rears) Karoo 2 (fronts) | 10% street/90% dirt | Steel belt said to improve durability and puncture resistance. A BMW rider I talked to at the 2002 Motorcycle Show said they were a pain on the road. | |
| Michelin | T66/T66X radial | 90% street/10% dirt | A fellow member at the Calgary M/C Club says he is not happy with the way his KLR slides (too easily) with T66s. |
| Sirac | 70% street/30% dirt | no reports | |
| Pirelli | MT21 | 20% street/80% dirt | Product test A German site rated them as good, but "hellish noisy" on the road. |
| MT70 | 70% street/30% dirt | Limited sizes, no reports. |