What would happen if I put an extra-gnarly full-on motorcross rear tire for traction in mud and sand - and left the front tire as the stock dual purpose one?

Where I live it's quite common to have a short thunderstorm in the afternoon, and riding on full knobblies on wet tarmac is not good for the heart... I especially worry about losing the front end on bends with oncoming traffic.

However I use the tarmac to get to the fun stuff, which is sandy soil, mud or pure sand. As such I know the stock rear can fail to give enough push at times.

I'm moving away from riding in groups of guys going fast, and will be pottering around on little adventures by myself, exploring remote villages and places, so off-road I'll be going pretty slow. I think the stock front will be OK at such speeds.

So what happens when you combine knobbly at the back, with dual purpose on the front?

Will that throw the handling off completely, causing squirming, squealing, hi-overs and upset the Gods of Handling?

Or just give me the best of both, bearing in mind my lazy, laid-back riding style?

 

I have been using Duro HF903/904 Median tires. They stick well and have a fairly aggressive tread. I tried them when I was unemployed and low on money back in 2001, looked at the catalogs (worked in the shop) and the only tires that tripped my trigger were the IRC GP110s and the Duros. Couldn't find out much, but figured what the heck, do the Duros. I've done over 30,000 miles running them on my KLX650 after having run the Avon Gripster (Slipster) and don't plan on changing. When it came time for tires for the KLX250, immediately, took off a near new set that had a lousy tread pattern, I went with the Duros. I also did them because I could go with the slightly narrower 4.10-18 rear to work better in mud and loose stuff along with being lighter and the side benefit of being about 30% lower price than the 120.

The tread is deep and fairly open. They have a web between the blocks side to side for less block squirm when cornering. The web also creates a bit of a paddle effect in the tread for forward motion. My experience on the 650 has proven they stick like glue in cornering on the road when riding with sport and supermoto riding friends with no issues when we got off road when riding dual sport. The riding done so far on the 250 shows good performance in sand and I'm still working my way in on the road. Need some more miles for the cornering performance on the lighter 250, but on the 650 I never had any issues as hard as I corner... and I corner fairly hard.

The 90/90-21 is around $55 and the 4.10-18 is around $56, the tires. On the 650 have lasted around 4000 miles before the tread is flattened, making cornering wonky, and the tread depth is shallow enough traction on dirt/gravel is noticeably lacking.

I've seen some of the ratings people give them, commenting on drying out after a couple years. Mine don't last a couple years before Iwear them out. They may have some checking in the tread after a year, but so did the Avons. I don't think the Duros are a great tire for the big 600+ lb adventure bikes or any heavier street bike. I've never chunked one or had severe cracking of the tread and at this point have run about 7 sets through the 650. If you look you will find riders have had similar issues on virtually all brands, so I guess the point is if you don't ride enough to wear a set out in two years start looking for tires that wear well in the garage.

Not a lot of riders run these tires, most go with the low buck Kendas or Shinkos. I ran the popular tread pattern back when Yokohama made them. Not overly impressed, nor were most riders on Hondas since the Yokohamas were OEM back in the late 70s. Yokohama sold off the bike tire business to Shinko. I avoided them when I was looking for low buck tires back in 2000.

I just found the Duros to be excellent all around and at under $120 a set I replace both when the rear is shot. I do think the next step above them would be DOT knobbies. Fact is some sizes of the high buck Heidenau tires are virtually the same tread style.



High buck Heidenau:



The Duro is worth a look at the price for sure.

 

Cheers klx678. They look nice all rounders but I'm thinking something more aggressive on the back end...

Everything is a compromise, I'm just wondering if I can take that compromise thing a step further by having basically a road tire at the front and a motocross tire on the back..?

OK, maybe not that extreme, more like an extra aggressive DS on the rear and a more road-orientated DS on the front (ie the stock one for now, which I find OK for the road)

I've had very little time off road on the 250, still breaking in, but I have plenty of experience on the KLX 150, which has the same stock tires. I know the stock rear is surprisingly good on dry mud, grass and gravel - but I also know it's entirely hopeless when faced with an uphill wet muddy slope.

