Bandit 127,

Have you ever considered MICHELIN SIRAC's?

These things are more agricultural looking than a Tourance and quite a bit cheaper too.

Personally I find so called "all round" tyres a bit misleading because in my opinion these tyres do not perform excellently at either discipline (tarmac or off-road). I describe most as 70% tarmac, 30% LIGHT trails. Forget these tyres for hard-core off-road stuff because they ALL fail miserably to get traction in wet muddy conditions.

Knobblies are the ONLY things to use off-road.

I suppose what I'm trying to say (badly), is that we all need to work out what we do most of the time and make an informed decision on what tyre we choose.... Does that make any sense????????

I choose Michelin SIRAC's simply because I think a XT needs to have agricultural looking tyres to look the part. Plain tarmac tyres (including in my opinion Tourance's) spoil the look of the thing.

My mate laughs at me because I never get my bikes wet or muddy. Thing is, I love to keep my bikes looking pristine (XT's in this kind of condition are becoming quite rare now). Give it a few more years and XT600E's will become very sought after (and good investments).

Just read what I have written and now even I'm confused.

__________________
Triumph Bonneville 800 (2004), Yamaha XT600E (1999), Honda XBR500 (1986).

I dont agree, TKC 80 preform excellent for the 70/30 use. And having a XT that its not getting dirty is not allowed

I use these with spikes, one in each knob in front, two spikes in rear, for winter.

Phenomenal grip on ice and snow. On bare asfalt it's like driving when your drunk - not that I would know anything about that.

So far no significant wear, but low speeds and careful driving.

Safe travels

Peter in Oslo

I did consider those plus the Avon Distanzia, both of which had good write ups.

I know I paid for the privilege but the Tourances were what they had on the shelf. My relationship with my bike was at such a low that I just wanted some decent road rubber on, there and then, so I took what they had.

I do see these as a 100% road tyre. We will wait and see what wet roads bring in terms of grip but on sticky summer tarmac they have huge amounts of grip and remain predictable on all surfaces so far (100 miles done and about 1cm of chicken stripe left on the rear - less on the front oddly).

The T644s are here and can go back on for the next off road day where I am sure they will be perfect for the job they were designed for.