Ran across Motoz tires today. Seems a bunch of Aussies rejected popular attitudes (yeah for them), stuck to what works (supplemented trials treads for smaller adventure bikes, an excellent choice), and hired some folks in Taiwan, now part of China, sort of, maybe, to build dream tires for us adventure, enduro, desert, and MX weirdos. Sound like home?
Anywho, they have 3 tires DOT likes in 130/80R17. They are parts of the Tractionator series.
The
Tractionator GPS is the mildest looking tread, with a full diameter rib for quiet, inline stability, weight carrying capacity, and long tread life, significantly more aggressive towards the edges like other adventure tires to provide soft terrain traction and stability on oddball paved surfaces like grooves and steel spans and grates and all the other things state DOTs use to kill motorcyclists. Reviewers expect close to 15000 miles a set, and report good to excellent traction most everywhere. The tire is available in 130/80-17 for the rear, and a rear tread is available in 110/80-19 that might fit the front. Specs show 109mm width on a 2.5-inch rim.
The
Tractionator Adventure is significantly more aggressive, like a modified Big Block, sort of. A 110/80-19 for the front sort of like the GPS with the center tread rail cut up in T-shaped blocks. This shape reduces the air between the blocks, adding a bit of smooth, quite, and anti-vibration. The side of the tread is similar to a double row of staggered knobs like a MX front, but closer together and bigger/stronger to carry more weight. Sort of. Again, specs show 109mm wide on a 2.5 rim.
The 130/80-17 rear tread looks similar to a hard surface knobby, more blocks and limited gaps, but lots of angles to provide more traction while cornering, and more closely spaced than typical knobbies, even DOT. Rear knobbies typically provide traction for acceleration and leaned over flat while skidding into and bouncing off berms. Really, that's all they do well. Isn't that how MX is ridden? Since typical knobbies don't work well without berms at anything other than straight line, well, pretty much explains why so many crashes where there are curves and no berms. Not a problem with these tires.
Happy now? No? You want radical traction in dirt and still DOT so you can use public roads between trails? Well, here's the
Tractionator Desert Hard Terrain. It is DOT legal. It is designed for heavy adventure bikes so won't self-destruct on the pavement or when loaded with gear, like even DOT knobbies tend to do. The compromise for exceptional weight carrying, less noise, less vibration, better straight line and cornering stability on pavement, and long wear is slightly reduced air spaces between blocks, resulting in slightly less traction where surfaces don't exist, like West Coast sand dunes that blow with the wind, bottomless pits of red Georgia mud, or Mississippi River quicksand. However, this tread is host to a plethora of odd edges and sipes that should provide traction at all angles, not just stopping and going in a straight line, and not dependent on berms to go around a corner, on any surface with a bottom except maybe glare ice.
There is a 130/80-17 rear, but for the front you have a choice of 110/80-18 or 110/80-19. Even the rear tread looks like it would be a lot more stable on pavement on the front than the rear Kenda K760s I've been running on the TW. You know that's one of those tires that only has traction going in a straight line until you get it cranked over on the rails. The Motoz HT looks like it would be darn near as effective as the K760 at its extremes, and a ton more effective everywhere else.
However, measure before ordering. The specs list the width of the 110/80-18 at 130mm, and the 110/80-19 at 135mm. Must be the knobs hanging off the sides. Maybe trim to fit would be an option?
