The question I’m answering here is all the hype around the Dunlop Trail Max Mission is really true why are so many riders migrating to this particular tire well the only reasonable thing to do is grab my wallet go down to the dealership and buy a set throw them on the bike and now that I have several thousand miles on them doing training or riding the twisty mountain back roads and doing some highway touring here are my thoughts.
Are Dunlop Trail Max Mission Tires heavy?
The first thing I noticed about the Dunlop Trail Max Mission is these tires are heavy and they have a very stiff sidewall and that’s not necessarily a bad thing these are as heavy and the sidewalls are as stiff as other tires that I’ve heard people complain about mounting such as the moto zs or the motors the Mitas the E07 plus the Hydenell K60 these are definitely the same class both for weight and for stiffness when I bought these tires from the dealership I installed them in the parking lot that means I used the spoons that I carry with me for doing trail repairs my air pump and just a little wd-40 to help that rim seat when the time came and I was able to get it done the stiff sidewall is really an advantage
When we get off-road for hitting hard rock hard edges it’s definitely more likely to protect the rim from damage so although it does decrease some of the performance you have more unsprung weight you have more weight to break and more weight to get spun up when it’s time to accelerate from the adventure standpoint on a heavy touring bike that’s going off-road I think it’s a pretty solid choice that Dunlop made yesterday I was up at mount st helens just incredibly fun twisty roads back and forth and it really stood out to me how stable this tire is really confidence inspiring also I crossed the a very long graded metal graded bridge and this tire tracked beautifully it didn’t wander all over it didn’t get that knobby wobble in fact it tracked cleaner and straighter than most street tires that I’ve been on I am starting to get just a little bit of the low spots in the high spot pattern that we see on any of these large bikes that are running and hardened corners and certainly when you get into a knobby if you wear it long enough you’ll end up with that shark finning or that high low on the tread pattern I’m just starting to develop that it’s very small very minor and given how hard I’ve pushed this bike in this tire.
Will Dunlop Trail Max Mission last for a long time?
I’m really impressed with its wear and tear this articleis not sponsored Dunlop did not give me a set of tire in fact the dealership didn’t even give me a discount I paid full price on these on these tires put them on myself and I do that because I want to make sure that these reviews that my opinions are not tainted this is a really good tire I think Dunlop really really hit the target we need a tire that’s going to last a long time it needs to be able to tour to the locations we want to go to it should be fun in the corners and it should do decent on the types of roads that most of these adventure bikes spend their time on which is hard pack gravel roads hard packed dirt roads double track and single single vehicle with roads and it does all of those very very well in fact when I was cornering on this bike doing the the twisties I really couldn’t tell I was riding on a 21 inch tire on a 1200 gs it felt more like the original stock 19-inch tire so very stable in the corners very nice transitioning from left to right very stable on that transition also it doesn’t track rain groups the rain groups on the freeway and the steel grated bridges with the grooves.
Are stiff sidewalls in Dunlop Trail Max Mission good?
This tire had less movement and tracked those less than almost any any tire I’ve used including dedicated street tires and that’s a pretty impressive feat so very good very confident you know inspiring tire but there are a couple of negatives it’s definitely not a cheap set of tires competitive but not cheap the sidewalls being very stiff and the tire protecting the rim comes at a cost of weight and of course that stiff sidewall is going to be a pain if you have to change these on a trail to fix a you got to pull off the wheel to or the tire to patch from the inside if you can plug it that’s great but that’s going to be definitely a pain for you and the probably the biggest down to this tire was I was surprised how loud they were when I first put them on the bike I was expecting it to be quiet like the the battle axe the ax you know 40 or the x-41 but in fact what it turned out to be is more like some of the more aggressive knobby tires that are that are out there don’t really notice it now but I certainly noticed it when I first put it on the bike and as you roll into those corners you’ll start to feel that vibration of that tread that goes up the sidewall and you’ll start to hear that noise.
So that’s what you can expect with these Dunlop did well on this tire it’s a good tire I would definitely have no problem running it again unless I’m getting into very aggressive off-road conditions or muddy conditions then this style tire isn’t going to work doesn’t matter who makes it it’s a win.
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