What do you thnk about heidenau k60 Tires

So I am on my second set of these - back and front at the same time.

Fronts okay for what it is, that a comprise, not as good a Scorp on pavement, but much better than one off road, but no where near as good as a knobby. Still gives enough confidence for 100mph on good gravel.

Rears, First set I ran a 150, 8,000 miles liked it a lot, not bad off road (still not a knobby though) work okay on pavement until about half worn and as noted by another poster square off and get quite squirrely.
Second set I ran a 140, 3,000 miles and I need a new one - no where near a good off road as the 150, squared off like the 150.

Will I put another on? Yeah most likely run a 150 again.

I had previously one set my 950, gave me 10,000ks but was well stuffed by then, that was 2 up across Russia and Kazakstan.


Edit: BTW I have run 606s. 908s, Scorp Rally (not be confused with the std Scorp), Michelin Deserts on these. I have found the best Knobby to be a the Scorp Rally followed by the Deserts, but the Rally's have a poor life (2,000 miles). The 908s are too hard on hard packed gravel roads and the 606s aren't really up to the weight of the big girls.

My rear is square and almost gone after 5.000km. Front is wobbly on very slow speeds and noisy at higher speed.

Offroad the back breaks out fairly easy and the front is quite squirly in the lose sand.

So im not that happy about them to be honest. It's the first set i have tried so don't know what set or combo is the best compromise for on- and offroad.

I have come to the conclusion that the wobbly has more to do with the squared off read that anything else, rolling on and off that square edge gets transmitted to the front - also if the front is a little under pressure it affects it.

Thats what I have found anyway. (Plus my front rim is not exactly true at the moment).

I've got a Michelin T63 front on mine that I replaced the 908RR with. The bike was scary at highway speeds with the 908. The T63 is stable all the way up to 100mph+ on the highway. It did great offroad. I think the good road manners are because the knobs start a little shorter and there is less squirm. I'm either going to try the Mefo Super Explorer or the K60 when my 908 rear wears out. I can make do with less rear traction offroad, but I really like my front end to be able to bite good offroad.

This is a pic with 300 highway miles on it. I've currently got 1350 on it and they don't look much more worn than this pic.

I'm a 70% street, 30% dirt rider. I've got 6000 miles on a set of K60s on my 990 Adventure. The rear is not bad off road if I run it down to 28 PSI or so. The front on the other hand never did inspire confidence no matter what terrain or air pressure. I like the mileage and will put on another rear. The front won't be back and I'm still up in the air as to what I'm going to use. Street manners are good if you maintain the pressures. As with any tire, if you run 'em with low pressure you will go though 'em like hot cakes.
Last thought, the front is about done at 6,000 miles. Starting to get a bit thin on the sides, probably should stop dragging the pegs and trail braking.

Beware on the tar in the wet - saw a mate of mine do a broad slide at 180kph in the rain when we stopped he changed his rods

K60 Fronts- there are 2 versions: TT (tube type) & TL (tubless). The TT version has knobs on the sidewall where the TL version is one complete tread from center to the sidewall.

I have found, and have others report that the TT is the better choice for off-road use- yet handles as well as the TL on the street. Some friends with 950SE's using the K60 TT version, commented the TT handled very well for them off road; and they are far faster & more accomplished dirt riders than I am. I have found the TT front to work well so far- (1,000 miles)

I have found the rears to be very stable on wet or dry pavement, and "good" off road. But in anything greasy or grassy, the rear is as useless as a touring tire (maybe lowering psi would help).

Just rode from Arizona to the Arctic Circle and back.
Tires wore like iron and performed as hoped for this trip.

5000 Miles


7000 Miles





8000 miles

Where does one find this mythical creature (TT)?

What sizes does it come in?

had one set on my 990 and loved them! thought they worked a little better than the stock scorps but lasted a lot longer. I will put a set on the 1190 when the stock ones are worn out (or sooner).

I always put more aggressive front tires. But love the K60 on the rear. It works reasonably well, more importantly it's predictable.

After 6000 miles with tons of highway riding, they look like truck tires. But still works fine in sand.

Chaparral is selling them now.
http://www.chaparral-racing.com/Product/heidenau-k60-rear-tire/338-K601108018.aspx

Although, it looks like the ones for the 990 are tubeless.
http://www.chaparral-racing.com/Product/heidenau-k60-scout-rear-tire/338-K061308017.aspx

I ran a tkc80 front with a k60 scout rear (150). For 50/50 road/dirt. It was a great setup, except for sand. I avoided sand like the plague due to that rear.

It had a useful tread life in the dirt up to around 5,500 miles, then was useless in the dirt, but got another 1000 street miles outta it. I'd buy again.

I had em on the front and back.

Less sticky to the road as the stock front tire and the rear squares off quite fast. They where pretty good in the regular dirt if you avoided mud and gravel. Overall a good tire but poor wear and medicore offroad quality.

For the things you have to give up on road performance it does not bring the extra offroad performance that you'd expect from it.

I got very good wear from mine. Over 9 thousand miles. On the road, I have touched the Gobi's down. In the sand of Moab, they did fine 2 up, although I wasn't going fast. The front did push, though. I run 38/34 PSI on the road and drop for off road.This is what they looked like after 9K compared to a new one. The old one was a tube type. I don't know if the tubeless will wear the same.

I like the K60's, but I don't love them. I (apparently) ride easy for tires (and I'm a lightweight), as I always pull better than average mileage. On the K60's I break 10,000 miles on the rear, and the front will handily go double that.

On warm dry pavement they'll stick just fine to the very edge. They don't feel confidence inspiring, but they are very capable, if you can get over the 'feel'. Cool wet pavement, the traction is miserable. I can break the back tire loose by goosing the throttle, in 6th gear, at 70 mph. Kind of worrisome, although it is fun in the lower gears to purposely kick it out sideways.

Off road, they do as well as the tread suggests. Very good for a compromise tire, but not comparable to a straight knobby.

They have an odd wiggle/vibration around 4 mph, and 25 mph, but other than that, are very smooth running.

We got 21200 km (13250 miles) out of the last rear two up with gear, I echo Mikef5000 comments too, they are a great bomb proof adventure touring tire but not great in mud with the center wear bar.

We are more careful in the wet and on white lines (like any tire)

Take the tire for what it is which is a compromise, again like any tire not perfect for everything.

Liked it on the rear even though it squared fairly quickly.
Hated it on the front because of the noise and constantly dropping a few pounds of air a week.
Great tire for distance though.

Compound is quite hard so it lasts long but grip on hard surfaces or in rain is not as good as in some softer tires. In my opinion even trail attack 2 works better on gravel. Only mud and soft sand turns the table in favor of k60.

I haven't tested the front k60. I had Michelin T63 in front when I used k60 in rear. First set lasted almost 15.000 km, second set just over 10.000 km.

The original tires (Scorps) were gone at 4,000 miles. I just put the K60 front and back on this winter. Couple hundred miles so far, maybe. Not sure what I think of them yet, but will find out as time goes forth... One thing to note, I think that how long a tire lasts really depends on the throttle habits of the rider. Rolling the wick hard both on and off pavement really saps the life out of a rear tire.

Running tubes front and back. I notice that there is a lot of rumble on the bars from the front tire that I really notice at slow speeds on pavement. I don't notice it at speed on pavement. So far as cornering, I've not pushed them that hard yet... A bit to much ice and sand on the road surface this time of the year.