What's your favorite KLR tire?

[Gam]

I only have about 8500 miles on this bike and I am about to put on the 4th front tire. I've had the oem and two shinko golden boys. That's only 2000 miles per front tire, which is nuts, past experience on any bike, I can normally replace the rear at least twice before replacing the front. The golden boys on the rear wear normally, it actually doesn't need replacing, but if I am going to drag out the tire changing stuff I am going to do both.  Price is no object this time, I am thinking about mefos, I like something that is around 50/50 for street/dirt, but I am open to suggestions for your favorite klr tire,

[klaviator]

I've got about 37K on my KLR and have gone through more tires than I can keep track of.  The OEM tires wore out real quick, at least the rear which went about 1800 miles.  I have tried the following tires:  Avon Gripsters, Duro Medians, Pirelli MT-21 (front only) and the Shinko 244s.  The Shinko's have worked the best for me with the rears lasting between 3500 and 5000 miles and about the same for the fronts.  At about 90 bucks a set they are a great deal as well.  What kind of tire pressures are you using?

[Gam]

I've got about 37K on my KLR and have gone through more tires than I can keep track of.  The OEM tires wore out real quick, at least the rear which went about 1800 miles.  I have tried the following tires:  Avon Gripsters, Duro Medians, Pirelli MT-21 (front only) and the Shinko 244s.  The Shinko's have worked the best for me with the rears lasting between 3500 and 5000 miles and about the same for the fronts.  At about 90 bucks a set they are a great deal as well.  What kind of tire pressures are you using?

I think pressure may be the problem, I only run about 22 pounds in the front, what do you run on the 244's?

[klaviator]

I typically run 26 PSI in the front.  For pure street riding I bump it up to 28-30.  For rugged dirt riding I may drop it to 22 but I haven't done that for a long time.   Keep in mind that I ride it like it's a sport bike on the pavement but don't ride very fast in the dirt.

[Gam]

Well I'm not fast on either but faster on dirt relatively speaking, I think I will get another 244 and bump the pressure up and see how it works.

[kdtrull]

I can vouch for the 244s as well.  I've had them on 2 KLRs, a DR650, and a couple or three XT250s.  It's a great tire, peg-scraping pavement traction and decent off road.  As good longevity as any DS tire I've used.  It's just a bonus that they are so cheap. 

The Dunlop D606 is a nice grippy tire but not worth the money and the front wears even but too fast.  And the rear gets very loud on a KLR after it gets some wear on it.

I had the Mefo Explorer on an 2008 KLR.  The rear was fine but the front wore fast and very unusual pattern....even at 30 psi.  I'll try to find a picture of that crazy front wear pattern.

[Al Goodwin]

Shinko 244's.......Shinko 705's for more street use.

[Gam]

I posted this before, might have the old site, this was my first 244 front after 2000 miles, the 244 on there now looks the same after 2000 miles, the rear has plenty left, i figure it has to be that I'm running on the street at too low of a pressure, because nobody else is having this happen so quickly.

[Jwwr]

Front 244 on my WR250R looks like that after 3000 miles.

[klaviator]

My front 244 is waaaaaay past due for replacement.  I've had a new tire in the Garage for about a year.  I ordered it when I needed a new rear tire last year.  By ordering 2 tires as well as some CO2 cartridges I got the order over $100 and got free shipping.

Anyway, this is what a front 244 looks like with 5900 miles on it:


.



These tires will cup no matter how much pressure you put in them.  I think this is true of most dual sport tires.

[TFancher]

I run the Shinko 705's and I've had no issues with them. I'm probably 90/10 on asphalt.  Got one on the rear of the strom too.

[lazeebum]

I run 35 psi front and rear, gravel or pavement. I am currently running the shinko 705's.  I am getting good wear and they are capable of anything I can handle.

[scrappyjon]

I'm new on the KLR and I REALLY like the shinko 244s that are on it. I had some twisty fun on the newly paved 25 the other day and they handled great. I also rode some dirt trails and they were digging in really good. I haven't done wet pavement on them yet but I imagine they will do fine as long as I don't go batshit crazy which I don't do anyway on wet pavement. Also they are so cheap that even if they only last 2500 miles or so, who cares. I don't think mine are even balanced unless they have beads in them.

I also run the 705s on my strom. Those have been ok. Two back tires to every one but that could be from riding two up.  I had a pretty scary ride on those doing 300 miles in rain. The back one was ready for a change but still had some tread left so i went with it. That was a mistake. I had to use a lot of front brake and really feather the throttle starting off because I wasn't getting traction. It would probably be different on a klr because they don't have the power or brakes for that matter that the strom does.

[klaviator]

Something that some people do to extend the life of front tires like the 244 that cup is to take them off and mount them in the reverse direction.  Obviously this is only a good idea on non directional tires which the 244 is.

[kdtrull]

This Dunlop K750 is a fine tire but wears quickly.  I got 2950 (new personal record) miles on it running 30 psi cold except for about 2 days in Tellico at 18 psi.  It had a few miles left in it when I took it off.