Are 17" tires easily available in South America
 

I will be leaving Panama early September headed to Argentina on a KLR 650. I know that 21" tires for the front are pretty standard, but what about the 17" rear? I know that there might be limited options for a dual-sport type tire, but what can I expect to find, and where?

Dunno about 17", but I think in the major cities you should be OK as long as you are happy with Pirellis!!

IIRR, the local economic community, MercoSur, has some sort of manufacturing deal with Pirelli and they were quite abundunt in the little of SA that we saw: Argentina and Chile (we saw a lot, but its still only two countries in a VERY big continent...).

Get yourself a list of matching Pirelli tyres for your rims and ask for those when you need to. Otherwise, if in places like Argentina, you can get folks like Javier and Sandra at Dakar Motos, in BA, to ship you tyres, but be sure you are within the same borders, as the taxes can be a killer..

HTH

You can find pirrelli MT60 s almost every where as they are made in brasil.

The KLR rear is a 140 or 130 /80 17" ?

130s are very easy to find, 140s with a bit of looking.

Bolivia and peru are the hardest to find tires. but the KLR is popular every where else.

Here in Ecuador, and Colombia lots of the Police have suzuki freewinds so there is always the rear available for those.

also certain places are cheaper than others, with bizarly enough Brasil being one of the most expensive. In my experience argentina and colombia were the cheapest for tyres.

Here in Quito a 130 pirelli MT60 costs about $110 -130
the 140 a bit more.

In my opinion, just plan slighty ahead before crossing bolivia by getting something in Lima or argentina of chile depending on your direction. This is for 2 reasons. saves time and hassle looking there, and you want a bit of tread left before tackling the slighty loose roads you´ll find there!!!

cheers
mike

Thanks for the advice. The rear is a 130, so glad to hear there is no problem. I'm going south, and should make it fine to Lima. Then I'll get a new set (or rear) before heading into Bolivia.

I just bought two Pirelli MT21´s for my KLR in Cuzco, Peru for less than $120USD total. I had to ask around, then wait a few days for them to arrive from Lima; no problem. The inner tubes I´ve found aren´t as good quality as the ones I bought at home, though.

Has anyone found any tyres around the Carreterra Austral? We´ll have a look around Puerto Natales for some, but I´m doubtfull about find anything there. We might be able to finish the CA on our current ones, but they´ll be dead flat at the end.