Tyres | Moto-Abruzzo

01/03/2020

New places, new tyres

I’ve just done a quick search of the website and realised that I haven’t mentioned tyres in three whole years. That’s probably because for the past three years I’ve been very happy thank you very much running around on the Michelin Anakee 3’s. But now I have a need once again for something a bit more 50:50-ish to tackle some seriously dilapidated roads, more like tracks across ploughed fields really!

Of course I could just opt for the venerable old TKC 80 or Karoo 3 but I wanted to give another manufacturer a try. I’ve read pretty good things over the years about Mitas tyres, a budget tyre made in the Czech Republic, so I opted for the Mitas e07+ based on reviews for our wheel size and bike style and ordered a set from Pneus Online – £146 the pair, delivered.

Well they arrived by two different couriers from two different warehouses on two different days – but they arrived! Both were manufactured within the last few months, so no old stock which is nice. I unwrapped both of them and stood back in amazement ……. I guess we’re all used to the hairs/bobbles (vent spews) on new tyres, but Mitas has REALLY gone to town. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such hairy tyres before! These things have never bothered me in the past, but this amount gives me a real urge to reach for a craft knife!

08/05/201508/05/2015

Bye bye Karoo 3 …. hellooooo Anakee 3!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid with Michelin Anakee 3 tyre Well yesterdays arrival of a spanking pair of Michelin Anakee 3’s makes the total number of tyre types fitted to the Capo a head spinning …… 5. The OEM fit Tourance, oodles of TKC80’s and Karoo 3’s and one fantastic set of Anakee 2’s. They were by far the best with excellent grip and long life – so the Anakee 3’s have a hard act to follow, I wonder how they’ll compare.

With the back wheel dropped out, I decided to give everything a once over and quick scrub-up – nice and shiny like. The vernier showed the rear disk had finally met the minimum thickness (4.5mm), so off it came and on went a nice almost-new one from an 07 bike …. a floater instead of fixed. Now I must admit to being more than a little perplexed at what the hell Aprilia were thinking about when making the rear a floater – front yes, but rear! What for, where’s the benefit? With 74,710 miles on it, I can’t ever remember riding around thinking ‘damn this bike’s just screaming out for a floating rear disk’ But in the end, it’s what I had in my sack of goodies, so it’s what went on. With the rear done, the fronts looked a little sorry for themselves, so I pulled them off and gave them a once-over and spring re-tension …… I must say they do look rather nice again!

Rear wheel bearings, seals and cush rubbers are original and all in perfect condition, so the spares can stay in the cupboard for a while longer yet. The front bearings and seals that I replaced back in 2009 (@11,700 miles) are also fine – packing the void between the bearings and seals to prevent water getting trapped seems to work wonders! So now she’s all buttoned up and a final wipe with a soft cloth and ACF50 to fend off the corrosion gremlin should do the trick nicely.

26/09/201326/05/2016

You never get a second chance to make a first impression

Yesterday the new Karoo 3’s were fitted by a nice chap down at Vulcarapid in Pescara and by 3pm the wheels were snugly back in place. That just leaves a sneaky little test ride!

So the next morning with the thermometer nudging 27°c and not a cloud anywhere in sight, I loaded the camera and a couple of sandwiches in the cases and set off. So the question now has to be, what are the first impressions of the Karoo 3’s?

Before saying anything though, I want to ask a question ……. would you deliberately choose to ride your Capo (or any bike!) on black-ice …. or marbles? My guess is no.

Well, sadly that’s exactly what zero mileage Karoo 3’s handle like and it’s not a pleasant experience at all. As I turned right onto the black-top from our gravel road the steering felt vague and the bike felt as though it was going onto its side. Under gentle acceleration in a straight line the tyres squirmed left and right, exaggerating dips and undulations in the road surface. After about 3 miles I’d all but had enough, the bike just felt awful and I was ready to swing back home ….. but in hindsight I’m glad I didn’t.

I continued on to Castel del Monte and mile after mile the tyres began to settle down, lean angles slowly increased while acceleration and braking stability began to sort their act out. The mileage slowly climbed as did my progress up the mountain, by the time I stopped for a bite to eat, the trip meter said 52 miles and my confidence levels were a magnitude improved.

