Thanks for that. I normally try for a set of 50/50 and travel across the US to the destination so I can blast some off road. I have my Tenere basically set up as a big dirt bike. I need some knobs to blast off. And then cruise home another 1000-1500 miles. All they need to do is make it home. Most of the time I still have lots of tread left and I do weekend rides and have fun on them.
If I rode the bike to work everyday I would throw on some 90-10 or 80-20 and go back to dragging pegs on the super Tenere.
That brings up an OLD post and ‘thought’. I remember when the K60 first came out, about 2011-2012. I was dragging the pegs everyday on the Tenere and taking the K60’s all the way Past the edges. NO chicken strips at all. Someone piped up and said that the K60’s are crap road tires and would never be able to carve turns, Etc.
I cracked up and posted a few pictures of my front and rear tire worn all the way past the edges. Heavily worn on the edges from dragging the pegs.
Classic case of “it’s the rider- not the tire”. I probably still have those old K60 photos. LOL.
So true - I would posit that it is "always the rider, not the tyre"
Originally the Terra came with Metzeller Saharas which suited the bike very well. The test riders did great job in getting the tyre right. It was not a high grip tyre, but that was an advantage (to me) because my bike skills are not that honed and there is no TCS/ABS safeguard. My ability required a barking dog on the lawn, a ring on the doorbell and a telegram in timescape, for me to react and the Saharas had a looooooonng and smooth transitional breakaway at the front and rear, which was absolutely necessary for confidence building.
Moving on from the Saharas, the Shinkos give slightly less communication, but better performance: kinda the next obvious rung of the ladder if you will. I am at a better standard now and, hopefully, am able to explore the expanse of the entertaining slip envelope. But I want to do so safely. Something that I can do relatively effortlessly on four, but is gradually being explored on two.
TBH though TABASCO, there is a lot to be said for a crap tyre on a shit handling vehicle (not the ST). On handling days in the UK, my company used a Toyota Corolla with some cheap, crappy tyres (I forget what brand). Corollas are not the greatest handling cars and the transformations in exploring the limit would expose a drivers' ability where the better handling cars would "mask" the faults. If you can get to predict/explore/understand the tyre traction/grip and transfer of balance between the axles in the slower transitional timeframe where the mistake is
emphasised on the stopwatch, it is a great foundation for when you move to stickier tyred, better handling and faster transitions.
I will say though that outside of four wheels, most of my time I have chicken strips on two, as I have a huge amount to learn and riding in the PH has many constraints. Given the safe opportunity though......