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New Trelleborg T644 Army Specials - grip on tarmac New Trelleborg T644 Army Specials - grip on tarmac
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Yamaha Tech Originally the Yamaha XT600 Tech Forum, due to demand it now includes all Yamaha's technical / mechanical / repair / preparation questions.
Photo by Andy Miller, UK, Taking a rest, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

I haven't been everywhere...
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Photo by Andy Miller, UK,
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Jokulsarlon, Iceland



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  #1  
Old 17 Jun 2013
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New Trelleborg T644 Army Specials - grip on tarmac
DO these things break in? If so how many miles?

Because I lost count of how many times I lost the back and front ends yesterday morning on a 80 mile ride. Proper scary and very unpredictable.

I don''t mind riding on knobblies (obviously since I paid good money for them) and have many miles of experience.

The Michelin T63 on the front of my previous XT broke in over about 20 miles and was always predictable during that time. And once it broke in I could get close to pegs down on a nice warm roundabout.

But these - I rode out on dry roads like it was wet and rode back when it actually WAS wet like I was on ice and they were still all over the place.

It is not the bike - as a non road legal MX tyre on the back and a barely legal T63 on the front were the reason I got these put on. And it handled fine with those on.

My heart goes out to the British Army guys running these - not something they would have signed up for.

So - do they run in or do I give them the sack for some TKC80s or something?
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Old 17 Jun 2013
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I can tell you that these tires works fine for wintertire with spikes and offroad, but road tires go for TKC80 and you can ride like its ordinary roadtire. This is what mine tire looks like now. https://www.google.no/search?q=trell...tm%3B225%3B150
Last edited by xtrock; 17 Jun 2013 at 21:41.
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Old 17 Jun 2013
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Used 1 on the front and a mitas c-02 on the rear of my xt660z on a recent run to sw france,a bit strange at the start,kinda like a flat front but to be honest soon got used to them.good off road ok on road your never going to get the pegs down but I think there pretty good if your going trailing.
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Old 18 Jun 2013
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If you want to ride quickly on the road, fit something else. Tyres are a compromise.

I use them because I like to actually have some grip in the dirt. Actually, I tend to use a C02 rear with the army front, because I think it's better than the Army rear, but I like the army front. I've done a lot of tarmac miles with Army front and rear though.

I disagree about unpredictable too - they do move around, but in a really progressive, undramatic way. That might be helped by the Tenere being so stable though.

Mitas E-09 are more like TKCs, but better. Both are feck all use in mud though.
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Old 18 Jun 2013
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I have heard nothing but good things about these tyres.

The British Army as well as the Norway Army use them on their trail bikes. That is a pretty good indication on their performance as far as I'm concerned.

They represent pretty good value for money v performance when compared with other top shelf tyres.
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Old 18 Jun 2013
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Norway army only buys these for beeing nice to Sweden hehe. I have heard that the Trelleborg factory for these tires is history so i quess the tires wont be around for a long time.
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Old 18 Jun 2013
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Is that why Norway always gives Sweden 12 points in the Euro Vision Song Contest? lol.

United Kingdom = NIL points!
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Old 18 Jun 2013
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Yes offcourse, thats old history
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Old 18 Jun 2013
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xtrock View Post
Norway army only buys these for beeing nice to Sweden hehe. I have heard that the Trelleborg factory for these tires is history so i quess the tires wont be around for a long time.
Think there no longer being marketed as trelleborg everything they do is now under the mitas name.
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Old 19 Jun 2013
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Yeah, now made by Mitas in the Czech Rep and branded as the 644 Army Special. Last Trelleborg branded ones were a couple of years back.
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Old 19 Jun 2013
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kentfallen View Post
The British Army as well as the Norway Army use them on their trail bikes. That is a pretty good indication on their performance as far as I'm concerned.

The Norwegian army use them because they are the best tyres for snow. I use Trelleborg (now Mitas) in the winter.
Mitas also have a range of very good enduro-tyres
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Old 19 Jun 2013
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The Norwegian army use them because they are the best tyres for snow. I use Trelleborg (now Mitas) in the winter.
Mitas also have a range of very good enduro-tyres
Ah, now I know how to spell NORWEGIAN. I kept writing it wrong - Norwegon, Norwegion..... In the end I settled on plain Norway.

I was looking at fitting these Trelleborg's when my current Michelin SIRAC's wear out. Thing is, because of my bloody back, I only do about 200 miles each Summer. lol. This rate it will take me another 10 years to wear em out!

I know how much R&D the British MoD put into their chosen kit. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.
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Old 19 Jun 2013
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Originally Posted by kentfallen View Post

I know how much R&D the British MoD put into their chosen kit. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.
Fair do's - I am with you on that and that is exactly why I bought them.

I am not a poof when it comes to knobblies and "progressive grip" so I will struggle on assuming that it is just my inability to get them broken in. (It is just the unpredictability I got that spooked me - and it did properly spook me).

Maybe 10 psi less (currently running 29 front and back) will at least make them predictable by putting more knobs on the road.
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Old 20 Jun 2013
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Ran mine 30 front 32 rear with the bike loaded and unloaded.had no issues with them after 150miles.like the front in the dirt havnt tried a rear only the mitas c-02 which is good off-road and not bad on.the tyres would have been even better off-road if I dropped the pressures but didn't want any pinch flats.they should improve for you
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Old 29 Jun 2013
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I dropped the front to 18 and the rear to 20 psi this morning thinking i would struggle on with them. A slight improvement in predictability but no more grip.

Within 5 miles the decision was made... One set of Metzeler Tourances fitted and they now have 50 miles on them. What a difference

I had a great time running them in and my XT is now my friend again. In fact I will probably go out tomorrow morning and run them in some more...
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