u/daemn42

A few more mods and updates (or swaps) to previous mods for my "light adv" build.
Minor correction.. I said "Oxo Giant Loop" bag.. logo just looks like Oxo.. it's just a Giant Loop Buckin' Roll Tank Bag
The Fastway Air EXT pegs require a fit kit.. No indication they have one for the DR-Z 4S, so I got one for the R1200GS and drilled out the supplied pin spacer with 25/64" drill bit. Also used the Fastway springs, and it all fit fine. Full list of mods in the YT video description.

My dad has a CRF300L Rally, I have a DR-Z 4S on Anakee Wilds.
He had a bad experience with the stock front tire (commonly described as unsafe) and we did some research on tires. The Pirelli MT 21 front with Dunlop D606 rear combo kept coming up. The tread patterns looks reasonably aggressive.. They seem to work fine on pavement albeit with a bit of an audible buzz..

Here in Colorado we have a massive OHV area called Rampart Range Recreational Area and the whole area is composed of Decomposed Granite (DG). The ground is solid aggregate until tires break it loose, then it stays loose forever as a very fine uniform sized gravel. Pretty much all the trails have sort of a wide U shaped bottom and the tires need to be able to run up on the sides a little bit to stay out of the loose stuff in the bottom.. My Anakee Wilds run these trains with no issues, providing plenty of grip. The MT-21 and D606 tires are *constantly* loosing grip on the solid sides and sliding down to the bottom of the U, and spinning/sliding in the loose stuff.

It makes some of the trails all but unrideable. My dad thought he just sucked at riding (he has less experience than me) so we traded bikes and he was instantly comfortable on the Anakee Wilds (which have a less aggressive tread pattern).. His bike was just all over the place. I can deal with the rear sliding around a bit, but the front randomly would slide back to the bottom of the U when trying to run only a few inches off center. We tried various tire pressures.. from 18 down to 15.. down to 11 (at which point those tires are *really* squishy. I run 10psi in my Wilds and they are still much stiffer). Even just riding on the forest service road which has a thin layer of the same DG in a lot of places, it just feels squirrely, with the front and rear wanting to go in different directions.

We rode some other locations, and they seem to do ok on embedded and loose rocks and dirt, but the DG and fine gravel was very unpleasant.

This is a bit of a PSA but I'm also curious if anyone else is familiar with this type of surface and know of a better tire for it. We may put a set of Anakee Wilds on his bike, but they're really expensive tires so it'd be nice to find something a bit cheaper.