Ashaman
XS650 Enthusiast
In the mud at 15mph. I'm okay, and so's the bike. I was coming home yesterday from hanging out with some buddies at the track (NASA road racing) and ran into some rain as I got closer to home. It had been gorgeous at the track, but that was 85 miles away; what I didn't realize was that it had been raining for about three hours at my place. There's almost four miles of dirt road between the local highway and my house - I think you can see where this is going. I got most of a mile in before I hit a patch of greasy mud, fishtailed a couple times, and slid down on the right side. Bike died, I immediately righted it and was able to start it back up in a couple of kicks. Texted my girl to come pick me up, and headed back toward the highway. Verrrrrrry slowly lol. I found a shed at the school track to shelter the bike and waited for her to show up. Rinsed the mud off my jacket and gloves and called it good. We went back this morning to get the bike and it fired up again and I rode home no problem. Hosed it off and the only damage I found is that the front brake lever is slightly bent - it still works fine, but it feels weird - and the rear brake pedal was tweaked up. The bars were crooked in reference to the wheel, but I was able to tweak them back straight.
The tires I'm running now are Shinko 712's, which are not exactly a mud tire. I love them on the street, but they're super shaky on my road even in the dry gravel.
I want to switch to a dual-sport kind of tire, one that's intended for probably 80% street/20% dirt. It'll change the direction of the look of the bike into a little more of a scrambler, but I'm okay with that. What have you all had good luck with? I'm not looking for a dirtbike or full mud tire, but something better than this that I can still lean over on the street would be swell.
The tires I'm running now are Shinko 712's, which are not exactly a mud tire. I love them on the street, but they're super shaky on my road even in the dry gravel.
I want to switch to a dual-sport kind of tire, one that's intended for probably 80% street/20% dirt. It'll change the direction of the look of the bike into a little more of a scrambler, but I'm okay with that. What have you all had good luck with? I'm not looking for a dirtbike or full mud tire, but something better than this that I can still lean over on the street would be swell.
