The Mitas E-07 tire thread merge-fest

[Buelligan]

My initial impression of the E07 non Dakar tires is pretty good. ::008::
I do a lot of pavement riding, with about 20% dirt roads. that being said, I do push hard on the pavement, and am a pussy in the dirt :-[
Recently I tried to pull my bushtec trailer up to Colorado, to do some camping, and had a weave problem above 50 mph.
I traced it to the tires, which was the only change I've made to the bike since the last time I used the trailer.
I believe the taller tire, along with the weaker sidewalls, are what was causing the weave. I swapped my wheels, back to my street wheels Pilot Road 3's, and all was well again.
I'm going to pull the Mitas and go to something more street biased for the Utah trip so I can pull the trailer, and do some "gentle" dirt riding.
I'm going to try some Scorpion trail 2's and have to remind myself to stay on the beaten path ::007::

 

[SilverBullet]

My initial impression of the E07 non Dakar tires is pretty good. ::008::
I do a lot of pavement riding, with about 20% dirt roads. that being said, I do push hard on the pavement, and am a pussy in the dirt :-[
Recently I tried to pull my bushtec trailer up to Colorado, to do some camping, and had a weave problem above 50 mph.
I traced it to the tires, which was the only change I've made to the bike since the last time I used the trailer.
I believe the taller tire, along with the weaker sidewalls, are what was causing the weave. I swapped my wheels, back to my street wheels Pilot Road 3's, and all was well again.
I'm going to pull the Mitas and go to something more street biased for the Utah trip so I can pull the trailer, and do some "gentle" dirt riding.
I'm going to try some Scorpion trail 2's and have to remind myself to stay on the beaten path ::007::

Why did you buy non Dakars? The Dakar version has sidewalls as stiff as anything on the market. If weak sidewalls caused your issue the Dakar version wouldn't exhibit it.

_

 

[Buelligan]

I had not realized there were two versions of the tire.

 

[Bryn]

Mine are not Dakars.. Had no issues with them up to 90+ mph. ::017::

 

[tomatocity]

My initial impression of the E07 non Dakar tires is pretty good. ::008::
I do a lot of pavement riding, with about 20% dirt roads. that being said, I do push hard on the pavement, and am a pussy in the dirt :-[
Recently I tried to pull my bushtec trailer up to Colorado, to do some camping, and had a weave problem above 50 mph.
I traced it to the tires, which was the only change I've made to the bike since the last time I used the trailer.
I believe the taller tire, along with the weaker sidewalls, are what was causing the weave. I swapped my wheels, back to my street wheels Pilot Road 3's, and all was well again.
I'm going to pull the Mitas and go to something more street biased for the Utah trip so I can pull the trailer, and do some "gentle" dirt riding.
I'm going to try some Scorpion trail 2's and have to remind myself to stay on the beaten path ::007::

Bridgestone Battlax A40 was a good tire for me. Best performance tire I have had in 70,000 miles of Tenere. Corners like you are on a rail and very smooth on the open road. I currently have the Mitas Dakar e07 which I like but they track on grooved concrete which will not work well with a trailer. I might go back to the A40.

 

[Chump]

Stupid question but how do you know when these tires are shot?

 

[Don in Lodi]

Stupid question but how do you know when these tires are shot?

When there is 1-2/32" of tread remaining. If you are down to the shadow of tread, that point where you know where the tread blocks used to be, you're too thin. On the 1-2/32", if you know that a road trip will include deep anything, that's not enough tread.

 

[Jabba]

I finally got some miles in today on a set of E07 Dakars. I've been wanting to try this tire for about 3 years now- and until I bought this set, I'd always found them on backorder and wound up on something else. They mounted up easily- and the beads set without any problems. Front tire required zero balancing lead. The rear took just a little bit- Good stuff.

