I thought that it was just from the amount of miles that I had on my tire...Now that I see other people with the same issue it is making me wonder...

 

This is a hard question, and it comes up all the time. The right tire depends on a lot of factors. The most important IMO is the terrain your riding on. Hard pack,sand,mostly roads,loam,etc.... The second is what do you want to do? Hook up well with confidence and replace tires every few months or crash a lot (or least pucker) and replace tires once a year? I perfer to replace tires and ride with confidence. That being said as many others have stated with dual sports it is impossible to have a tire that goes 5000 miles and hooks up on all sorts of surfaces. You can't really get a good answer asking for opinions of people that may live thousands of miles away,as on this forum, because what works on one type of surface for a given rider may not work at all for you. I'd first figure out what terrain you have the least confidence on, then look for tires designed for that surface, then ask experienced local riders what tires they use. This will get you in the ball park from there out it is basically experiment until you find a tire that works. Unfortuneately this takes time and money, and it is ultimately one way or another what you'll wind up doing any way.

 

I like the Pirelli Rallycross. Harder and a bit more aggressive than stock, they last well and steer nicely. No problems on or off road but not as sticky as a soft tire on slimy rocks and roots.

 

I've only got something like 500 miles on the 776, so far mine is wearing real well. Tires can be like this, however, once they start to go, it's not long and they're toast.
I also ride a lot of sand, when we ride the Gypsum Hills SW of town. And the Flint Hills nearby have mostly hard pack and limestone, and I do about 50% on the street, so they seem to be an affordable 50/50 tire.
They bite a ton better than the Kenda 50/50 tire, which is just a street tire, IMO.

 

I changed my back tire for a D606 at 2000km, I found it all fine for what I do. Then I changed front for a D908 at 3000km, and it handles much better in sand and on rocks than the stock D603. However since then the bike has a strong tendency to wooble on the street at 100kph and up. I was having not only the "driver induced" one, any crack in my line of driving would be problematic and I was really scared to go 100 and over.

Anyone else has this tire combination? I'd be curious if you have this same behavior.

I tried different things to clear that out, including different tire pressures. I found out what works best is low pressure at the front and high at the back. I am running 16 and 26psi respectively. It's still not as stable as when I had the stock front tire, but it's manageable, given that I do mostly off road.

I would not return to the D603, it's so slippery in sand... But I will probably check for something different when time comes for a new front.

 

My Dunlop 606 front tire would follow any crack or tar strip on the road. Rain grooves were very scary. The knobbies fall into the crack in the road and are very difficult to get back on the road.

 

EXCELLA looks like full dirt tire