Originally Posted by mollydog

This is kinda old school thinking, IMO. Mixing tires can work fine .... but does not always work. So it depends on the bike and tires used and in what combination they are applied.

Example: Just about any mix and match of tires works just fine on
a Vstrom. I've used about every combo within the class of tire spec'd for the bike: Distanzia, Anakee, MT90, D607, Tourance .... they all perform fine in about any combo front to rear, brand to brand.

YES... there are subtle differences but mostly this has to do with the amount of wear on the tire. With new or near new tires the Vstrom is very tolerant
and never displays any sort of dangerous behavior.

Dirt bikes too are not too fussy about mixing. Once again, YES, you may feel a slight difference but nothing dangerous or weird is going on .... most of the time. Some tires are just plain weird and don't suit the bike. So a bit of fiddling needs to be done to find out which combos are best.

With lighter weight bikes like XT's, AT's, DR;s, XR's you can have a more pronounced difference felt that may put you off. Whether I'd call this dangerous or not is up for debate.

Obviously, some tires don't work well in rain ... ie many knobbies for example. And most knobbies won't provide the kind of side grip you get from a pure street tire.

But as far as the bike going into a massive tank slapper like the "Bad Old Day" of old Brit bikes, well, this is not too common in my experience.

Sport bikes are in some cases more sensitive to mixing tires, mostly due to
very radical geometry. So here I would be more careful.


Cheers,

Patrick