I headed out for 100 miles of mostly highway today- with some mountain backroads between me and I 70, I got in some twisties along the way. So....the verdict? Suckage. Major disappointment. I have NEVER had a set of tires ruin the comfort of my bike like these have. EVERY seam, ripple, friggin' paint strip causes the bars to bounce. I've got custom Penskes on my Super Tenere- and they'd taken out the harshness I found in the OEM shocks and forks. Well, harshness is back and worse than ever. I rode some brand new pavement and the bike was never settled. I cannot imagine a tour on these things- it would tear my back to shreds. On the plus side, the profile sharpened the handling compared to the Bridgestones- the bike feels more nimble. The profile I like, but those sidewalls are a deal breaker. They're coming off. The question now is, what's next? I really need touring capability plus off-road traction and confidence. The opportunities to explore off-road in Colorado are just too frequent. Anybody else had this experience? If so, what did you end up on???

 

[EricV]

@Jabba - Have you already tried K60s? That's been my go to tire for on/off exploring and I've been happy with them. Some compromise in loose sand/mud, but pretty darn good for everything else, especially aired down in the slimy stuff.

PM me if you want to re-coup something on the E07 Dakars, we might be able to work something out.

 

[tomatocity]

Jabba what tire pressures are you running? After my e07's were installed I started with 36F 41R and found them to be a very reactive tire. They tracked BIG time on grooved roads. They turned in too quick for me. Now I run 32/33F and 37/38R and find this tire to be very stable, holds its line through corners (any speed), accelerates and stops very well, and is very comfortable at cruising speeds. Without a load I think this tire will handle 32F 34/35R. Although this is a 50/50 tire I find the e07 to be a very good road tire.

Lower your tire pressures and let us know how you feel about the Mitas Dakar e07 tires.

 

[Jabba]

Jabba what tire pressures are you running? After my e07's were installed I started with 36F 41R and found them to be a very reactive tire. They tracked BIG time on grooved roads. They turned in too quick for me. Now I run 32/33F and 37/38R and find this tire to be very stable, holds its line through corners (any speed), accelerates and stops very well, and is very comfortable at cruising speeds. Without a load I think this tire will handle 32F 34/35R. Although this is a 50/50 tire I find the e07 to be a very good road tire.

Lower your tire pressures and let us know how you feel about the Mitas Dakar e07 tires.

I generally run 36/42, but today they were a little shy of that. It was a cool morning. I think I was 35/38 or so, but I headed down about 3K feet to the city- so they softened even more...maybe offset by higher temps though. I'm tempted to tear em off of there and try......well, that's the issue. I am thinking of the non-Dakar version? Would it really make enough difference for me to be happy with them? The tread pattern is attractive to me. In shopping around tonight online, the Avon Trailrider looks tempting, but not in the same league off-road. They've announced a new "50/50" tire, but it's not available yet.

Regarding the K60s, I've heard enough contrasting review of them to be turned off. They're somewhat infamous for having stiff sidewalls, no? That's the problem with these Dakars- just zero compliance. The center strip isn't attractive to me either- with a lot of loose rock on our hill climbs, I think I'd regret the K60.

 

[EricV]

You can always run Kenda Big Blocks or TKC-80s and simply accept the shorter tread life and different road manners. :-\

If you want a road tire that you can flog, and lasts, and can do dirt, well, there are going to be some compromises. Like being willing to air down for off pavement or accepting some loss of performance in loose stuff to get tread life. Or as you have discovered, different road manners than you prefer, in order to have off pavement performance that you want. You have to decide what's important to you, and where you will accept compromises. Play with the pressures and see what changes, and if that makes you happier.

I've run maybe 8 sets of K60s and have a E07 Dakar on the rear now that I haven't ridden on yet. Decided to try it and see how it holds up. I'll be happy when the Shinko 705 on the front dies. Not my preference for my riding territory and style.

