to finish up the appraisal
.. sort of .. I would say
MT21 are a good starting point .. they may be classed as 50/50 but they are really more like 75%road ... but the guy can judge from there if he or she wants to go more aggressive or not.
to start the appraisal
.. the original tyres have a relly bad reputation, but i found them really good on the road, and lasted well. But .. off road they are treachorous, the front is bad, but the rear is deadly, as matey found out. They slip and slide sideways and all ways in slippy conditions, tho not too bad in the dry.
I tried mitas E09's anf they were fine on dry track and roads, great on roads in fact, but they have a lot of land to sea tread.... small gaps in large knobs. but they would foul up at the slightest sniff of mud ... and o boy .. watch out for the side slips, as there is a straight through gap/s in the tread pattern.
The
weight of the crf 250L, at 145kg makes the tyres dig into soft ground more, causing easier slip, as the earth turns to mush under the weight..
20171101_122338 by
gary boy, on Flickr
MT21's are classed as mid aggressive, grip great on tarmac and dry hard pack, but wear fast at higher road speeds, over 70mph, and slip far too easily say crossing ruts etc.
so i tried metzler (cant remember name .. uni something? unicross?). I put one on the rear
20190428_175111 (2) by
gary boy, on Flickr
20190629_134200BBBBBBBBBBBBBbb by
gary boy, on Flickr
NOT recommended ... the size waas too big .. so as well as smaller swingarm clearance, despite its written size, the radius was an inch taller, making the rear wheel into a 20" diameter , which is useless at gripping in loose gravel or anything else .... i found out the hard way that Honda got it right with their oem recvommendations for tyres sizes .. a smaller rear tyre cuts into and grips better.
i had an army special on the front it was ok but a bit vague .. better to have the oem narrower profile.
I came to realise that smaller square knobs with 50/50 land sea gaps layout are the best for more techinical trails ... but thay mean slower speds on tarmac, if you want to get value out of the tyre cost, not to mention the poor handling
so it is ballancing one need against another, as in all tyre choices ... probably the only difference with the crf250L is that it has more wieght and less power than the average so perhaps that makes tyre choice more critical, as it is a very accomplished DUAL use bike, meaning you have a wider choice.
so mt21 will start at half way house, general use, but the off road performance will meed upping to enjoy trails, meaning a more aggressive tyre.
but it is a fair road bike too ... and could go all day on road tyres... but then there are better road bikes for that?
it is a difficult choice, but easy if you know where you want to ride, in one type of terain.
ps .. i just realised .. it out spreads in range, any single tyre