I am looking at heading north this summer which if I can get the correct tire, will include a little bit of gravel. Can anyone recommend a tire that is good for highway/wet and include some gravel/packed gravel roads. I am looking at tires for both my B11 and Norge 8V. I am not looking for adventure tires, just something that will assist in gravel traction and not be chewed to pieces over 50-100 km of gravel.
I "liked" and agree with BrianR's statement about tires generally. Tire technology for all vehicles has come so far so fast that it worries about how I used to ride on "old tech" tires of only 10 years ago.
Now, all of that said, Brett, who revived this old "tread" -- -- asked specifically about tires that were "not looking for adventure tires, just something that will assist in gravel traction and not be chewed to pieces over 50-100 km of gravel."
I am not sure that the standard sport-tourer tires mentioned fit that bill.
I try hard not to be the tire version of a die-hard "Ford, Chevy, or Dodger" kind of guy. I have nonetheless pretty much gravitated on my Norge to Michelin Road 4 (now on rear) and the just-mounted 5 GT on the front.
As much as those tires impress me as superb rubber (and whatever else is in there! ) for the sorts of riding I do -- i.e., all weather, back roads, technical twisties, and more, including LD, high-speed slab runs that I avoid like the present C19 plague! -- I would not think them necessarily the best for Brett's professed purposes. I have ridden the Norge in gravel, but rarely intentionally and even less for any distances over a few miles. My Stornello "enjoys" that. The Norge and others, not so much.
I have spent time in Edmonton and environs, but Brett says he wants to go "north" from, I suppose, Edson. Never been there; likely never will. Can't even imagine going north from there on a motorcycle. I am simply not worthy!
Anyway, my point is that after trying almost all of the S/T tires on my Norge, I don't think that the "usual suspects" among those are quite the right choice. I am not sure what the answer is, and Brett says he "isn't looking for adventure tires," but I think he might have more "adventure" than he seeks with "regular" S/T shoes.
1921 - 2021!
Bill