Adventure Bike Rider Forum

thankyou Spadger for the clutch pics
and well done to missis Spadger for the spannering demo



tyres for the crf250L ..
I took the little 'un out yesterday for a slidey (fun?) time in the mud. It had been raining heavily pissistently and the thin grass gave way to the clayey mud underneath and I was surprised how easily the rear end skewed round in an alarming non-straight way :woohoo: at one point I wuz stuck for ten minutes in a grassy (became muddy) dip that normally would have been easy to get out of.

I know the standard IRC tyres are billed as crap .. but I nervously have come to rely on the front end for (mud) holding as its not too bad at all ( at my low level). However the rear is another matter and spins up very easily (in the wet) and slides about a bit under `power` :whistle:

I found that lowering the psi from 22 to 19 helped a lot, but I don't want to go lower to invoke the use of rim locks as they are difficult to balance and fit tyres to. but this is not enough.

so .. what tyres are recommended or used?
and .. would a wider tyre (130 / 140 instead of a 120?) help with traction?

Hi there , we have maxxis cross it tyres on , work out at about 90 a set , road legal Enduro tyres plus rim locks , the type of tyre they are I don't bother balancing the wheels and not to Bad to put on , they do wear fairly quickly but cheap , and give decent all round grip , manage most stuff but will be looking for something a bit longer lasting for morocco , from memory they're the same size as the origins. I did do loads more pics re clutch change but minkeys link would help anyone , I wouldn't pay anyone to do a clutch for sure there's no complications in doing it

its quite an ask to select a tyre that will do off road and high mileage on road too .. I would be looking for something like an army special, with not too large knobblies, as I find they slip on rock? [or curbs anyway]. the IRC are very well lasting and well balanced too , its just the mud thing!

ps.. Spadger, feel welcome to add more clutch pics .. I am sure they will be appreciated even if people do not post responses

[.. will look at the ITs to see tread pattern.]

tyres on the crf ..

well for once you can choose from loads as they last much longer

maxxis its are a good trail tyre ...ive recently used a kenda trackmaster rear in bulgaria expecting it to be slippy and it can be very steep too and of course it was as dry as a witches tit ..me drz would kill it in 1800 miles but the crf chugged on for 4000 ...
DSC_0025 by minkyhead56, on Flickr[/img]
for longer roadwork with decent off road drive ..id go with mitas e09 rear and 644 army front ive used these tyres extensivly and maby not the best trail tyres you can get but they are not half bad and theres nowhere you cant go on them within reason ..the rear will not be the best in proper claggy mud but it will hook up and it will drive through it wont strand you ..they are not great in slippy cambers either but they are not a enduro tyre if you weight the outside peg they usually stay put but be prepared to slide in the rut ..thankfully these are rare but it is a weakness ..in most general trail conditions 95 percent of the time it works very well its a great duel sport tyre and decent on the road
the rear will be past its off road best by 6000 miles but would probably go 10000 if forced and the 644 front has a brilliant long lasting block and would probaly go 12/14000 miles ..i tend to change them both when the big block bite has reduced by 50 percent or more ..ish at 6/7000 miles
..but on the crf they would do marroc and back twice with room to spare and are light years better than k60s or mefos when it gets slippy ..they are ok as dry sestination tyres but dry destinations aint always dry so i stick with these

this rear has done around 4500 miles it came off at 7000...

DSC_5337 by minkyhead56, on Flickr[/img]

i got me tyres in early this year im expecting to use three on the ccm and two on the crf ..the enduro tyre is a metzler unicross i prefer them to maxxis its they have better road manners and corner better when the tryre is squared off ..i think they wear better and hook up like a rotavator in mud ..i m using it on me spare wheel on the ccm for snotty meetings like shopshire

but the e09 is my default do it all tyre mot of the time (thumbs)

you can only get 130/80/18 in the e09 ...the maxxis in 120 will be taller and wider than the e09 s130
the trackmaster is the same enduro tyres tend to be higher and wider so dont go 130 on enduro tyres they will be huge on the crf :side:
the e09s in the pic are 130s and the unicross is 120? :silly:




DSC_0166 by minkyhead56, on Flickr[/img]

644

DSC_0124 by minkyhead56, on Flickr[/img]

brilliant(as usual) Minky B)

funny thing I was just looking at oponeo and the Unicross took my fancy .. cheap too .. just the sort of tread pattern I am looking for. Good to know they are well mannered on the road (where I mostly use)

EO9 did come to mind too, but I thought too aggressive? .. do they rumble on tarmac [or smooth] (just out of interest)

garyboy wrote:brilliant(as usual) Minky B)

funny thing I was just looking at oponeo and the Unicross took my fancy .. cheap too .. just the sort of tread pattern I am looking for. Good to know they are well mannered on the road (where I mostly use)

EO9 did come to mind too, but I thought too aggressive? .. do they rumble on tarmac [or smooth] (just out of interest)

to be honest gary you have it the wrong way around the unicross is the aggressive tyre and it will hook into anything muddy with ease ..id guess it would do 3000 on the crf and then be a bit suare and awkward on corners and very interesting by 4000

the e09 at a guess will do a good job and last twice as long

the e09 is speed rated at 109mph and the unicross 84mph to give you a idea there honstly arnt many gb trails where the e09 wont do a very good job indeed ive rideen alot of them with this tyre on ..the unicross on the flip side would be overkill a lot of the time ..the unicross front is good but will wear quick the block will go to triangles and i would say would last 25 percent of a 644 with no great advantage off road

hot snot ..live in a muddy area like slurry or slopshire unicross :blink: road and trail e09 (thumbs)

the 644 on here is clogged to death but still clears and grips and the e09 does throw mud and drive reasonably well ..its a muddy shitty horrible landrover trench but as you can see they arnt struggling ..the 644 used in a straight line at trail speeds is pretty good at planting the front ..the rear then can slip about a bit but they arnt a bad combination at all

thankyou Minky for taking the time and effort to put all these excellent answers together B) (thumbs)

looks like it gotta be the Eo9 then (thumbs)
(are they smooth on the road tho? `109 mph` says they must be?)
I suppose they need a rim lock?


edit .. actually, cant find the Eo9 in TT .. just the unicross in 120/90 -18 ... similar to the mitas co2 ?

you wont need a rim lock on the crf unless you drop real low 10psi or summat daft like that ..i run em at 15 psi road and trail no bother they are a stiff tyre dont run em above twenty or they will be bouncy on rocks and stuff
i run the 644 at 18 psi no bother ..i did 700 miles last weekend on these tyres salisbury and back ...salisbury was as slippy as feck but all stayed shiney side up (thumbs) ..ill use the bike to go to work on as well so they are a good duel sport bet

the e09 is a good hard wearing road tyre on the crf ..they are quiet and only get noisy towards the end of theree usful life

you can get them here ....

http://www.mitas.co.uk/Adventure-/Safar ... -Tyre.Html

the Eo9 is tubeless though? .. I have the original rims that are TT (tube type)? ?

just put the tube ,it wont matter .