Anyone else think TKC80's are absolute crap on the street?

I recently put a set of TKC80's on my KLR650 to replace the stock Dunlop D750's. The Dunlops were fine on the street, just sort of *meh* in the dirt. and absolute shit in mud. After reading thousands of reviews on the TKC80's, I was expecting performance at least as good as the stockers on the street, at the expense of tread life, and far better offroad performance. These things are, however, pucker-tastic on the street. The first stop light I came to I left a 30 yard stripe with the rear wheel. Riding at a semi-spirited pace on Hicks/Uvas resulted in pushing the front end on several occasions. I haven't had a chance to get them in the dirt yet (tried to hit up Metcalf yesterday, didn't realize they're closed on Wednesday's) but so far I'm not super impressed with them as an "all-around" tire. I'm starting to think I should have gone with the Mefo Explorers.

I run TKC80s on my F800GS.

I don't leave any stripes on the street, but then I have ABS...

I think they do a decent job on the street and a decent job on dirt. Not great at either, but a reasonable compromise between the two.

JPK said:

I recently put a set of TKC80's on my KLR650 to replace the stock Dunlop D750's. The Dunlops were fine on the street, just sort of *meh* in the dirt. and absolute shit in mud. After reading thousands of reviews on the TKC80's, I was expecting performance at least as good as the stockers on the street, at the expense of tread life, and far better offroad performance. These things are, however, pucker-tastic on the street. The first stop light I came to I left a 30 yard stripe with the rear wheel. Riding at a semi-spirited pace on Hicks/Uvas resulted in pushing the front end on several occasions. I haven't had a chance to get them in the dirt yet (tried to hit up Metcalf yesterday, didn't realize they're closed on Wednesday's) but so far I'm not super impressed with them as an "all-around" tire. I'm starting to think I should have gone with the Mefo Explorers.

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I can't wait to see what you think of the Mefos- Here's my 2 cents:
the TKCs are decent, and at least fairly predictable on dry pavement. I lowsided when my TKC slid out from under me crossing a small, non slimy wet spot in a corner. My fault, of course, but really- I'm still shocked that I went down on that corner at that speed. TKC is still my front tire of choice if I'm riding somewhere that I need the knobs- I don't care for the dunlop 606 on the street. I may try a michelin T63 next time around.

Mefo- I've only used the rear tire, and only for 500 miles or so. It has a tendency to break loose (way, way loose) when leaned over just a hair too much, and on the throttle. Kinda hard to figure when it's going to do it. It's a great tire if you don't ride hard enough on the pavement to get to that point- quite good off road, and long lasting.

Anyway, I've given up trying to find the perfect tire combination for all conditions- but I've gotten very good at quick tire changes, and I run pirelli scorpions or conti trail attacks for street use, and mefo/tkc for dirt. I just laced up a different set of wheels for my 950, so hopefully running 18"/19" street tires for everyday use and switching to the 18"/21" dirt setup for weekend trips will be the ticket.

zak

Me

TKC front and 606 rear on my KLR and I think they are great.
The front has great mileage, good onroad, grips offroad. 606 rears wear out too quick

may not be the tires. could very well be your suspension. let me guess you are running on a completely stock suspension with no revalving/proper spring or any tuning done.

JPK said:

I recently put a set of TKC80's on my KLR650 to replace the stock Dunlop D750's. The Dunlops were fine on the street, just sort of *meh* in the dirt. and absolute shit in mud. After reading thousands of reviews on the TKC80's, I was expecting performance at least as good as the stockers on the street, at the expense of tread life, and far better offroad performance. These things are, however, pucker-tastic on the street. The first stop light I came to I left a 30 yard stripe with the rear wheel. Riding at a semi-spirited pace on Hicks/Uvas resulted in pushing the front end on several occasions. I haven't had a chance to get them in the dirt yet (tried to hit up Metcalf yesterday, didn't realize they're closed on Wednesday's) but so far I'm not super impressed with them as an "all-around" tire. I'm starting to think I should have gone with the Mefo Explorers.

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rean1mator said:

may not be the tires. could very well be your suspension. let me guess you are running on a completely stock suspension with no revalving/proper spring or any tuning done.

