Supermoto or Enduro for City Winter Riding?

K2Berg · Oct 8, 2009

Hello,

I'm picking up an '08 FE 650 next week for winter terrorizing in the city. Not sure if I should stick to enduro tires or pick up a set of supermoto wheels and tires.

My desire is to supermoto but if business goes well I may pick up an '08 Aprilia SXV 550 for supermotoing.

There are no guarantees in life so I am setting up to have a blast on the 650 this winter.

Informed opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Regarding:
- Tire recommendations enduro winter riding.
- Tire recommendations for supermoto winter riding.
- Rim size recommendations for rear. Yes, 2003+ KTM rims fit but size of rear seems to be an issue.
- Suspension change for supermoto application.

Expected winter road conditions:
- Black top with some packed snow with some ice. The packed snow depends on the amount of snow and temperature fluctuations above zero. The more warm ups obviously the less packed snow.

Daley (City Mayor) tried cutting back on snow removal at the beginning of last year because of economic conditions but it caused a big uproar so he knew he better look elsewhere to save pennies. He knew one of his predecessors made that mistake and lost the next election. He may be King but much more powerful kings have been removed when upsetting the masses.

Tack!

maDDtraPPer · Oct 10, 2009

I went through the same decision making process as you last year (even the love affair with the Aprilia) and ended up with the conclusion that while the theory of having a bike that can do both things well is not really a reality, so I bought a SM and then I bought a dirt bike. The suspensions are completely different and if you want to convert it the people I know who do it actually change the forks out and everything.
I would never even considering taking my beautiful FS into dirt no matter what kind of tires I put on it. It's a completely different animal in every way shape and form. Where my FE is a nice bike to ride on and off road I find the FS is a nervous and dangerous machine and will be buying a steering damper soon and I can't imagine touching those brakes in any kind of offroad environment.
Well I bought a new set of Husaberg wheels and put Avon Distanzia tires on and a cush drive. My plan is to use this combination as my enduro set up for my FE650 when I will not be riding any serious offroad and also use it as my winter/rain set up for my FS650.
They are expensive and nice tires with great reviews but to be honest I haven't used them yet.
I couldn't wait for winter to leave and I ventured to work on my FE650 with in full offroad tires and it was just plain stupid. They are powerful and it's really hard to keep the back wheel straight especially going downhill. I can't even imagine riding in a city in any kind of traffic on snow on a motorcycle of any kind that doesn't have some form of studs in the tires. So if your really intent on doing that then your going to have to figure out something with your enduro set up with studs or you'll be eating cold hard dirty pavement. Hope that helps.

K2Berg · Oct 11, 2009

Thank you maDDtraPPer,

I came up with the same conclusion previously. Last year I was trying to organize the same thing.

My thinking was to put studs on the sides of the tires so when she started sliding out it is limited. The art is where to put the studds, how far out from the center.

They can't constantly be contacting the pavement or they will rip out(so I hear or dull).

It seems from what the ice racers say the most durable are the self made.

I guess the only way to find out is experiment. Good thing my Acerbis Koerta jacket is coming in this weekend. It will most likely be worth it's weight in gold.

I have a parking lot a few houses down to experiment in but it has some serious curbs and is not very big. Six blocks away there is a better lot for such things , no curbs just parking studs and only located in the center and the edge of the lot.

I use to run my Porsche with snow tires around the lots late at night on fresh snow.

The good thing about living in the city is the police have better things to do than deal with a little hooliganism, just don't rub it in their face.

Not everyone has the desert and mountains in their back yard to ride through but we all have something right under our nose. We just need to figure out how to have fun with it.

I think I'll post this on a couple other forums where there is a broader audience. This can not be an original idea.

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Supermoto or Enduro for City Winter Riding?

K2Berg

maDDtraPPer

K2Berg

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