Dunlop rep said…

‘knobby like performance with a long life’

Hey, Dunlop fixed it for ya!

‘exceptional life, withgoodgrip in mild to moderate offroad conditions’

I was offered a set of these tires for a short-term test and review test last year at the IMS show in Long Beach California, the timing seemed perfect as I had a few months before I headed off RTW again…of course, Covid stopped those plans. and because of the Pandemic, the tires have had a longer test than I expected…here goes.

Right now I am at almost a year of riding and 11,000 miles/ 17,700km on these tires, approximately 7000 miles/ 11,260 km of freeway, 1000 miles/ 1600km of dirt and the rest were mixed. I’ve used them in all different kinds of weather conditions the overall opinion of these tires is they have been great in every aspect of riding I have put them through.

They are mounted on my 2012 Yamaha Super Tenere, not the lightest bike and for the freeway riding it was loaded with roughly what I would have with me on this bike for a RTW ride. That weight can certainly play a part in tire wear, but not these tires it appears.

Dunlop’s marketing guys at the IMS show said they have ‘knobby tire like performance with a long life’, a PR tag line that probably cost them a few sales instead of being 100% honest.

I call total BS on the remark about knobby like performance, if I want knobby performance, I buy a knobby tire!

I have no idea where and what tire they are using for that comparison but not ANY knobby tire I have ever used on ANY bike I’ve ever owned, and there have been more than a few andI’ve reviewed a few as well from lots of different tire manufacturing brandson different makes, models and weight of bike.

As for the life of the tire, I’ll cover that at the end

The grip is good and confidence-inspiring when you do hit a dirt track or graded logging track, for example, reasonably firm ground or loose ground that’s not too intense, yes they hold up and do have the grip, but put them into more dense rock gardens, masses of loose rock or sand deeper than a few inches and I’m looking for the exit and a shop that sells knobby tires close by.

On the pavement, they handle more like a street tire, not noisy, grip well in the dry, and also in the wet as for the conditions I’ve ridden them in.

As I live in the desert Southwest riding in the rain has been obviously minimal and on warmer roads all south of the 37th parallel.

I can’t comment on the performance on extreme cold and wet rides, but I would guess they would have to be ridden with a little caution like you would on any tire of this kind.

How have they worn, exceptionally well –

Front tire –

A new tire from the factory comes with 7.9mm +/- of tread*

After 11,000 miles/ 17,700km, 5mm +/- tread left, there is certain wear showing in the center area, somewhat squaring off of the profile, mild cupping of sorts, but still a massive amount of useful tread left

Rear tire –

A new tire from the factory comes with 11.1mm +/- of tread*

After 11,000 miles/ 17,700km, 7mm +/- tread left, there virtually no squaring off as you would expect from a high number of freeway miles, this tire in my humble opinion is a great long-distance rear tire

To put this in context, because it is one of the most considered things riders look for in a tire, is the life they get for their money.

Doing rough calculations and using routes that google maps spits out and avoiding highways and tolls, as most of us do when we can –

There is enough tread on the Dunlop Trailmax Mission to ride from Los Angelos to Ushuaia (flying your bike from Panama to Bogota) based on the mileage I did, and most likely enough to get you back up to Buenos Aires or Santiago to fly your bike home, but you might be close to the threads at the end!

For the European readers, more than enough to take you from Cabo de Roca, the most western point in Europe via Mongolia to Vladivostok where you could send your bike back on the Trans Siberian Railway to Moscow and most likely have enough tread to ride home to any major city in Europe

For our Australian readers who sometimes are not mentioned, easily enough tread to circumnavigate the whole country hitting all the major cities and a major detour to Uluru

Obviously YMMV depending on your right wrist!

Very impressive longevity Dunlop, very impressive!

*Tire Specification were taken directly from the Dunlop website for the size tires on my Yamaha