Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

Hi Abel,

I find that the best setup is a TKC80 front and a standard dual purpose on the back Tourance or Ankee. This set up has served me well in all terrain. I’ve only had problems with Heidies and wouldn’t put my faith in them. Hope this helps

 Cheers

Wayne

Abel,

I used Heidi's on my solo trip through Southern Nam in June and were very happy with their performance. I did tar, good gravel, terrible gravel (sand with golf ball sized "kalkklippe") and deep sand. I was on a heavily loaded Dakar and the bike and tyres served me well, although my tour was shorter than yours.

In fact between Madie's and my bikes we are on the third rear Heidi in our garage and up to now didn't have any problems with them in over 60 000 km. We live in Upington and do a lot of riding in very hot weather and long stretches of road, tar or gravel. As long as you keep within the limits of the tyre's capabilities you shouldn't have problems. A few of the local riders experienced problems with the first batch of 150 section Heidis, but they had been riding heavily laden Adventures and 1200GS at 180 - 200 km/h on a hot day (over 36°C) on tar for a long period, something that is beyond the limits of the tyre's design. No problems were experienced with later batches that were not punished so excessively.

Colonel, I do 40 000 km a year, that's two front tyres and 2.5 back tyres.

I fit MAPD's by MAXXIS  (Pressour Detoire).

I grew out of knobblies once peer pressure stopped playing a role in my biking life.

A dual of almost any marque will give you double life of a knobbly.

However, Wayne is correct if its performance and youre pushing the envelope, you want a knobbly up front and a dual on the rear.

However, for your riding style and bike, a dual will give you a long safe trip in places where spare tyres are few n far between.

I will fit the HEIDI for the extreme West Coast Tour because I will need max performance to balance the heavy weight distadvantage I have in the 1150GSA on those extreme downhills, ascents and through all the rivers and wet and dry grass.

Knobblies place is for very experienced people alone who actually need and use the high performance because they push the envelope to their limits.

I'm sorry anyone else is wasting money and merely posing.

Us mere mortals never use the knobbly to its potential and most likely seldom will.

And only the real dyed-in-the-wool riders will agree.

My experience with duals and knobblies in sand is this:

• Michelin Sirac on a 650 GS at Atlantis:  I could feel the lack of traction and the length of time it took the bike to right itself when gassing it through a turn.
• TKC 80 on an 1150 GS at Atlantis:  much better response when using the throttle to control the bike - better traction.

So, if you are doing any sand you are best served with a good knobbly.  Dual purpose tyres just do not cut it in thick sand.  You could argue that if you are not a hard-core rider then you need all the help you can get and should fit more aggressive tyres.

Now, the TKC 80 is a superb tyre, and you can get good life out of it if you are not riding fast over long distances on hot tar.  The Heidi is even longer lasting and not too shabby on sand either.

I know that you wear ATGATT.  Do you need the neck brace and back protector while riding to town?  No.  But you wear it for the worst-case, dress for the fall and all that.  Same with your tyres.  If you hit thick sand somewhere and just cannot progress due to insufficient talent to ride road tyres in sand, that is just as bad as a breakdown or irreparable puncture.  The thousands of kilometers riding on good gravel count for nothing then.

Abel, 

Hiedenaus are dual purpose tyres.  

I recently used them for a long trip on a fully loaded 1150ADV and will do so again.  They are confortable on tar at speed and good enough on dirt and sand for 'touring' type riding.  If you want to go play in the dunes or do a skills challenge, then fit a knobbly, but for everything else the Hiedenaus are fine (including the kind of sand found on the west coast).

For me they are a good balance between a Tourance and a TKC80.  The two bad things I heard about them were:

1. delaminating.  After 7800km of touring with a heavy bike I did not experience this at all.

2. some folk will tell you that they are a bit "squishy" at hight speed cornering on the limit ... my riding style is more relaxed (touring), so I cant comment on that.

Adjust tyre pressures for really soft sand and you will be fine.

Let us know if you find a supplier with stock - I bought my previous set from Biquetique but they have no stock at present.

Regards,

Dale

having recently travel 9500km in that area and across nothern Zim mainly on dirt I found the Tourance to be ideal. they have a steel belt which allows you to ride them fairly soft in difficult sections and they last.  The biggest challenge you are going to have is covering the very long distances on tar between areas and that is where the tourance comes into play. a compresor pump with an acurate pressure gauge is a must.

Zim is no problem!! everyone, including the police were friendly and helpfull.

Perhaps you should also consider using Mitas E-10 on the 1200GSA, almost similar to the TKC80

Apparently there were issues with the compound being too soft.  Rather wait until it is fixed before you experiment with an unknown.

