Michelin Anakee 3

[Dirt_Dad]

Let the testing begin. Rode my first 85 miles of Anakee 3 tires. About 40 of that was in rain. So far, handles very nicely in the wet. I didn't try anything all that big. Around mile 80 I did seek out the wettest spots in a nice downhill section of road and tried some hard braking. Not panic level braking, but still relatively aggressive. Very nice response, no drama at all. About the same mileage I also tried some moderately aggressive acceleration, or at least as much acceleration as TCS1 and Touring (my rain mode) would allow. The gripped the wet road very nicely and I never saw any blinky, blinky.

In my teeny tiny exposure so far, they have made a good impression on me. No chance to take them off pavement yet, but looking forward to it.

 

[twinrider]

Been very happy with my A3s. Stellar grip wet or dry and last a long time with no odd wear patterns. Got 14,000 km out of the front and the back is still going strong.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Between my first and second ride on the 3s I've managed to cover 90% of my normal riding environment. The only thing I'm missing is a hard hammer through twisties. That will happen soon enough.

Today was my off pavement testing. Overall I'm finding these to be a worthy replacement for the Anakee 2s. Despite how they look, they give a surprising amount of traction. Like the 2s they are more grippy than the K60s in a straight line. Like the Karoo 3 they are not great in a power slide. That said, I'm not convinced they are any worse than the Karoo 3 in a slide. The K60 is far superior to the Anakee 3 or Karoo 3 in a slide.

One concern I had was mud. They just don't look all that impressive for slippery stuff. Seek and ye shall find.







Nothing too crazy, but enough to get a feel for how it can chug through mud. I did not expect it to do as well as it did. It's not a knobby, but it is surprisingly competent in slippery stuff. Better than expected. I wasn't necessarily trying to get it stuck, but also wasn't trying to make it too easy. I was pleased with the results.

Had some deeper gravel and a water crossing that it handled with no issue.





So far with less than 200 miles on them I have to say they seem to be providing good usability in the places and scenarios I'm likely to find myself.

The only negatives so far, they're not so great in a power slide (probably not much worse than a Karoo 3; the don't look cool like a knobby. I do love the looks of a knobby on the Tenere. But I ride so much twisty that I need something better suited to my curvy road tendencies, that is competent off pavement. So far...these are looking like a good contender for my future $$$.

 

[tomatocity]

Nice report Dirt_Dad. What tire pressures are you running?

I am on my second set (3,211 miles) of MA3's and these are wearing better. The front tire of the first set wore terribly and was the reason I removed them at 4,000ish miles. The new set made me feel like I had a new Tenere. I have been running 36F 42R and the front is just now showing a crown in the center. This crown is evenly in the middle unlike the first set. So far I like the second set of MA3's.

Beware of the front tire in deep mud. This tire will not clean though will pack the mud inside the front fender. I know this at the cost of a new replacement OEM side case.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Nice report Dirt_Dad. What tire pressures are you running?

I am on my second set (3,211 miles) of MA3's and these are wearing better. The front tire of the first set wore terribly and was the reason I removed them at 4,000ish miles. The new set made me feel like I had a new Tenere. I have been running 36F 42R and the front is just now showing a crown in the center. This crown is evenly in the middle unlike the first set. So far I like the second set of MA3's.

Beware of the front tire in deep mud. This tire will not clean though will pack the mud inside the front fender. I know this at the cost of a new replacement OEM side case.

Thanks for the warning. I'll keep that in mind. But I rarely get into much more that what was pictured. I don't think I'll be in much danger of packing it in the fender. Hope those are not famous last words.

Today I ran 41/32. You mentioned the front wore badly. What pressure were you running the first set?

 

[tomatocity]

For the rear I usually ran 41 or 42. For the front I normally 36 but tested 35 and as low as 33 (maybe a tank or two). The tire wore like it was run on low tire pressure. Never below 33.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

For the rear I usually ran 41 or 42. For the front I normally 36 but tested 35 and as low as 33 (maybe a tank or two). The tire wore like it was run on low tire pressure. Never below 33.

Thanks, good to know. I'll bump that up some in the front. That is a bit odd, I recall seeing the fronts don't outlast the rears on this tire. Never been my experience before.

 

[Dallara]

Thanks, good to know. I'll bump that up some in the front. That is a bit odd, I recall seeing the fronts don't outlast the rears on this tire. Never been my experience before.

That's what happened to me...

But then I'm the guy who consistently keeps wearing out front brake pads long before the rear pads.

With the Anakee 3's the front tire was *TOAST*, as in down below the wear bars at 7,000 miles, whereas the rear still had at least 1,000 miles left in it - probably 1,500. That said, that *&%$#*& Anakee 3 front *looked* like it had about about 1,000 miles left in it, and then *BOOM*, that last part went in about 250 - 300 miles. Just *POOF*!

I also had the weird wear pattern in the front. Oddly enough, it didn't start for me until about halfway through the front tire's life. Then it started wearing goofy as hell. I had consistently run 33 - 34 psi, but when it started wearing funny I tried all the way up to 36 psi, first going to 34 for a few hundred miles, then 35, then 36. If anything, the odd wear pattern got *WORSE*, so I went back to the tried and true 33, which actually helped. It seemed the higher the pressure went the worse the wear pattern got.

And the worse the wear pattern got the worse the weird noise got.

