Did I get invited to a fancy launch – No. Do I ride off-road most of the time – No. So why did I fit Dunlop TrailMax Raid tyres to my 7-year-old Africa Twin? Horses – that is why – Horses.
When your other half, life partner, or whatever the politically correct term is these days, is very much into horses, requests to help them in a paddock that is three fields away are not that uncommon.
Yet, like most people with an adventure motorcycle, my everyday riding is on the tarmac, which would make the road-biased TrailMax Meridian the most obvious choice.
However, with their independently sprung, long travel, four-hoof drive system, horses have very few problems with terrain or soft surfaces. So, when the call comes, if I don’t fancy walking across the fields, I need tyres that are capable off-road.
Which is why Dunlop TrailMax Raid tyres now adorn my Africa Twin.
Road Grip
As soon as you consider fitting “knobblies” to your adventure bike, the reduction in road grip is typically the first thing you’ll start to wonder about. The TrailMax Raids absolutely look the part on the Africa Twin, but will they hang on in the corners?
The next thought involves the wet weather performance on tarmac. Tyre manufacturers put significant effort into designing the tread patterns to ensure they clear water from under the contact patch as efficiently as possible.
If I fit tyres where I can poke my finger between the raised part of the tread, will I be paddling around corners every time it rains because I have no grip?
Having ridden a couple of hundred miles in the wet and the dry, the reduction in road grip and wet weather performance isn’t as dramatic as you might imagine.
There are a few limitations. I can’t trail brake into a corner on the TrailMax Raids without things getting interesting. If I carry too much speed into the corner, I’m more likely to run a little wide on exit than fix the problem by loading up the inside bar and turning my head more.
The tyre’s design means they aren’t as smooth as a 100% road tyre, but it only took a couple of hundred miles to work all of this out, and I now have a new normal.
In The Damp
My first comparison ride – chasing the Editor across the countryside to the Pink Pig Farm Café near Brigg in North Lincolnshire – was forecast to be dry, but that didn’t stop it raining.
The rain wasn’t too severe, just enough to wet the roads and bring on the worst of conditions … greasy. I convinced myself that being on off-road tyres would be a problem and then spent the next hour proving myself wrong.
Our colleague Carle had talked about the performance of 50/50 off-road tyres when he first took to riding green lanes.
The science behind modern tyre development is astonishing. Despite the mixed conditions, the only need to back off was in my head.
The tyres would have held on. I just need to remind my throttle hand and rear brake to go with the flow and stop interfering.
Off Road Grip
And so, to the whole point of having fitted TrailMax Raid tyres to the Africa Twin, other than they look good … what are they like in the top paddock when the horses are chucking up clumps of mud if they move at anything more than walking pace?
I’ve not got stuck, nor have I had a “moment” on ground soft enough to make using the side stand impossible without a puck.
The ride to the stables, which oversized 4x4s and 7.5-tonne horseboxes have carved up through winter, is challenging in places, and yet I’m happily bouncing my way through the mud and the puddles on the TrailMax Raids.
If I’d fitted Dunlop Missions, then I could make a dreadful pun here – something about mission accomplished, but I’m on TrailMax Raids – no pun required. They are doing everything I need.
Dunlop TrailMax Raid
I haven’t found the limits of the TrailMax Raids off-road. The tyre has more performance than my off-road skills will ever need. Gravel paths and muddy fields have both been conquered.
On tarmac, they are giving me everything I could have expected and more. Again, there is most likely more performance in the tyre than I’m likely to try to discover. Discretion will likely get in the way of the bravery needed to chuck the Africa Twin into a corner just to see if the tyres stick.
I can’t brake as late and as deep as I can on Dunlop RoadSmarts [see the Tyre Abuse article] and I’m sure that someone more comfortable with drifting the rear on a corner exit would be harder on the throttle coming out the corner than I am.
Nonetheless, I’m not going to be last to the tea stop, and when “Herself” calls from some out-of-the-way location, I’m no longer hiking across the paddocks to help with the horses.
