Our Equipment: Tires
Score: 10/10
Heidenau K60 Scout
Price: 180 €
The Heidenau is a well renowned tire of many adventure bike riders. We have not only seen them on many of the bikes we have met along the road, we also consider it the best tire for our purpose. It checks all the boxes. Very good onroad, good offroad, long lasting, not extremely slippery in the wet. The tire tread is lower on the big GS so the mileage is considerably less than on the new Africa Twin. But it still easily can achieve over 10.000 kilometers. The furthest the GS has gotten with it was around 14.000. On the Honda you can expect more than 15.000 and even up to 20.000 if you don’t stress it too much. It is just an incredible versatile tire and that is exactly what we need for our journey. And on the top of all that it is quite cheap to purchase. We recommend this to any serious bike traveler.
Score: 9/10
Michelin Pilot Road
Price: 270 €
We have used this tire solely on our previous road bikes. It offers great traction on the road and is also very long lasting.
It is not as cheap as other tires but it performs very well in the wet. Since you never know when you will be hit by a rain shower in the alps this is a big plus. You can expect to get more than 10.000 kilometers on them if you ride them occasionally. Fabi did wear one out after just 6000 during our trip in Spain. But the temperature was crazy and the roads beautiful ;).
We recommend this tire if you do not plan on going off the tarmac and you want a tire that has lots of grip even in the wet. We have used the Pilot Road 2, 3 and 4 and we liked all of them.
It is not as cheap as other tires but it performs very well in the wet. Since you never know when you will be hit by a rain shower in the alps this is a big plus. You can expect to get more than 10.000 kilometers on them if you ride them occasionally. Fabi did wear one out after just 6000 during our trip in Spain. But the temperature was crazy and the roads beautiful ;).
We recommend this tire if you do not plan on going off the tarmac and you want a tire that has lots of grip even in the wet. We have used the Pilot Road 2, 3 and 4 and we liked all of them.
Score: 5/10
Continental TKC 80
Price: 185 €
One of the best known offroad tires in the world. It is famous for its offroad performance. We have tried it on the KTM 620 and the old Honda Africa Twin. In the end we were not too impressed by the tire.
Onroad you can feel hard vibrations from the tires and in corners you feel the tire losing grip at higher angles. In the wet it is very slippery on the road. Of course the tire is not made for the road so lets talk about it offroad. It does well offroad. Compared to the Heidenau K60 Scout you might find it to work a bit better in the mud and possibly the sand, but the difference is not as severe as you might expect.
And the biggest disadvantage is the mileage you can get on these tires. On the old Africa Twin the TKC 80 looked done after just 3500 kilometers. You probably could put 5000 on them but you would have to change pretty soon then. For some fun on a smaller bike doing some short trips in the dirt this tire might be the right choice. In our opinion on a big bike and on the road this tire is not suitable at all.
Onroad you can feel hard vibrations from the tires and in corners you feel the tire losing grip at higher angles. In the wet it is very slippery on the road. Of course the tire is not made for the road so lets talk about it offroad. It does well offroad. Compared to the Heidenau K60 Scout you might find it to work a bit better in the mud and possibly the sand, but the difference is not as severe as you might expect.
And the biggest disadvantage is the mileage you can get on these tires. On the old Africa Twin the TKC 80 looked done after just 3500 kilometers. You probably could put 5000 on them but you would have to change pretty soon then. For some fun on a smaller bike doing some short trips in the dirt this tire might be the right choice. In our opinion on a big bike and on the road this tire is not suitable at all.