Tire recommendations?

[KXcam22]

IRC MB5!! If you are looking for a low cost tire that lasts and digs in sand I second the recommendatonn for the IRC MB5.  A great performing tire in soft terrain. The downside is that for racing the tire carcass is quite heavy.  For normal riding it is excellent. A nice feature is that the knobs do not shear off even on a 500.  The only 752 I ever bought worked great but only lasted about 2 hours. Cam.

[JT]

i like 120 -90 -19 dunlop 756 rear

  Stewart, you run that size on a 250 or a 500?

[BDI]

I ran an IRC 130 sand tire at one time It hooked like a paddle tire It was the widest knobby tire I have ever seen

[stewart]

500

[TheGDog]

jeeks, I ride almost exclusively in very soft fluffy material and have excellent results with the IRC brand rear M5B tire. great traction and lasts real well. by the way, my friends all run this tire as well and all our bikes are 500's and 550's. even the big bikes don't seem to eat these tires. hope it helps,  MADDOGGY.

Thanks MadDoggy... I found this post very helpful.  What are you running on your front?

I current have Maxxis Desert IT front and rear and I'm not all that happy with them. With this KX500 and these tires I've ridden it at Gorman, Stoddard Valley (Victorville), and Jawbone Canyon, just so other readers could perhaps get an idea for the terrain type.

These tires don't inspire confidence for me.  Monkey'ing with tire pressures helps a great deal... but even once you've found a combo that works best (14 PSI front 11 PSI Rear, for me)  she still doesn't feel like she's sticking like she should in the soft stuff.

[KXcam22]

Gdog,
  I had a look at your video and your terrain is very similar to mine.  For me the Kenda Millville are the absolute best on the K5, front and rear.  That is all that I have put on for the last bunch of years.  Wear is very good although might not be as good as the rear Maxxis.  Hookup is phenominal.  Already eyeing up a front one for my CRF as the stock dunlop 742FA is horrible. Cam.

[Albertan]

For sand and even mud, Dunlop 773,

For intermediate, Dunlop 756 RR front is the best front tire I've ever used (but hard to find, you may need to special order).  The 756 is a good rear tire, but it wears fairly quickly, especially on dry tracks or trails.  The Maxxis IT doesn't have quite the grip and predictability of the 756 rear, but it does seem to last better.  I haven't tried the Maxxis IT desert, so I can't comment.  (I've got 19 and 18 inch rears, and use the 19 for the track, and the 18 incher for trail and desert riding).

the Dunlop 695 that came stock with the bike was a pretty good intermediate to hard tire, but it wore down fairly quickly.  Also, I'm not sure one can be found very easily anymore.  Similiarly, the Dunlop 490 front was okay on intermediate to hard dirt, but it didn't match the 756 on the softer stuff or a Bridgestone M-23 on the really hard dirt.  I'm using a Kenda Carlsbad sticky rear and Bridgestone M23 combo for hard tracks, and I really like it.  Both are predictable and offer good hold.  The front hates mud or even silty berms, but it sure grips on hard dirt.  The Kenda Carlsbad is a good rear tire, but (like most good hard track tires spun by 55+hp), wears fast. 

Hope that helps; if anyone has suggestions for a good desert combo, I'd love to hear it.

[jandb917]

i have been running the kenda millville tires now for about 6 months and love em ....  they have shown little wear adn i have them on the front and rear... i ride mostly in loose sand/ soil mix and occasional muddy  with some nice tube poppin rocks thrown in for good measure ( yes KS has rocks LOL) but i have about 15+ hours on my rear and its just now showing wear on the front edges of the knobbies

[Hillclimb#42]

The millville rear can be mounted both directions, depending on terrain, which way did you guys mount them? or was it the carlsbad?

[Albertan]

I don't know about the Kenda Millville, but the Carlsbad can be mounted in either direction, and according to Kenda, one direction is more for hard tracks, and the other is more towards intermediate.  I have mine mounted on the hard, and they work really well on hard packed dirt, right up to blue groove clay.  I'll turn the tire around when the edge wears down (but that might not be a very fair test of their intermediate terrain abilities).  Just looking at the Carlsbad, it is clearly designed as a hard track tire, and I thought I'd maximize its abilities at what it was designed for.

[jazg]

running kenda, carlsbad and its all over the place loosing nobblies all the time. but maybe using it for the wrong thing...my 2cents!!

[Albertan]

jazg, what terrain are you running the Kenda Carlsbad on?  I'm running the Carlsbad sticky, and it wears fairly fast, but on hard  pack, dry clay, and even into a bit more intermediate stuff it hooks up well and is controllable.  I didn't chunk off any knobbies, but I've never run it on rocks and boulders.

[KXcam22]

For the millville rear I generally flip it around after the knobs are rounded. I can't say that I have notice a traction difference running it either direction.  I have a 756 on my 450 and I am surprised at how fast it is wearing, 7 hrs and not looking so good. Cam.

[jazg]

mostly sand with the occasional rock outcrop. obviously sand turns pretty loose in corners and i just loose the front end and start snapping off brake levers! i guess i'm lossing the knobblies over the rocks. from what i can gather the guy i bought the bike from with that tire on was mostly riding on hard pack.
doing a tire change this week

[KXcam22]

I have a lot of sharp rocks in my terrain.  Some of the staircases (steep hills with intermittent 2' ledges) are entirely composed of rock.  I can vouch that the Millville doesn't shed knobs in that stuff.  Towards the end of the tire life I have found a couple of the smaller side knobs that were were split down the center with the back half gone.  I didn't think that was too bad.   But then I don't attack these with full throttle, more of a throttle control, finese thing, to get up them.  Jazg, probably a soft terrain type tire will cure the front end problems.  There is one huge 180 full-sand berm where I ride and with the milllvile front It is a blast to wail into the berm way to fast, just cram the bike into the berm and explode out with a huge roost of sand. Everyone looks!  I couldn't do that same corner with the other fronts I tried although I am sure "some" soft terrain fronts would be similar. I had such huge handling improvement with the millvilles on my KX500. I can't wait to wrench them onto my 450. Cam.