Dual sport tire question

[pamonster]

Does anyone know of a good street biased (70/30 or 80/20) dual sport tire that fits the baggy's well?

[MSW]

Do you have the dual sport wheels or the SM wheels?

Although I haven't tried them yet, if you just have the 17" SM wheels, a couple of folks on this board who do a bit of dirt on their SMs like the Avon Distanzia SM on the rear and the Avon Pro Xtreme Rain on the front (the Rain apparently behaves much better on the road than the Distanzia on the front). That said, though, there really aren't any tires that will be truly competent off-road for the SM wheels. The Distanzias are a dirt as you'll find.

If you've got the 18"/21" dual sport wheels, then the entire world of dual sport tires is open to you. If you're budget-minded (as am I), you might want to give the Duro HF903/904 a shot. Handles well on pavement and still does anything other than deep mud/sand off road. Some folks have reported non-life-threatening defects ("chunking" of the treads), but those appear to have been a combination of a bad batch a few years ago that the company was happy to replace and people not adjusting the pressure for on-road riding after lowering it for off-road. If you're truly doing a dual sport trip, always keep a tire inflater with you!

If money is no object, the popular choices among the Dual Sport crowd seems to be the Distanzias for folks who truly do mostly on-road, and Dunlop TKC80s for those that are more serious about off-road.

I'm still experimenting with my D/S wheels, so I don't have experience with a lot of different models yet. Hope that helps.

[pamonster]

ya, I have the SM wheels.....
my first bike was KLR, so i get the bug to hit the trail every so often, but I really wonder how much I will ever see them and if it's worth getting dual sport tires

thanks for the info though