Now I quite understand if you’re thinking along the lines of tyre pressures, or tyres fitted the wrong way around, or that maybe I’ve screwed up the wheel installation. Fact is, everything was checked and checked again. The instability could only be the new tyres.

And here is where I hop off this particular pony ……. I’m not getting drawn into a ‘fresh tyre grip argument’ or the myth of ‘mould release agents‘. Knock yourself out on the internet or slug it out with your mates down the pub. I just know what I experienced and can only compare it to 34 years of riding both professionally and socially and having ridden out of a fair number of dealerships, tyre bays and workshops on all shapes and sizes of new tires …….. and never before experiencing this dramatic a start with any of them.

But back to the last bit of the journey …..

Well the remaining 50+ miles of the day took me back down the East side of the mountains where dense forest smothers the road down to 800m or so, where it begrudgingly gives way to agricultural land. The trees keep most of the road in dense shadow, dappled by undulating patches of bright light that pierced the canopy above. This camouflages the road surface so you can’t read it until it’s almost under your wheels. The problem is, the road is BAD ……. potholes, gravel, tree debris and water to name a few. I guess the constant dark and micro-climate helps nature do it’s worst to the road surface all year round.

Now though, the Karoo’s were starting to work for me, stable and unfazed by the constant variety of surface they needed to work with. Hair-pin bend after hair-pin bend had the Capo tracking like a mountain goat on steroids, each inspiring more confidence. Eventually I left the tree line behind and headed down to the SS80, familiar roads and onward home. The last few miles I road exactly as I would have done on the Anakee 2’s.

The days conclusions ….

Disastrous to start, but at least they continually improved throughout the day, a roller-coaster of a day in more ways than one! But I have to ask myself a couple of questions:

If I’d known how the Karoo 3’s would start off, would I have fitted the more expensive TKC80’s again? Yes probably.

At this moment in time, with only a measly 100 miles + on which to base an opinion, would I fit them again? The little voice, the one way back in your subconscious answered first …. errr no.

So not exactly a glowing start and one from which the Karoo’s may well struggle to recover, only time will tell. Winter is just around the corner and their performance on our gravel/dirt road over the coming months will no doubt make or break them.

13/09/201326/05/2016

Metzeler Karoo 3’s arrive

As the title says …… a rather grumpy little man arrived this morning tooting his horn like crazy and gesticulating madly about the state of the road. I tried to point out that’s why he was delivering my new tyres 😀 . Fell on deaf ears though.

Anyway, here they are, a nice shiny new set of Metzeler Karoo 3 110/80-19 59R TL and 150/70-17 69R TL tyres manufactures in the 18th week of 2013. Ordered on Wednesday evening (Ebay) and arriving on Friday morning, so that’s excellent service (and price €178 – approx. £149.70) from Felappi Srl – felaps10 on Ebay.it.

There are 6 TWI (tyre wear indicators) on each tyre at the minimum 1mm tread depth. Measuring the available tread down to the TWI gave the following:

Front 7.6mm at the centre, 7.0mm at the edge

Rear 9.6mm at the centre, 10.6mm at the edge

Snowflake symbol on true 'winter' tyres You can also see the ‘M+S’ text on the sidewall of the tyres. As far as I’m aware this means diddly-squate ….. nothing except that grooves at the edge extend into the centre of the tread and that 25% of the tread is open. There are no tests or criteria with regards to real-word operation of the tyres in mud or snowy conditions. Tyres that are tested as truly ‘winter’ tyres will have the snowflake symbol on them …. and I don’t know of any m/cycle tyres that have it. If you do, drop me a line.

This is all very well of course, but I’ve yet to fit them and put some mileage on them! Hopefully next week I’ll get them mounted and run them in playing on the Gran Sasso, it’s a tough life but someone’s got to do it. 😉

07/09/201307/09/2013

Time for new tyres ….. TKC80 or Karoo 3?

With the michelin Anakee 2’s now nearing the end of their lives, it’s time to think about the winter boots the Capo will need to wear. True, the trusted Continental TKC80’s are reliable and on hand, but I fancy trying something different for a change. That’s when I saw the new Metzeler Karoo 3.

