Maxxis 6006 Tire review
Posted by chris at 10:27 AM
June 24, 2003
Maxxis 6006 Tire Review
In the never ending search for the ideal tire, I have considered many. Maxxis has made the 6006 tire for some time now, but never in a 140/80 18 specified for the KTM Adventure R rear. One look at a picture, and you see it fits somewhere in-between the mostly dirt tires like the Pirelli MT-21 and the Metzeler Karoo, and mostly street tires, such as the Matzeler Sahara 3. I started talking about this size with Maxxis' marketing rep last year. He told me that they were planning on producing the larger size. Since I was eager to try them, I of course offered my services to test them out.
A few weeks ago, they took me up on my "offer" and sent me a set, saying "Tell me what you think". I must have been one of the first to get a set, as I got them only a week or so after the rep told me they came over on the boat from overeas. Since I knew they were coming for a few weeks, I decided to put them to the test in the Gatineau Dual Sport ride, and mounted them a few days before. They went on with about the same amount of effort - I am no great tire changer- as others. The tires they were replacing were Metzeler Karoos, which as I have previously commented, are very capable tires, but they just wear out too damm fast!
I had almost 200 miles on the tires when I started out on the trip, all of it highway, and I had another 440 miles to go before I could see how they faired in the dirt. As it turned out, those 440 miles were for the most part wet and miserable. HA! Test # 1 completed, and they worked very well in the rain. Mind you, I was not pushing them like they were sport tires, but I felt that the grip in the numerous twists and turns on the way up showed that they can handle the rain. Noise was not unlike other similar tires, I wear earplugs religiously, so noisy tires are not my biggest concern
On to the dirt. This ride was a dual sportin' tire tester's dream. We did fast dirt farm roads. We did sand. We did mud. We did rocks. And we did everything in-between. So how did they fair? Well I was concerned right off of the bat as the front end was considerably more squirrelly then the Karoo (after you wear in the Karoo, new ones can be bad too) At lunch time I started thinking, ok, run a Karoo up front and the Maxxis in the back. Then someone asked me what tire pressure I had up front. Duh! It was at least 25 psi, maybe more. So I dropped it to around 19-20psi, and whala! No more front end shake.
So now, as a package, the tires were performing very well. We went through some great sandy loom sections, and I felt like I had a set of true knobbies on. granted it had rained the day before, but the rear hooked up almost as well as a new Karoo. The thing is, I could never have had a Karoo with this much tread showing after riding 650 miles on pavement and then 100 miles on dirt!
Mud was up next, and I was a bit worried that I would be reliving some great mudhole front end slides on the stock Sahara 3 tires. I did the smart thing, and slowed down when hitting mud, but in a particular deep no-way-but-though-the-stuff fifty-foot section, all was well.
On Sunday, I got to ride more of the same. Ther was one section where I was following Bryan Flannigan around some great twisties. I can only assume he was familiar with them, because I think he forgot that he was on his adventure and not his last sport bike. I was able to pretend I was a sport bike rider for a bit, and the tires did not give up my charade.
We all know that the faster you go, the hotter the tire gets, and the quicker they wear. It also holds true that the lower the air pressure, the hotter the tire gets. Three quarters of the way home, I noticed that I had not put some of that air I removed back in. I am sure this affected tire wear adversely, but, when I got home, I estimate that I had used 50% of the useable tread. Since that was done in 1450 miles, 300 of which was offroad, I think we have a winner. Throw in the fact that they are cheaper then the Metzlers or Continentals, and you are looking at a sweet new offering for the KTM.