 

[Don in Lodi]

There's something I've been meaning to ask. I've seen a few Dakar E07s now, and I've just installed another new K60 after several sets of other brands... the E07 and the K60 have an almost identical center stripe. The K60's stripe may work out to more surface area mathematically, but come on, you can't love one and bash the other because of a few square millimeters of rubber. Something may even be said for the wavy edges of the K60's stripe vs the straight line of the 07's. It's the load bearing surface for the straight ahead road burner, it's the secret for their longevity. How do you get 10-15,000 miles out of a fifty-fifty tire? You put more rubber... carbon/silica compound where the most abrasion occurs, the center. I enjoyed the Hell out of the 804-805's, used up two sets, may go back to them, or the E07, E09, E10... when I reach the 15k mark again, like the last time, but weighing the plusses and minuses on the 'dreaded stripe', sheesh.

Sorry. ::009:: ::26::

 

[EricV]

I suspect carcass differences will play more of a part in handling 'feel' than the center rib. A couple of things I notice in comparing Heidenau K60 rear tires to Mitas E07 Dakars, just visually, since I haven't ridden on the E07 yet, is that the K60's center rib is all the way to the surface of the tire when new. A couple of years back, Heidenau's were not like that, the center strip was below the surface when the tire was new, much like the E07 dakar is currently. Heidenau changed to have the strip wider and all the way to the surface, which does result in longer tread wear.

I ran an old design K60 on my wife's bike and a new design on my bike during our Alaska trip in '14. 30 days, ~8k miles with everything from super slab to Yukon construction, (lots of crappy and broken pavement, deep gravel, wet slimy torn up dirt/gravel mix), and the Top of the World Hwy in less than ideal conditions, (rained/snowed two days before, rained again all morning and we took off from Dawson City two hours after the rain stopped.) At the end of the trip, the wife's rear K60 of the old design was down to cords, but just barely and not all the way around, only in one spot. My new design K60 on the other hand, was still good for a couple more thousand miles and I left it on and used it up on pavement rides.

We both ran 36/42 psi and aired down for TotW hwy to 26/32, which helped the bikes not track in the ruts and improved traction a bit.

The old design K60 definitely wore faster during the first period when the center strip was below the surface, then wore more slowly after that. I suspect the E07 may wear in a similar fashion, but don't know yet. FWIW, the center strip on the new E07 Dakar I have on the bike is ~3/32" below the surface. That's pretty close to what I remember on the old design K60 and it only took around 1500 miles of mostly pavement use and maybe 200 dirt miles to wear down to that strip.

Every tire has it's own feel. And every rider has their own style and preference. Jabba could adjust his suspension some too, but airing down a little is a good first step to see how that impacts the feel to him.

 

[RED CAT]

IMHO a lot of people like to run high pressure like 42/36 which many Manufactures recommend on big adventure bikes. They like to error on the side of Safety no matter what. So they recommend the highest pressure for the most weight. But I have found that running lower tire pressure makes the bike perform better in most situations as long as you arn't riding double and loaded to the nuts. Tires may wear a little faster but its worth it. 36/33 overall works best for me which includes mostly fast paced rough pavement and gravel roads in any form.

 

[tomatocity]

Jabba do yourself a favor and change the tire pressures to 33F 36R and ride some freeway, twisties with elevation changes, and some gravel/hard-pack. You should find a very different tire.

note: I have a 2015 ES with the suspension set Soft -3 and Rider + Luggage.

 

[Jabba]

Dropping the psi today....

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[Jabba]

I went down to 30/30 and softened the compression damping on my rear shock (Penske). Better, but still bothersome. It did significantly reduce the sense that the bike was tipping in too easily- much more neutral handling. These tires are coming off. Anybody know when the new Avon 50-50 tire will be available in the states?

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[Davesax36]

I went down to 30/30 and softened the compression damping on my rear shock (Penske). Better, but still bothersome. It did significantly reduce the sense that the bike was tipping in too easily- much more neutral handling. These tires are coming off. Anybody know when the new Avon 50-50 tire will be available in the states?

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So you wanna sell those E-07s?

 

[Jabba]

They're gonna get sold for sure- life is in the way for a little bit. Gotta choose a replacement, too

Anybody know how these companies ship tires affordably?

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