TKC mileage

[jphish]

Hey All - Have Anakee2s on Girly Tiger currently & pleased with their pavement / mild dirt performance. Going on Yukon trip this summer & anticipating at least 1000 mi of mud / dirt roads. So - Question: what kind of mixed mileage you getting out of TKCs ??  Have about 2000 mi of pavement before we even reach Dawson City - not sure the knobs will be still 'knobby' by the time we get there for the rough stuff. Also considering the Heidenau - but not sure they'll have a 150 out before we leave. Anyway - any guidence / council / experince appreciated. Thanks, j

[John Stenhouse]

When we did it, we took tyres with us and changed them there. Theres a garage in dawson on the main road that will do it for you, cost me $10 for a rear changed.

[D-Fuzz]

I have a some firsthand knowledge about this from doing the trip last summer.  The roads in Northern BC are chip seal gravel and are very abrasive on tires.  I would suggest you run your Anakees until you get to Whitehorse, then change over there.  If you need a shop to swap the tires over, the Honda dealer charges $20/tire to change them.  Like John mentioned, you could wait until Dawson City as well, as the Klondike Highway isn't too bad except for the deep gravel in construction zones and if it rains (and it will), it might be nice to have the knobbies.  The roads up to Whitehorse are pretty tame.  

We did that last year and my friend ended up getting about 7000km (4200 miles) out of his TKCs that he ran on his R1150GSA.  You could likely get a bit more since the Tiger is a bit lighter than his big Beemer was.

Good luck, it is an awesome ride!

[jphish]

Thanks for the council Gentlemen - Whitehorse looks like a good place. We could do the Dempster, make the loop thru Chicken, then change back to anakees (Tourances for his GS) in Whitehorse for trip home. I think we got a plan. Hopefully we could leave the 'return trip' tires 2 Honda dealer in Whitehorse. D-Fuzz - you said your pal GS got about 4 K mi out of the TKCs - what tire did you run on your Tiger ?  Inquiring minds...

[D-Fuzz]

Thanks for the council Gentlemen - Whitehorse looks like a good place. We could do the Dempster, make the loop thru Chicken, then change back to anakees (Tourances for his GS) in Whitehorse for trip home. I think we got a plan. Hopefully we could leave the 'return trip' tires 2 Honda dealer in Whitehorse. D-Fuzz - you said your pal GS got about 4 K mi out of the TKCs - what tire did you run on your Tiger ?  Inquiring minds...

For the loop you are talking about, swapping tires in Whitehorse would be the ideal location.  The biggest variable in the whole trip will be the weather.  If it is dry, you could do the entire trip on Anakees/Tourances, but if it rains, the knobbies will make things a bit easier.  We didn't do the Dempster but we did the Top of the World through Chicken and we did the Dalton to Prudhoe Bay, and knobbies were certainly good choices for those roads.  There is a stretch between the Alaska/Yukon border and Whitehorse where it is like riding on the moon, and again the knobbies were nice there.

I didn't have my Tiger yet when we did the trip, so I rode my DR650.  We are planning to go back up next summer, likely to do the Dempster or the ride to Yellowknife, so I will be taking the Tiger for that trip.

[jphish]

D-fuzz - Thanks for the confirmation. Was thinking of taking 650 KLR - but that would require 'slabbing' it from Wa state - too many pavement miles - and hell...thats why I bought the Tiger in the first place. My riding partner if originally from AK - rode the Dalton / Dempster a number of times. He suggests we should count on rain, even late June / early July...thus the TKCs. He's going to run a 140 Hiedenau K60 on the rear of his f8 GS, should work, but they don't have a Tiger sized 150 out yet. I did trip to Yellowknife 3 yrs ago on my Uly - blew a rear shock on those 'ice heaved' roads. FUN! Have a great trip this summer - love those Canadian back roads! TTFN, j

[D-Fuzz]

I rode my DR650 because I thought it would be best suited for the Dalton and the Top of the World Highways.  It was stellar for those sections of the trip, but I paid the price for the remaining 2/3 of the trip.  Looking back, the Tiger would have done equally as well, just maybe need to go a bit slower at times.  You mention the toll the ice heaves took on your Uly.  The road between Fairbanks and Whitehorse had massive frost heaves.  At some point, one of them tore the upper chain roller out of my DR.  My bike took more of a pounding in that stretch of road than anywhere I think.