To be honest, I ended up hating my time with those Anakee 3's. I liked 'em OK at first, except for the rear's nasty propensity to often *let go* when you had it way over on the edge of the tire. In fact, I really wanted to like 'em because they worked a bit better off-road than the Metzeler Tourance EXP's I had been using and they were certainly going to last longer mileage-wise. But the longer I had 'em the less I liked 'em, and with the Metzeler's I'd get two rear tires out of every front. With the Michelin Anakee 3's you've just about got to replace both tires as a set, so it would get really expensive quick.

Just my two cents... YMMV.

Dallara



~

 

[tomatocity]

Thanks, good to know. I'll bump that up some in the front. That is a bit odd, I recall seeing the fronts don't outlast the rears on this tire. Never been my experience before.

Front tire: same here. I probably could have ridden another 4,000 miles on the rear. The front was JUNK. It had odd wear patterns during its short life and the patterns would change from side to side. The current tire seems to be wearing evenly and gives me a better feel than the first tire. It ( and me) loved 70/80 mph on the Death Valley highways. Loved the section east out of Badwater or the twisties around Father Crowley's Point. Much better than the first tire.

 

[dcstrom]

My experience with an Anakee III rear;

Fitted in Salvador, Brazil, not my first choice of tire but in fact my ONLY choice - and for $260!

The bike has been fully loaded (some would say overloaded!) for the entire life of the tire, some easy dirt but a lot of straight roads early in its life and some twisties later. Speeds usually never much over 70-75 mph. When I finally replaced with a new K60, it had 13,700 miles/22,000 km on it. That's better even than I get out of the K60's. As you can see it's just down to the wear bars. It's pretty square but I could easily have gotten another 1000 miles out of it in a pinch.

Was happy enough with it for the type of dirt riding I did on it. Would definitely buy again (although probably not for that price unless I had no other option).

 

[Dirt_Dad]

When I finally replaced with a new K60, it had 13,700 miles/22,000 km on it. That's better even than I get out of the K60's.

Dare to dream. Good to see what it looks like when getting towards the end of life.

 

[Grumpy]

I'm on my third trip to the Alps on this set. The first two where 2-up and luggage. the rear still has 3mm of wear left before its down to the 1.6mm UK legal minimum. By the time I get back from this run they would have done 10K miles, so I will probably change them for the winter. They will probably still be legal but I like a new set for the profile, I hate that edgy twitch that you get when cornering in the wet from a squared off tyre.

 

[Checkswrecks]

I think my set are at about 9,000 now and like others have noted, my front is wearing out much faster than the rear. I have LOTS of tread left on the rear tire, which is great.
I can still ride off the shoulder all too easily and LONG before touching the peg feeler or anything else. Fortunately, they get the greasy feel and don't just quit traction like a light switch. They still suck in mud and are worthless. But at least the howling noise seems to have abated.

I will not buy another set of A3s.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Front tire down to the wear bars at 6,500 miles. That's pretty appalling for an 80/20 tire like this. Fortunately I had an Anakee 2 laying around that I had removed before a trip back in 2012. It only had 4K miles on it and should easily go until the Anakee 3 rear is worn out. The rear Anakee 3 seems to be wearing very nicely and looks like it will go a for a good while longer.

Now that I have used the Anakee 3 for over 6K miles I can say without reservation I miss the Anakee 2. The front lasted much longer than the new front tire. I think I'd get close to two rears for every front on the 2. The 3s seem to have good traction in all phases of flight for which I have used them except for power slides where they are quite bad.

Much like CW, I think I'm done with the Anakee 3s. Too bad, I've been buying Anakees for the last 5 years. First with the Stroms, then with one or both of the Teneres. I just don't think the new version is as good as the old.

 

[twinrider]

Front tire down to the wear bars at 6,500 miles. That's pretty appalling for an 80/20 tire like this.

Fwiw, my Anakee 3 front lasted about 14,000 km (8700 miles), which is far more than I get out of most front tires including the Anakee 2s when I had them on my old GS. And that's with all the stop and go traffic that I get living in a big city. Back lasted about 12,500 miles. Again stellar.

What tire are you trying next?

 

[Dirt_Dad]

What tire are you trying next?

I honestly don't know.

If I could get my hands on another set of Anakee 2s I'd do that and keep using them. They really fit me very well over the years. Anakee 3 is out. I'm into my slow time of year where the miles are shorter and the rides less often. I don't anticipate needing to make a decision for the next 3 or 4 months. I'll come up with something by then.

 

[Bappo]

After my Anakee 3 experiment I went to old school Tourance. Rear went 10k miles and replaced with a Tourance Next. Front went 10k and looks like it will go another 10k.

Rear Anakee 2 and front Anakee 3 went 9k miles. The rear had more left but the front was scary dangerous at that many miles.

 

[Xt1200zsupertenere]

Did NOT like anakee III ::007:: ::007:: ::007:: ::007::

Put on metzeler tourance next ::012:: ::012:: ::26:: ::26::

 

[twinrider]

Did NOT like anakee III ::007:: ::007:: ::007:: ::007::

Very helpful feedback....

 

[RED CAT]

IMHO. The Anakee 3 Rears are great. The fronts are crap. I like the Anakee 2 fronts better and Anakee 3 rears for best overall. However ,right now I giving Heidanau K60 front and Shinko 705R rear a shot. I'm on my 3rd K60 front and really like those but prefer a smoothie on the back for longer life and better performance on pavement(70%) of my riding. Was very happy with the Anakke 3 rears but just wanted to try the Shinkos at $100. ea. If they're crap ,I'll go back to rear Anakee 3s at $200. ea.