Thanks for that.

I was thinking of sending tires via DHL to some place, i just dont know which place.

I contacted Oasis already, i also have relatives i Ulanbataar.

But the western border is about 2000km away from Ulanbataar, so they dont really know a good place.

I had this idea, if someone knows a repair shop or something in this area, i could contact them and organize sending tires there

In Dushanbe we did it as general delievery to the local DHL branch which worked fine. You can just pick it up there. You can contact them in advance and get informed about storage fees.

Firstly, a TKC 80 is not a good offroad tyre. Its a road tyre with square grooves cut in it. It has about the exact same off road ability as a K60 - I have ridden a lot on both and I found grip about the same off road, but the K60 is much more directinally stable, especially at high speed off road. Both are OK off road tyres, but both are also less than "good" off road tyres. The TKC80 is a little bit better on wet asphalt than the K60, but it has worse life expectancy. In both tyre models, the Back is better than the front. The front TKC and the front K60 are the weaker links in the pairs.

If you want a tyre that is more off road capable, but still can get you 10,000 km, look for a pair of Mitas E09 Dakars.

If 6000 km is enough range for you, then get proper off road tyres like Michelin Deserts. If you want tyres that just need to provide maximum grip off road in Mongolia for 6000 km or less, then a TKC80 is not what you are looking for. Its a road tyre.

To be honest, a TKC80 or K60 is enough for Mongolia if you are not planning on riding fast and aggressive. If you wanted to keep it simple, I would just do the whole thing on K60s.

If you want maximum grip for 3 weeks in Mongolia, I would go for Michelin Deserts.

3 tyre pics below. TKC80, E09, Desert. Note that the TKC has almost no space at all between the knobs. The E09 has more space between knobs. The Desert has maximum. Raised tread gives grip on asphalt. Not off road. Its the volume of the gaps between the raised tread that gives you off road grip. A TKC has almost no volume between the blocks and doesnt give good off road grip.

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I think you are kidding yourself if you think a TKC80 will go where a K60 cant. Or if you think a K60 will not get you to difficult to access campsites. I know people who have ridden the Road of Bones Old Summer Road and BAM road on K60s / Mefo Super Explorers.

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Thanks a lot, this is good information for me

Thank you for all the inputs , its has been very informative and help full.

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Christian

Hi guys,

I'm planning on doing Barcelona - Ulaanbaatar this summer through France-Italy-Hungary-Ukraine-Russia-Kazakhstan-Russia-Mongolia.

My idea was to start on road tyres (Anakee 2, as they seem to last quite long) and carry a set of K60s to put them on when the going gets tougher or the Anakees wear out.

I'm counting on putting the K60s on at Astrakhan before riding into Kazakhstan.

A few doubts:

Do you reckon the K60s can make it across Kazakhstan, into Mongolia and then from Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk, or is that too long? I don't plan on riding like a maniac.

Would it be better to keep the Anakees in Kazakhstan? What is the road condition? I want to do Astrakhan-Aralsk-Shmkent-Almaty-Semey before heading to Barnaul.

Finally, how good are the K60s offroad in Mongolia? I'd like to take the northern route.

Thanks!

I wrote to some guys, who did this traveling already and i will translate what they wrote me:

The Northern Route in mongolia is much greener, what means mud and in the worst case undoable river crossings.
Which causes most drivers to turn around and go a different route.
I know some who have done the northern route, but they are not much.

Southern route in from Makat to Aralsk is not a street its shit x 3
Next time i will go the northern route in Kazhachstan

Whats your route in KZ? If its an all asphalt road, you dont have to change to your K60s until later.

Having said that your K60s should make it to Irkutsk from Astrakhan.

K60s are fine for Mongolia ... especially if you are not racing it.

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Sounds like guys who really dont know much about off road travelling.

Northern Route is fine. I have ridden it a bunch of times. I rode it last year in 2 days and it was raining heavily. There was pretty much no mud that you couldnt avoid. Lots of wet gravel. Southern Route is semi desert and pretty featureless (read boring)

Any road in Mongolia is subject to undoable river crossings. Depending if its been raining recently flash floods can swell creek beds from nothing to uncrossable in hours. They can also go down overnight.

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Just finished right now, putting on my new Heidis' K 60 Scout on my BMW F 800 GS !!

Thanks to all of you for sharing your experience and info...you all where a great help!

Leaving for Iran in 2 months.....and Mongolia in 2014

Safe Ride to all of you!!

@ colebatch.

I have heard so many different things about northern and southern route.
All from people, who have been there.

I think it is also a question, how good are the driving skills.
Some say its easy, because they are experienced Enduro drivers, for some it is hard.....
The guy who told me taht is experienced, but never did the northern route himself.
And i have seen videos, where drivers gave up

But i heard warnings from people who live there.

The only way to find out is to go here and judge yourself.
It is only, as many say, an hour of planing is worth 10 hours of beeing on the road.
So what i mean, if i think about it before, and try to gather informations, that will help me.

for my part, i still dont know which route to go.
The same people told me that the southern route is semi desert, but also very beautiful.

I think, i will make my decision shortly after the border, when i have to turn left or right and listen to my stomach

I have time, but not to much time, so i am still trying to find a good compromise between fast and want to see a lot

I put on Heidenaus in Hanover and rode to Ulan Batar through Russia and Kaz, Kyrg, China, and there was still a lot of tread on them, enough for me to ride Thailand, Laos and then back into Thailand

I rode the southern 'road' and the tyres were fine on a heavy Vstrom

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www.travellingstrom.com

That sounds great! Especially since I'm also going to be riding a Vstrom... How did the tires and the Vstrom perform offroad?

It is a great bike and the tyres are brilliant

You can reasd my blog for more details

I entered Mongolia around the 6th Sep last year, towards the end of the season

Cheers
TS

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www.travellingstrom.com