Reminds me of the Yamaha TW 200 tire. Those look like they will last a long time.

 

I have become a fan of Shinko, having run both the 700 & 705 on my SF. I would caution however that mud/grass/sand are not the 705's strength. Stick to dry dirt & gravel trails and you'll be just fine. The 700 is somewhat better as conditions deteriorate, but it's still no knobby!

 

Your a brave man Malves!! I thought the same thing about the IRC's until I put a set of pirelli diablo rosso 2 tires on my bike, absolutely night & day in comparison to grip & feel in the corners. My friend says the same good things about pirelli sport demons. Your right the IRC's do last along time with the harder compound.

The only real tangible proof for me is when i'm on the twisty mountain roads here & coming down hill into a corner while shifting down hard thru the gears, the IRC's used to start slip-sliding into a riggle before really getting loose under some engine braking! Now if I accidentally use to much engine braking before a down hill corner, the traction is much stronger that the rosso's just pull the engine revs to high without the tire squealing or slip-sliding free.....

You won't be disappointed by upgrading your rubber.....loosing a 1000 or so miles is a fair trade off IMHO.

 

had an unfortunate accident with a solid steel rake flying at me on the highway going about 77 mph...suv in front stepped on it which tossed it up in the air right at me...hit my front tire perfectly with the sharp spike...front tire blew out immediately....realized i couldn't lean or turn with a front flat...kept my speed and inched my way off the wide multiple lane highway...."fix-a-flat" was a waste of $9....the hole to the tire and tube was an inch big...rode with a flat about 5 miles to a moto shop and paid $171 for tire, tube and installation....installed a bridgestone 120/70-17 touring tires...they didn't have any avon distanzia or dual sport in stock...

now..i'm running 120/70-17 and 150/70-17...going straight on the highways...it feels comfortable and solid...hardly feel the cracks and uneven pavement....but, leans feel lot more sluggish, but still more solid to the pavement....my gas mileage appears to have suffered....appears to have gone from ~65 mpg with 110 front and 130 rear to ~55 mpg with the 120 front and 150 rear....after feeling both extremes of tire sizes....i think 110/70-17 and 140/70-17 would be the ideal sizes to run on the klx250sf...

 

With the shinkos?

 

ahnh666, you sure it's not just that your speedo/odo is now off with the new tire?

 

Agreed.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Glad to hear you're ok.

 

+1 on those tire sizes -1 on the fork incident :-(

The 140 slows down to speed the bike falls into a corner, which is good as the bike with a 130 can be a bit quick & twitchy when throw into a fast corner!! And i weigh 220lbs++, must be quite scary road riding fast if you weigh around 150lbs

 

i have a garmin gps i use to see my speed....with fat shinko 705 150/70-17 tires in the rear...my speed is actually more accurate....off by about 1~2 mph now....it was off by 4~5 mph with my bald stock irc tires with 15t front and 39t rear....

the new shinko 705 rear tire survived...it was my old front irc roadwinner tires that blew out....it had about 10,000 miles on them, but they had lot of life left on them....what a waste...

i just rode 55 miles after filling up....exactly 1 gallon of gas went in again this morning...my mpg definitely went down with the fat front and rear tires....

i really don't like the way the klx250 handles with the 120 front...it feels great going straight, but tossing it on side to side leans on tight turns is lot more sluggish...it feels more planted to the ground, but it just feels slower to switch leans left and right....oh well...i'll switch out at the next tire change....for now, i'll just ride with fat tires...lesson learned...