I'll be mostly riding alone, so nobody pushing or pulling; the bike is going to have to haul its own *** out of any mud. I don't think those Duos will be any better than the stock tires for that.

Let me upload my (ruined after a puncture) rear tire, in case they are different here in Borneo...

OK, the pic with 2 tires is my KLX150, showing the original and the Maxxis knobbly I fitted almost immediately. The other pic is my 250, looks like the same original tire, a Continental, already destroyed after a puncture (note the splits next to the outer *****)

They're pretty aggressive, but not aggressive enough for the sandy and muddy "roads" around here. Sometimes you come around a sharp bend and are faced with a steep slope, no room to take a run at it.

So what would happen if I put those Maxxis knobblies on the rear, but kept the stock front?

Anyone ever tried?

 

I run soft deep sand 90% of the time. Currently using Kenda Southwick up front with the Trakmaster on rear. Perfect DOT sand and mud combo for me. I don't ride street much at all, only to jump out for gas, lunch, or hit another trail section, which could be 1 to 30ish miles sometimes. I also ride in the rain a lot. They are perfectly fine on the road in the rain within the speed limit. Street and sand are completely opposite terrains. No way your going to find anything that's good for both....lol There is no such thing as a great tire for everything. Where you gain, there's always loss. Choose a tire for where you ride most of the time, or, where you want the tire to perform. Here's a link to Kenda tires. They are listed in order from soft terrain to hard. I like the Kenda's cuz they are a quality tire for a cheaper price. Remember tire pressure makes a huge difference.

Here ya go. These tires can be found online like Amazon for mid $50 shipped. I paid $57 for my Trakmaster, and $52 for the Southwick. Both prices included shipping.
Kenda Tire | Powersports | Find a Tire

BTW, Remember that the reviews you'll read are really useless. No one ever says what terrain the tires are being used on, so I don't even read them. I went with this combo because most of the guys in my area are very happy with them, as am I. When someone jumps in on a thread saying that so and so tire is the best, make sure you find out what terrain they ride on. People love to voice their opinion without reading the whole thread. You'll have to decide for yourself, street or sand/mud like you asked. Just keep in mind, a decent or good street tire isn't going to be good for sand or mud. Maybe ok for hardpacked dirt, but sand is completely different as you may know. I've been riding and racing in the stuff for 47 years. It's not like dirt. The sand by be improves and firms up when wet, which is why I ride on rainy days like I said earlier. We get some muddy spots in the swampy area's where there is clay in the sand. Man that **** is sticky. If this sounds like your terrain as well, sand, loamy dirt, then you want a tire with wide open spaces between the knobbies. You'll just have to take it easy in the turns while on the street, and just deal with it. It is what it is.

 

People run balanced tires for a reason.

If you gain traction at the rear in muddy conditions you're going to be going faster than you want to go in those conditions with the dual purpose front. Your speed over ground will be limited by the front tire. The front tire will understeer or push. You will lose the full benefit of the rear tire. It will load up with mud and not be able to shed it.

If you did it reversed, knobbies front dual purpose rear your speed on the road would be limited by the front tire. Again the front would push or understeer. On the dirt the bike would steer fine, but not generate speed.

Tire choice is determined by the highest demand activity you expect to use the motorcycle for.

 

Don't fall victim to the monster truck concept of tire size when it comes to off road riding. There's a reason a full blown off road race bike like a Yamaha WR450F has a 120/90-18 rear tire. A bigger than necessary rear tire on a KLX is a recipe for disappointment. On mixing front and rear tires between knobby and dual sport versions, you'll get off a little easier with a knobby front and DS rear than the other way around. You see many hardcore off roaders use a trials tire in the rear for some applications. When you stick a knobby in the rear matched to a DS front, you're going to push that anemic front tire all over the trail in off road settings where the bike is going anywhere but straight.

 

I always balance my tires, full motocross all the way.

 

Motorcross???...Pfffft! I only go with enduro tires!