The Heidenau K60 tires held up well. They now have exactly 10k kilometers on them and they look like taking one trip more in the spring. As mentioned, they are good in soft sand. I was ready to lower the pressure when getting stuck, but didn’t have to. Even at 2.4/2.0 the rear had enough traction to come out of any hole I got it into, and both went easily flying on the surface already at 2nd gear. Also on rocky paths, which I found plenty of during this trip, I was too lazy to lower the pressure, because they felt good enough as they were.
Mud is different. It’s probably an issue that I have with mud, but there they really just slip in all directions. I’m trying hard not to panic, and in most situations can allow both wheels to slip without falling. Still, mud is only good for me as a warmup exercise, not as a surface to enjoy riding on. Even snow and ice feel better. The pic is from packed mud in Moldova, where both wheels just went sideways at one point; I didn’t crash, but ended up beside the track facing the wrong way.
The K60s are dual-purpose, and although I take every opportunity to get off tarmac, the fact is that most of the distance still gets covered on the highway. Time-wise the proportion is better of course, but distance-wise I’m afraid the practical schedules (e.g. needing to get from München to Istanbul in 2 days) result in the percentage being about 90% tarmac. Two impressions from that part too.
On the first evening with these tires, still in Germany, I got a chance to practice panic braking on the motorway, as a driver two cars ahead of me decided to bump into the next one, and the one before me reacted by hitting the brakes. The speed was moderate, and the GSA's integrated brake lever is wonderfully responsive, but it was still hard work for my index finger to get all this weight stopped. Made a note to retrain myself to keep TWO fingers on the lever at all times. 10k km later, the training is successfully done, two fingers go on the lever automatically. But the main lesson was that the new (250 km by that point) front K60 felt decidedly soft. Could almost feel each knobble give way. The same experience repeated later on tarmac hairpins where the K60 felt really out of place. And I’m not fast on those hairpins.
The rear K60 surprised me on a rainy motorway near Thessaloniki. Going uphill at constant 110 it started skidding. The ascent was nothing much, like a normal motorway. The rain was indeed heavy and the surface really wet. But still I didn’t expect or like the skidding at all.
The overall balance seems good, however, and the current feeling is that my next tires will be the same.
Kommentaare ei ole:
Postita kommentaar