Tire selection is always a contentious issue. It is especially so with the KLR, because there are oodles of tires for this bike. They run the gamut, from barely legal hardcore knobbies right up to barely legal near-slicks with minimalist tread. My personal philosophy on finding the “best” tires is, ain’t no such thing. There are so many good tires available that it really comes down to preferences and riding style. It’s rather like dating (hah).

Tire selection for the Canada trip

I am currently in very deep personal deliberation about which tires to use for my big cross-Canada trip. My current thinking is that I’ll use a road-oriented tire for the first 7500 km or so, maybe Avon Distanzias, Heidenau K76, or similar. On the first half of the trip, we’ll be mainly on secondary highways, and some optional low-key gravel roads and fire roads that we can easily skip if the trails turn to mud. That will get me comfortably to Newfoundland. Then I’ll switch over to a more 50/50 tire – perhaps something like a Mefo Explorer, Kenda K270, Heidenau K60, or something like it. That should get me through the Trans-Labrador Highway comfortably enough even in rainy conditions, with a useful amount of tread on the first set to use as spares should I get a crippling tire-slash on the TLH.

The easy default

I started out with a new KLR, so it came with the traditional Dunlop K750s. Reviews on these tires are not uniformly bad, but very few people seem to love them. I chose to leave them on my bike throughout their service life. Why not? Love the one you’re with.

Dunlop K750

How did I feel about them? Well, they were serviceable, if not passion-inspiring. I didn’t ride any serious technical offroad, but I did do quite a bit of logging roads, fire roads, dirt roads. They were good enough for me. I’m not a peg-scraping race fanatic either, I rarely push the limits of the traction on the tires in any condition. Again, they were good enough for me. The only real complaint I had was that during my trip last year to Victoria to see my sister and her family, they rapidly came to the end of their service life. The only warning I had was a rather deafening howl for about 250 km. Those last few mm of tread went rather quickly. I found myself in Victoria in dire need of a new rear tire, after 9200 km of quite gentle service. I suppose that’s not too bad for a dual sport tire, but it’s not super great either. Our time together was enjoyable for what it was, and no hard feelings, but I don’t think we have a future together.

Saucy new Avon Distanzias

I was lucky enough to be in Victoria for a clearance sale at one of the local dealers. I picked up a pair of Avon Distanzia tires for a decent price. I decided to go with the full pair rather than just replacing the rear, simply for the sake of novelty. They were installed the next day, and I was back in business. 

With the first ride, I was smitten. The new Distanzias were remarkably quiet and smooth. I also enjoyed slight but seemingly consistent improved fuel economy. The handling was good, but again I rarely push it. I had exquisite cruises on pavement, with reasonable performance on easy gravel roads and logging roads. I was enjoying the Distanzias, and was looking forward to many thousands of kilometers of good times together. I was even flirting with the idea that these could be the One Tire that would take me through my whole trip.

Betrayal…

Why am I typing in the past tense about these tires? Well, just a few days ago I was checking over my bike when I noticed some seriously heartbreaking cracks on the front tire. These cracks must be a recent development, as I’m reasonably diligent about checking my bike – at least about the important stuff like tires. On my last longer-distance ride, about 500 km in central Alberta, I did notice that the bike felt really squashy in the front end rather suddenly (at least, my awareness of it was quite sudden). I pulled over in dusk light, and took a good look around. I didn’t notice anything. I was expecting maybe a flat front tire or something, but everything looked fine so I chalked it up to the gusty winds, and carried on home. However, it’s easy to imagine that, in the dim light I could easily have missed the cracks in the tire that I spotted the next morning. 

These are representative, not comprehensive. The cracks are like this entirely around the tire. Interestingly, they are only on the left side of the tire, and only on the front tire. The rear tire does have one small (2 cm) separation along the similar grooves that appear near the rim in these photos, but the cracks are nowhere near as extensive.

As my brother in law put it, “I’ve seen original tires on 1960s cars that weren’t that bad!” What’s really worrying about the cracking is the sheer number of cracks. There isn’t more than about a centimeter of sidewall circumference that doesn’t have at least one crack in it, and in many places they overlap. I will be pulling these tires off hopefully tomorrow or the next day, weather permitting. I am very curious to see just how deep these cracks extend into the sidewall.

These tires have been installed for just a little more than 6 months, and have seen about 4200 km of use. In that time, I’ve kept them carefully inflated usually in the low-to-mid 30s PSI, depending on exactly where I’m going and how much load I’m carrying. They’ve never suffered any ignoble abuse like running flat (or super over pressure), they’ve never been exposed to nasty solvents or anything unusual. Heck, the left side is even on the shady side of the bike when it’s parked.

Needless to say I am quite upset and disappointed. It can only be a defective tire and very bad luck, I’m sure. Though the crack in the rear tire worries me… They are different date codes (front is late 2011, rear is mid 2011) so if they are both defective then that suggests a lot of bad tires. I have contacted Avon customer service, and they have asked me to send the tires back, via my favorite local dealer. I am heartened by the quick response of Avon to this, and I’m hopeful they’ll make it right. I will update this when I get a final response.

New tires again!

The good news is that I happen to have a pair of Kenda K270 tires sitting in my garage that have been winking coyly at me for some time. I picked these up a little while ago for a mid-winter steal price, thinking I’d give them a chance. They’re a bit more knobbly and dirt-oriented than I tend to ride, but maybe I should try something a little different!

 Some people love them, and they’re very affordable. So we’ll see how that goes. If I’m happy with these tires, they may end up being my 50/50 tires. If I’m really happy with these tires, they may end up being my only tires. Who knows?

Deep down inside though, I realize that I hope that Avon is shocked and embarrassed about my cracked up tires, apologizes earnestly, comes up with a good reason why this will never ever happen again, and replaces them with new Distanzias. I really liked the Distanzias up until a week ago, and I really want to believe we could reconcile.