Ah, thisold chesnut!
Well, I bought that XR650R, and did 6500 miles in the USA, pretty much equally spread on TKC80's initally, then Pirelli MT21's (both 140 rears)...
The TKC's were great in the dry dusty dirt road conditions of Nevada and California, and up into Oregon -plenty of highish speed (60-75mph) highway use too. The rear was totally bald by 3200 miles however, although that was after plenty of off-tarmac/gravel road use, followed by a blast down highway 101.
I swapped them for a pair of MT21's and ended up with much the same wear (I guess rough roads are always going to shred tyres, and especially on a big single with no cush drive), and in dry conditions no discernable difference in grip, although I actually preferred the front TKC in loose gravel on top of a hardpack surface, the MT21 would occassional feel as if it was about to let go, athough it never did.
However, the TKC's (front particularly) did start to vibrate as they wore down which was irritating at highway speeds. Typically every other knobble on the front of both tyres wore unevenly, although the front MT21 didn't vibrate so much despite looking like a cog after 3000 miles.
In summary, for a big(ger) bike in primarily dry dual-sport conditions, I'd happily recommmend both and buy them again, athough don't expect either to last much more than 3000 miles of combined on and off-road riding.
Hope that helps...
JennyMo xxx
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