Like the TKC’s they are most definitely off-road biased but (so say Metzeler) with superb on-road ability, long life and low noise/vibration. So with extensive experience of the TKC’s on which to make a comparison, they will need to do the following at least:-

5k miles rear / 7.5k miles front
Excellent wet & dry grip on road
Low noise & vibration for over 80% of their life, especially the front
Good self clearing in soft mud

If they can achieve that and more then I’ll be one happy bunny, especially as they’re retailing at approximately 20% (rear) and 14% (front) cheaper than the TKC80, which lets face it, has never been a cheap tyre anyway.

I think I’ll run the Anakee 2’s a while longer as they still have sufficient life, although the front is now noticeably more ‘twitchy’, especially at low speed. No doubt due to the cupping on the blocks. Meanwhile I’ll search for the best deal on the Karoo 3 and post a pic or two when they arrive.

11/09/201209/09/2017

Continental blast and re-reg at last!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid - Passo del Gottardo

It’s 24hrs since the Capo and I arrived home from our 3,500 mile, three week trip to the UK and bits of me are still aching in new and novel ways. It’s not the Capo’s fault, the day after the trip over to the UK I was up and running around like a spring lamb with a caffeine boost. The return trip was different though, maybe not enough rest prior to the trip, I don’t know. I felt fine throughout the ride, just tired when I arrived. The next day was a different matter. My old right wrist injury, dormant for the past few years, decided to make itself known by swelling nicely and hurting like hell. So I named it ‘Paracetamol Monday’ in honour.

The trip went like a well-wound Swiss textbook, the Capo averaged 48mpg with a gold medal peak of 51mpg and a bronze medal low of 45mpg on the homeward leg – nice.

The tyres (Michelin Anakee 2) are wearing brilliantly, now with 7,500 miles under them, they still have 2.8mm front and 3.6mm tread left to the 1mm wear limit, that’s 25%/45% part worn from new. At this rate the projected life is well in excess of 12k for the rear, unbelievable. The amazing thing is that with so much profile-killing motorway work, they haven’t started to square-off, only the front shows early signs of ‘cupping’ on the rear edge of the central blocks. On paper, tyres that last this long and hold on to the profile would be so hard as to have sod all grip – not the case with the Anakee’s ……. have I really stumbled on the nirvana of long life and high grip in these tyres? Looks like it!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid - back on UK registration The trip was for multiple reasons, friends, family, a little rider training and not least because I’d decided to return the bike to UK registration. I couldn’t believe how quick and easy it was. One MOT (cheers Dave Clarke Motorcycles – Oxford), Insurance cover and one simple form. Pop into the local DVLA office and 10 minutes later and just over a hundred quid lighter I had a tax disk and a V948 authorisation certificate so I could go and get a number plate made. I had this done by North Oxford BMW (thanks Matt) as they could do it with the ‘GB’ logo. The day I was leaving the V5C registration document turned up to complete the set, so FX**G** and I were good to go.

So by the statistics on ‘howmanyleft.com’ there are currently 6 Rally-Raids declared SORN (off road) and 9 taxed and presumably rumbling around our fair green land …….. as of 2012 Q3, make that 10 on the road!

Finally a few thank yous …….. Jan for holding the fort and doing an amazing job, to Jim at AMI who again managed to keep me topped up with some CBT & DAS rider training, to Lucy and Emidio my in-laws who looked after me, the chap who parked the grassy-Smart car and last but not least there was to be a sarcastic ‘thank you‘ but Jan censored it! Damnation ……

14/10/201114/10/2011

Cda di Ginestre …. Strada Brutale!!!!

Not much content about the Capo in this post I’m afraid, it’s about the road its poor wheels have to traverse!

I must admit, I get upset at empty promises, I really do. Political worse than any. And frankly I feel we’ve had more empty promises come our way than most! The problem, is the road ….. it’s not ours. It belongs to the Comune (sort of parish council) and so it’s their responsibility to maintain it. Except they haven’t.

Over the past four years it has steadily got worse, the rain has washed the white stone topping into the valley, the tractors/trailers (and our Land Rover) have methodically dug the pot-holes and wheel ruts deep enough to leave an average car suspended by its axles.

