Look Ma, New Shoes

[droffarc]

So, eventually I decided to replace the front tyre, since some persons had indicated to me that the Michelin Serac was well worn. I did my homework and ended up fitting the 6th choice â?? Continental TKC80, front and rear.

Now, the thing is with new tyres, you are warned to take it easy for the first hundred or so km so that the goeters the manufacturers spray on can wear off. What better way to wear this stuff off than on gravel, not so?

I did a round trip of 146km, mostly gravel as follows: Malanshoogte to Occultdale. Then across to Slent and the skelm padjie that Nicki had told me of which turned out to be quite lekker.

This took me close to Agter-Perel and I looped back getting to Eenzaamheid and across the N1 to the Butterfly farm where I checked out one of my favorite places and did the little water feature.

Then back across the N1 and back past the Eenzaamheid road to the Tygerberg Zoo. Across the N1 again and Sandringham road which currently should be named Mudringham.

At Kraaifontein again across the N1 to Fisantekraal, Spes Bona road and back onto Malanshoogte and Home.

My impressions of the new tyres:
Tar: Where, with the Seracs it was rock steady on tar, it felt a little wobbly with the TKC â?? sort of like a duck out of water â?? adequate but only just. Slow corners still feel a bit iffy as if the bike does not quite want to follow your chosen line, but does so anyway. I will no doubt get used to it. At 140km/h it feels quite stable except when there is a dip in the road surface it feels a tad wobbly. I was not able to get to 160km/h, but I did not really push it.

Gravel: Again the opposite to the Seracs which felt stable but a tad iffy, depending on the looseness of the surface. With the TKC â?? stable like a horse.

 

[Eisbein]

Looks nice and mean, them knoblies ..

 

[JourneyMan]

Nice ride Droff!

The TA sure looks good with knobblies! :razz:

 

[Buzzlightyear]

Those TKCs sure looks nice on your bike! How much were they?

And I see the one photo shows the 'tubeless' label, I presume you have tubes fitted with those rims? ???

 

[droffarc]

Your powers of observation are astounding, meneer!  I had to stand on me head to get that pic.

Trac-mac Bellville:
conti 130/80/17    R1259.64
conti 90/90/21      R  915.45
Bstone tube HdutyR  180.34
King 460/17          R  107.34
Fitting free of charge.

S'no wonder I feel so light headed

 

[droffarc]

UPDATE

After 10,000km and the trip along the Calvinia /Ceres road (which left the rear looking a little worse for wear from sharp objects poking into the body of the tyre as well as the knobs) I decided to take the rear TKC 80 off and replace it with my old SERAC.

First thing I noted - on hard surface the TA is now much more stable at speeds above 130km/h. and in general.
On the Sutherland trip except for very loose surfaces the SERAC performed as well as the TKC80. In very loose sand on an uphill the SERAC did indeed loose traction where the TKC would have performed well.

Conclusion: TKC is excellent for loose offroad stuff but IMO the SERAC - for the price - is better all round. The price of the TKC is the problem and I unfortunately had to do a long tar trip (N1 to 3 Sisters) where the TKC tended to waddle at higher speeds.

To boost your ability and confidence - use the TKC then go back to dual purpose.

BTW - What Ama Ride Ride said about having a knobly on front and a dual purpose on the back - I second that. I will fit a knobbly on the front again.

Hope this information is usefull to you.

 

[Buzzlightyear]

Thanks for the update droffarc. I'll definitely think about a front knob next.

 

[keithk]

Hi Drof thanks for the update, I have just fitted the Maxis knobbly on the back and did a ride through the Cedarberg and I was very impressed as you say on the loose gravel and sandy surfaces but it feels rather rough on the tar and when under braking on tar one feels the back tyre more. I have a DS Pirreli Scorpion on the front and am thinking of fitting a knobbly !

 

[blazes]

Nice one. Just one Question. Why do the CT guy's hide the numbers on their numberplates ? Is it because they are in a witness protection plan or something. ?

 

[mountainboy]

lekker one Drof -thanks for the update!!
knobblies does look f%^^king cool tho  ;D

 

[Meerkat]

Nice one. Just one Question. Why do the CT guy's hide the numbers on their numberplates ? Is it because they are in a witness protection plan or something. ?

Some skelm guy with the same bike as yours copies your plate and happily speeds along, you receive the fines and have a hell of a time proving it was not you.... 

 

[wayneh]

BTW - What Ama Ride Ride said about having a knobly on front and a dual purpose on the back - I second that. I will fit a knobbly on the front again.

Spent some time testing tire combinations for the 950... The winning pair hands-down was a TKC front with the Scorpian rear  ;D  Great front end feel & braking power; stable rear with good grip... And they last 6000 kms plus.
My last TKC rear only lasted 2500 kms... And at R 1600 a pop, not too lekker 

I've also hear it said (and experienced something similar), that you can get better milage out of your knobblies if you heat-treat them first.
Ride the first 500 kms on tar - With a number of short stretches of about 30 odd kms (to get them nice and hot); separated by at least a thirty minute break in between to allow them to cool down totally.
It just so happened that I found myself doing this, by chance, with my first set of TKCs. Got almost 4500 kms out of the rear.   

 

[allover]

BTW - What Ama Ride Ride said about having a knobly on front and a dual purpose on the back - I second that. I will fit a knobbly on the front again.

Spent some time testing tire combinations for the 950... The winning pair hands-down was a TKC front with the Scorpian rear  ;D  Great front end feel & braking power; stable rear with good grip... And they last 6000 kms plus.
My last TKC rear only lasted 2500 kms... And at R 1600 a pop, not too lekker 

I've also hear it said (and experienced something similar), that you can get better milage out of your knobblies if you heat-treat them first.
Ride the first 500 kms on tar - With a number of short stretches of about 30 odd kms (to get them nice and hot); separated by at least a thirty minute break in between to allow them to cool down totally.
It just so happened that I found myself doing this, by chance, with my first set of TKCs. Got almost 4500 kms out of the rear.   

I have done the following : I fitted a TKC on the front and use TKC only for longer trips ie 4 to 8 days but shorter trip i experiment with Maxxis and Michelin. This seems to work for me and the financial knock is only for the longer trips

 

[Jerrycan]

Nice one. Just one Question. Why do the CT guy's hide the numbers on their numberplates ? Is it because they are in a witness protection plan or something. ?

Some skelm guy with the same bike as yours copies your plate and happily speeds along, you receive the fines and have a hell of a time proving it was not you.... 

With the same bike as mine? I'll buy him a beer if he manages to get a speed fine on a highway with a TDub, I think is cos they all share the same number in the Cape which I suspect is a GP number. 8)  8)