tyre its cold-weather grip on tarmac . I know from experience that these tyres need to be respected in the cold and wet . You almost need to ride like you ’ re on ice . The ABS on the Tenere 700 is not expecting such a lack of grip and will allow a lot more lockup than you might expect if you ’ re not used to riding on dirt tyres . The Metzeler MC360 is a great choice for those who want maximum grip off-road but are going to be doing a few tarmac kilometres between dirt stages too . They ’ re great in soft terrain , and pretty good in gravely terrain also . But when it comes to finding traction on wet rocks , I think I would like something with a little more silica . Definitely a solid tyre . Very impressive . and they managed to put up with all the abuse I could throw at them on the T7 . RAY HERON
PHOTO : Ray Heron
How about on the dirt ? Well , I ’ ve been out to Red Rocks many times before on this bike equipped with adventure tyres . Getting stuck has been par for the course . But this time on the full-knobbly MC360 , blasting through the soft sand and hopping over rocks was pretty much effortless . Even trying to get bogged seemed difficult . The knobs of the rear tyre seem to just bite in to anything and dig through until you ’ re moving forward and floating back on the surface . It ’ s amazing how installing some aggressive off-road tyres can completely transform a motorcycle . There is a tradeoff though . A deal with the devil if you will . That 100 % Carbon black construction means there is zero silica . Silica is one of the main ingredients that gives a
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