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Actually, it's the opposite problem. Along with the tire change, I tore into the forks and replaced the springs with heavier springs, and added Ricor Intiminators (despite Ricor's recommendation to leave the stock springs in). Having now put several hundred miles on that combo, it proved to be too harshly sprung/damped, so I just re-installed the stock, softer springs yesterday with the Ricors. haven't had a chance to ride it yet, but I'm hopeful that this will calm the front end down a bit. The rear is still bone stock at the moment (but not for long).

the ricors feel very stiff on normal small bumps and have harsh feeling on the initial compression of the fork for low speed bumps.

but work great on the harder/bigger high speed bumps which is when you really want the emulators to be working. I loved mine when i had them on the dr650. it does take some getting used to.

rebound setting will have a lot do with how the tires keep traction. if there's too much damping on the rebound your tires won't stay connected to the pavement. have you played around with the rebound at all?

also if you just redid your front end but left your rear stock then there will be a mismatch in the front and rear suspension which could very well affect handling/tire grip. gotta tune both ends.

and what tire pressure are you running front and rear?

JPK said:

Actually, it's the opposite problem. Along with the tire change, I tore into the forks and replaced the springs with heavier springs, and added Ricor Intiminators (despite Ricor's recommendation to leave the stock springs in). Having now put several hundred miles on that combo, it proved to be too harshly sprung/damped, so I just re-installed the stock, softer springs yesterday with the Ricors. haven't had a chance to ride it yet, but I'm hopeful that this will calm the front end down a bit. The rear is still bone stock at the moment (but not for long).

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rean1mator said:

what tire pressure are you running front and rear?

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All could be right + this!
I loved my TKC on the 1200 GS too!

rean1mator said:

the ricors feel very stiff on normal small bumps and have harsh feeling on the initial compression of the fork for low speed bumps.

but work great on the harder/bigger high speed bumps which is when you really want the emulators to be working. I loved mine when i had them on the dr650. it does take some getting used to.

rebound setting will have a lot do with how the tires keep traction. if there's too much damping on the rebound your tires won't stay connected to the pavement. have you played around with the rebound at all?

also if you just redid your front end but left your rear stock then there will be a mismatch in the front and rear suspension which could very well affect handling/tire grip. gotta tune both ends.

and what tire pressure are you running front and rear?

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After being thoroughly unimpressed with the Ricor + stiffer spring setup, I called Ricor and spoke to them at length on Friday. They explained their 'philosophy' on running the softest spring possible to maintain ride height, and allowing the Intiminator to control damping. The stiffer springs I'd installed weren't allowing the Intiminators to damp as intended, creating an overly harsh ride. I've now gone back to the softer factory springs, so we'll see how this works. I decided to try the Ricor's first, since the mod is totally reversible, vs going with Emulators and being stuck with drilled out damper rod holes.

Rebound isn't independently tunable on the bike, front or rear. You have to run 5W Amsoil in the front with the Ricors, which will result in a really quick rebound. Most people on the KLR forums seem to like this, as it ensures the tire's in contact with the ground as much as possible.

The rear shock is next on the farkle list. Was waiting for the bonus check to arrive. arty It's very obvious that the stock rear shock is a POS.

I've been running a pressure of 26/32 on the street with the TKC80's. Any recommendations on a better setting from your experience? I'm planning to run them at ~20/20 in the dirt.

As long as the pavements dry I've never had a problem with TKCs. They're by far the best knob for pavement use, but on dirt they leave a lot to be desired, IMO. I run 30 psi front and rear and never bother to lower it once I hit dirt. Saves on pinch flats and dinged rims.

Double-D said:

As long as the pavements dry I've never had a problem with TKCs. They're by far the best knob for pavement use, but on dirt they leave a lot to be desired, IMO. I run 30 psi front and rear and never bother to lower it once I hit dirt. Saves on pinch flats and dinged rims.

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That's funny- for as much as I thought the TKC80's were just mediocre on the street, I was just blown away by how much better than the stock tires they are in the dirt. I was out at Clear Creek on Sunday and aired them down to 20/20, and they were fantastic... well, until we got to that one stretch of really deep loose fluffy stuff on a steep uphill. The back dug in and opened up some monstrously large craters before I knew what hit me. The stock Dunlop D750's would start to spin in those same conditions but not really dig themselves in. It was odd having that much bite.

JPK said:

That's funny- for as much as I thought the TKC80's were just mediocre on the street, I was just blown away by how much better than the stock tires they are in the dirt. I was out at Clear Creek on Sunday and aired them down to 20/20, and they were fantastic... well, until we got to that one stretch of really deep loose fluffy stuff on a steep uphill. The back dug in and opened up some monstrously large craters before I knew what hit me. The stock Dunlop D750's would start to spin in those same conditions but not really dig themselves in. It was odd having that much bite.

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I was comparing TKCs to other knobs and not the more street oriented dual sport tires like the 750 or Mefo. TKCs are better on the street, but don't hold a candle to tires like the 606, 908, or MT21 offroad.