[jphish]

Yeah - Those roads are like the old "E" rides at Disneyland. Fun - but they do take their 'toll' in extreme long distance stress on machine. I tried to find that 'happy place' where the suspension was fully loading, but not catching too much air on the 'whoop' side of the humps...not always successfully. This will be good Tiger test - front suspension not adjustable like the Uly - but should be adequate for my load. Lets compare notes before departure & when respective trips are concluded. Since John S. did the trip on his Tiger, he will likely be able to disabuse us of any false notions on pros / cons. Chow' j

[John Stenhouse]

My only input would be if it rains make sure your on TKCs or similar. Oh and don't assume since it's not raining here the road will be fine. They are loooong roads, somewhere it can be raining which isn't even on the road and it can still knock the road for six.

Dempster was closed for two days while wash outs were repaired, all caused by rain in the mountains.

[jphish]

Thanks for chimming in John - thought we might have 'lost' our only successful Tiger / Dempster / Dalton rider... at least the only one I know. Though D-fuzz is also, in fact, a veteran - just not on a tiger. But appears poised to remedy that. Anyway - yeah - after what you 2 post-experienced riders have offered, I was not going to attempt it on Anakees - might make it - but could prove to be challenging, a bit beyond enjoyment threshold. Plus - thats what they make TKCs for. Your reminder about the Lo-o-o-ng reach of the weather is also appreciated. Lots of lattitude up there. Was also thinking Hiedenau's as a possibility, since reportedly they get 6-7 k mi - but I already have a set of TKCs sitting in the garage. So thats that. Been a long winter - ready for spring. Chow' guy's, j

[D-Fuzz]

About the weather, John is right.  For the first 10 days of our trip, we got showers everyday.  Nothing serious, just enough to get you wet for a few hours.  The last 4 days of our trip we rode in virtual non-stop pouring rain.  When a system goes through, it seems to sock in for quite sometime.  We were lucky that our travels on the Klondike, Top of the World and Dalton Highway was done when the weather was good as all those roads were pretty benign for us.  After we got home, we heard stories of the Top of the World being closed due to huge washouts.

If you've been up to Yellowknife on your Uly, you have an idea what to expect.  With the long hours of sunlight, it is important to ride when the weather is good as you never know what the next day will bring.

It's funny, when I got back from my tour of the North, I had a "been there, done that, no need to torture myself like that again" attitude.  But the North gets in your blood.  We are doing a short trip through the Black Hills / Wyoming / Montana this summer and it doesn't get my blood flowing like the thought of heading back North does.  I am totally jealous, wish I was going again this summer.

[AK Tiger]

It's funny, when I got back from my tour of the North, I had a "been there, done that, no need to torture myself like that again" attitude. But the North gets in your blood.  Oh man is that ever true!  My wife and I rode up to Prudhoe last summer on Tourances; bad idea.  Rain, gravel, road work, calcium chloride, et al.  I swore I hadn't forgotten anything up there and didn't need to go back to get it.  Now 8 months later and I've got "the urge" to do it again.  Oh well, summer of '12 and we're heading to Inuvik.

Oh yeah, go with the knobbies.  I wish I had...

[cbxtc6]

I rode up there on my '06 Tiger in '08. I put on my TKC's in Whitehorse (HD Yukon), and proceeded up the Dempster.  I saw guys on GSs with Anakees just spinning their tires in the mud.  I cruised right on up.  And down.  And over.  I left the TKC's on all the way home, in fact.  I got just over 8k miles on that set.  I am still impressed.

[D-Fuzz]

I remember reading your RR on ADV when I was preparing to go to Alaska last summer.  It was also a factor in choosing my Tiger as I knew it would be more than capable of making the trip the next time I do it.

[jphish]

cbxtc6 - Good to know the knobs got you thru the muck. I don't consider my Anakees any better than tourances on that terrain. So will strap on TKCs & head north. Did you haul yours ? mount em before you left ? Ship to Whitehorse ?  8K mi out of a rear ?? Thats better than I have heard from any large dualsport. Go Tigers!  j