Knobby n00b

[Belquar]

I have never had knobbies on my GS or any other bike. I don't do a lot of dirt riding. I have taken my GS off-road up here in Jersey in the Pine Barrens. It is like a wallowing pig in the sand for this off-road n00b. I fall off a lot.

I am interested in trying out some knobbies. The XPLOR/AMA/Morton's BMW event coming up in VA sounds like a good time to try them, but do you think I need them?

I currently have tourances on the bike. They work. Virginia dirt definitely isn't Jersey sand so will there be much advantage to having knobbies on?

How do knobbies ride on the road? Any concerns I need to know about? I primarily commute on my bike and aside from this trip and maybe some play time up here in the barrens, I won't be doing much dirt time.

Thanks for your help.

Brian

[kbasa]

I took a dirt school day with my GS on a pair of Karoos. I thought they hooked up terrifically well. On the street, though, they were less than ideal.

I've ridden a GS with TKC80s and while they didn't feel as secure on dirt as the Karoos, they felt a lot better on asphalt.

[knary]

Knobs can be fun on the street. TKC's are sort of the defacto pseudo-knob for GS's. FAR better than Tourances or Anakees in the dirt, but not too horrid on pavement. Unfortunately they don't last long. You'd be very lucky to see 6k miles out of a rear.

Take a class if you can. There's a GREAT DVD for learning some techniques. It succinctly covers the basics.

http://www.dualsportriding.com/