I have also heard from several people who ride a lot of sand, that the Heidi 140 is better for sand than the 150.  The shape of it tracks better in sand for some reason.  So if you cannot get a 150, or don't want to have the issues associated with it, go for the 140.  I rode 15000km on my 140s, doing wheelies (OK, trying to do wheelies) and all-sorts and the tyres were good.

For the last 18 months we have been working closely with the manufacturer in Germany to develop a true 50/50 tyre specifically for SA conditions.

The very nature of dual sport riding in SA (long stretches of high speed on road use combined with multiple permutations of off road use conditions) dictates that a tyre designed for say Europe or North America is not necessarily the ideal for our conditions.

From our perspective we feel very fortunate that Heidenau in Germany are prepared to go to these lengths for our market only. This is unprecedented for a tyre manufacturer to  produce a tyre specifically for one market segment specifically.

This tyre has undergone extensive testing here and has been well received by the various testers across SA.

Some of the criteria used in the development process (which we feel covers the majority of dual sport requirements) were road noise, good  handling both on and off road, long service life, and exceptionally strong side walls .

There  will be simply no tyre vaguely similar in the 50/50 ilk.

Stock of the new 150/70 17 will arrive in SA by mid November . Biketique will be one of the first dealers to have stock when it arrives

www.bikegear.co.za

 new Heidenau dual purpose K60

I saw those heidis on a bike recently, can;t remember whose but that solid road contact patch seems like a good idea.

Charles, you choose the tyre you choose because of performance and you have nenough experience and skills to know the difference.

The Colonel is like me, He rides at moderate speeds, and over technical terrain he chooses his line with extar care and never takes chances. His riding style is that of the tourer not that of the -find -your-limits and then push them, further.

So his need is for a relaible tyre for Naimibia that won't delam, or drop him in the pooh.

But also carry the wieght of his gear as he is going commando- not being followed by a retinue of back up vehicles....

So we should advise him accordingly and not use Atlantis as the benchmark, but rather a tye he will come back home on without mishap and not cursing it.

So my money is on a dual, not a nobbly tyre.

I'm just saying that you need to equip yourself for the crux of the trip.  If you are happy riding thick Botswana Sand tweespoor on road tyres who am I to object - I just cannot ride that well yet.  I need all the help from my tyres that I can get.

Another example:  when I rode to Rustenburg to compete in the GS Trophy, I did about 60% tar, 40% dirt.  Did I fit a 60/40 tar/dirt tyre?  No, I fitted full-on knobblies because the crux of the trip was the skills challenge.  And if you are a tourer to takes it easy, those TKC 80s will serve you well on the long stretches in-between.

If your route does not include hairy sand, then Heidis are more than adequate, and Tourances, or Maxxis PD will also work well.  I have also taken to having a TKC 80 in the front regardless of the back tyre, because good traction in front is essential under all conditions.

My experience, and it's not that great admittedly, is as follows:

On the Wildcoast trip I fitted TKCs front and back and they are still serving me well, though the back one will need replacing sometime soon.

Tony fitted Mitas at the same time (look very similar to the TKCs) and they handled well but have worn faster than mine.  Daniel Nelson had a similar experience.

On the way back from CABC there was a rider sitting at the side of the road with a complete block (one of the knobbly knobs) that had broken out of his rear Heidenau, while he was riding at 140Km/h.  Hein has had a serious problem with his Heidenaus forming the same kind of crack all around many of the blocks of his knobbly on the back, so I'd be very hesitant to use either the Heidenau or the Mitas, one from a wear point of view and one from a safety point of view.

I think I'll stick with TKCs until the other tyres have proved that they are a bit more up to spec.

Knobblies vs Dual Purpose?  Riding is a mind game, whatever makes your mind more comfortable is what you should be going with.  If you have more confidence with one than the other for your riding style on the trip you're doing ... go with it.  Just remember back tyres wear faster than front.

We are aware of some Hedis that have had issues and these have been as a result of a softer compound that is more biased for use in Europe.

The new Hedis that will be arriving in SA will be a new compound specifically for SA and cannot be compaired to the old compound. The new compound is a result of 18 months testing here for local conditions

ww.bikegear.co.za

Heidi's is the way to go.I couldn't get a 150 for our Nam trip earlier this year and bought a TKC and only got 6000km's out of it.I'm not saying a TKC is a bad tyre,in fact,I love it but it's just too expensive and the tar eats it for breakfast!And I nursed it!.Back home I fitted my Heidi again (the tyre was too worn to do the 5000km trip),but I've done 7000km's with it now and I think I'll get close to 9000km's out of it.It grips very well on gravel,sand and tar (wet or dry) and the nice thing is you can cruise 180Km/h all day without worrying about it like a TKC!That's my 2 c .

