PHOTO : Josh Martin
on the road , even with the bike fully loaded with a weekend ’ s worth of camping gear and food . Yes , they squirm around a bit but it doesn ’ t take much getting used to and it ’ s a trade-off for such a dirt-oriented tyre . The Mid-hard has shorter knobs , so should have a bit less squirm and more stability ( we ’ ll try a set of these in the coming months as the weather dries out a bit ). They ’ re better than I expected them to be on tar seal but I baby them in the wet - even though I ’ ve not had any issues . On gravel they hook up well , as you might expect , really digging in where more 50-50 road-oriented tyres like the TKC80 start to give up in the deep gravel that accumulates on the outside of corners . The knobs get through the gravel rather than skating on the top of it . They excel on wet dirt roads , those sharpedged knobs really digging in . And on the dirt , they ’ re fantastic , as you ’ d expect . Heaps of grip and able to eke out traction when the going gets crappy . They self clean pretty well if you can keep the speed up , leaving the knobs to do their job . At the same time as fitting these tyres , I put a rim-lock in the rear , letting me air them down a bit in the
really gnarly stuff . I ’ ve been running 10psi in the rear and 15psi in the front ( as low as I dare go with no rim-lock in there ) which makes a real difference . I wouldn ’ t bother airing them down for gravel . Overall , the MC360s do exactly what you might expect . It ’ s a dirt tyre that can be used on the road . I ’ m happy with the onroad compromise for the off-road gain . The sharp South Island rock dulls the edges pretty quickly but they ’ re still gripping well after around 1000km and I reckon they ’ ll go another 1000-1500km , which is bloody good in my book . They ’ re non-directional , so can be turned around to get the most out of the sharp edges . They work well on the ES700 and let me get to places I ’ d struggle with less aggressive tyres . They ’ re not for everyone but if you ’ re riding a lighter adventure bike ( KTM 690R Enduro , Husqvarna 701 , DR650 , DRZ400 , CRF300L Rally - although one of the Metzeler guys has been running them on the KTM 890 Adventure and reckons they work well on it ) and spend your time more off-road than on , they ’ re a good option . BEN WILKINS
KIWI RIDER 49