The postman was the first to refuse to come down it in 2009. Since then the list has steadily grown long enough to fill a phone book. We have to drive out to meet any deliveries and hitch up the trailer for the bigger stuff and hope the Landy can haul it back through the winter quagmire. The lack of a warning sign at the end of the road does however provide us with a form of hillbilly entertainment – a trickle of vehicles in various stages of ‘stuck’, each being pushed/pulled, towed or just abandoned until a drier day.

And so we started asking for repairs. We asked and asked, we photographed, we videoed, we wrote. We had a string of visits by the powers-that-be and we got nowhere. So through 2009-10 we slowly ramped up our little campaign – recorded delivery letters and more videos on an almost weekly basis.

Then at the beginning of 2011 we get told that our road will be done as soon as the weather improves. By June it was very improved, but still no sign of a little man with a digger. More phone calls and visits to the comune.

June gave way to July, then in early August a little man did indeed come along with a digger. For a week he widened and levelled the road, hell he even rolled the thing flat as a billiard table. He even dug up our water pipe, severed it and damaged the valve … then he went home.

At first glance his handiwork is an improvement (the road, not the water pipe!). But hold on a minute, he’s scraped most of the stone topping it had into the field and left it with a nice soil finish. Soil, feverishly sprouting vegetation and a few stray stones. August became a fading memory, then September along with it. The temperatures dipped and the sky became swollen with heavy storm clouds. And still no sign of the little man with a topping for our road.

More phone calls.

Into October we swing and the vegetation is growing nicely on our once flat road. A constant succession of tractors, trailers and tracked vehicles have seen fit to tear up the once smooth surface. Stones from pea-size to axle bending boulders now litter the surface. Then the rain finally arrived and the soil-topped road soaked it up like a man dying of thirst. The vegetation flourished and the first tentative vehicles sank an inch into the goo. What hope then of getting the Capo out on Anakee 2’s? Back to the TKC80’s I guess.

Is there a happy ending? No. We’re back on a campaign to get it finished and no doubt we’ll get nowhere quickly, hey-ho. Mind you, I feel better now I’ve got that off my chest!

How much are all-terrain quads these days?

02/09/201109/09/2017

I’m an Anakee-st!!!!

Well, after four years and a steadily deteriorating road, the authorities have seen fit to scrape and widen our road in readiness for a nice topping of something-or-other. For the past three years I’ve been running the Continental TKC80 off-road biased tyres, simply because they were the only sensible choice for such a poor road ……. and it’s the only road I have to reach civilisation!

The downside was a tyre that wears quickly and is expensive for its type. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad tyre …. quite the opposite, it handles far better than its chunky knobbles would have you believe. It just wears away quicker than a kids crayon at motorway speeds!

So the choice has been to replace the worn out TKC80 rear in anticipation of the road improvements and an impending trip to the UK, or add a few more shekels to the pot and change both tyres to something road-biased. Hmmm ……. Michelin Anakee 2 here we come!

For the princely sum of €230 I get two tyres nicely fitted and new valves thrown in as well. I checked the manufacturing dates (2611 & 2911) – they’re so new they’re still hot from the oven! The rims get a spruce up and all the bearings and seals are good to go.

So what is the first impression? Truthfully …… a mix of disappointed and impressed! I guess I was expecting a major ‘wow’ moment when I hit the road, but no, the bike tracked as usual and is no quieter than usual. Frankly it doesn’t feel any different … or does it ….. well it turns in a little quicker and seems to hold it’s line better ( no ‘walking’ on the knobbles!). But I guess I expected more. OK, the tyres are new and need fully bedding in.

But I think I looked at it the wrong way round … it isn’t about how good the Anakee2’s are, it’s about how good the TKC80’s were! That’s the point. I’m sure that as the Anakee’s bed in, they’ll shine through … greater grip at higher lean, a longer life and improved wet-weather grip would be most welcome!

Bottom line, I’m looking forward to the miles ahead and seeing how the Anakee 2’s work out. As for the TKC80’s, would I go back to them at some point in the future? Without a doubt!

Tread depth @ TWI (Tyre Wear Indicator) – 0 miles

Front: 3.7mm Rear: 6.5mm

After 3,096 miles – still excellent profile.

Front: 3.3mm (11% wear) Rear: 5.1mm(21% wear)