Ek het voor en agter Heidi's op gesit. Dit is 'n fantastiese tyre vir die grond paaie en vir nat en droe paaie. Ek het my eerste agter band verloor na 7000km. daar was maklik nog 4000km se loop oor toe gooi hy sy loop af op 3 plekke. Ek het toe weer een agter op gesit en nou weer na 7500km het hy persies dieselfde gedoen ook nog met genoeg loop oor vir 3000km. Die voorband lyk nog goed ek sal hom nog lank kan ry. Ek verstaan almal wat dit op die 1200gs gesit het ondervind dieselfde probleem en ook op die 990 ktm's. So ek weet nie of dit die gewig of die spoed of die krag is nie maar ek sal dit nie weer op my 1200gs sit nie.

It is difficult for us to comment on the above posting without knowing the circumstances e.g tyre pressure , load, speed etc. What we can say that this is not applicable to the KTM 900 18" tyre neither is it applicable to all who use it on a Gs 1200 as mentioned above. There are many happy users of the product .

We reiterate an earlier posting :

We are aware of some Hedis that have had issues and these have been as a result of a softer compound that is more biased for use in Europe.

The new Hedis that will be arriving in SA will be a new compound specifically for SA and cannot be compared to the old compound. The new compound is a result of 18 months testing here for local conditions

This is a picture of one of the test units after 5500k.

It has been purposely abused and pushed beyond the realms of normal use. To quote the tester (who is an extremely competent rider):

Tyre pressure was around 2bar off road and 2.6 bar on tar.
> Road surface tar, gravel, mud, sand, hail, rocks passes many and river
> crossings. (I never wished I had another tyre on my bike. The tyre is a
> winner and a must keep, if correctly priced. I believe it is going to do
> well.
> Once agin I rode this tyre as hard as my 1200GSA would allow me to ride it
> on these road surfaces and I never wanted another tyre.

The mileage we are getting out of this tyre so far is fantastic. We need
> to get 10,000km on the front and the back. This tyre is achieving this.

The tyre is a GREAT dual purpose tyre on and off tar. Gravel, dirt, and

> tar it is perfect.

test tyre 8

ww.bikegear.co.za

Thanks for all the advice. 

After what I’ve read in this post and in some of the discussions on the Wilddogs forum, I think I’m going to fit the new Heidenau K60s.  I plan a couple of rides over December and it will give me a good idea whether it will be good or not.  I’m slightly worried about the road part of our trip to Windhoek.  We have to do that in two days (700kms a day) and I’m not sure whether the nobblies will be able to handle that.  There is no use in having knobblies on your bike and by the time you start on the gravel road the tyre is gone!   

Abel

Abel beware, If you need to change tyres in Windhoek I hope you have deep pockets. A friend lost a tyre and needed a replacement, bottom line, it cost him to supply and fit R3600-00 and that was 2 years ago!

If you have friends there rather ship up tyres. Just my 2 cents worth.

Cheesy

Thanks for the warning.  My sister is in Windhoek and I think I'm going to let them take the set of knobblies along after the December holiday and keep it for me in Windhoek.

Abel

Rony :

In deleting Abels duplicate posting it looks like it deleted your recent post as well.

I spoke to Charles who says that it is quite easy for this to happen??????

Sorry about this but if you can remember what it was about please re-post.

My apologies.

Done 130000Km in 3 Years, had one set of TKC's and those were the once the bike came with. Have ridden Heidie's ever since, had 140 and 150 on the back, had 100 and 110 at the front and never a problem and i don't notice the difference (Rossi may notice but i don't). Will never change, have the new Heidi test tire above and again no problem. Rear's give me 12000 and front's give me 18000 what else do you want from a tire. On top of this they let me ride extreme on tar and off-road. Never had a delamination but then again i don't do 180 on tar, only on gravel!

PS: i do have a set of dual's for track day's

When it comes to riding sand the tire does not make a difference, its the skill. Dual's work just as well as any knobbly unless you want to play in the dunes. On flat sand and your sand skill is not all there a dual is better as it will not dig you in so fast.

So, is this tyre available yet?

Hi Red Adventure

Please contact Graham Johnson at Biketique.

I can place you on our waiting list and you will be assured of obtaining

the new tyre............

0217158132

Graham 0846572869   

I have just returned from a solo trip through Namibia and bits of Botswana.  6501Km carrying all my gear and camping  equipment. Tourance tyres front and back worked very well on tar and off road when I let the pressure down to 1,6-1,8 due to carrying a load. Definitely can recommend them with confidence. But, I must add I did not do any really technical riding for safety sake being alone and no back up. I stuck to the gravel roads with a "d" rating or higher.

Ater