Rather than producing yet another pair of DOT 50/50 knobbies that wear like soft cheese, Dunlop’s Trailmax Mission tires take an innovative approach to providing good on- and off-road traction with longevity, claiming as much as 8,000 miles for a rear.

Adventure-bike tires are always a compromise, so they?re often categorized by their intended ?mix of usage,? e.g. 50/50 for a tire that is good for someone who rides 50% on-road and 50% off. Know anyone like that" Neither do I, especially among riders who pilot larger ADV machines. For most of us spending even 10% of our time off-road would be a challenge, but few riders want a ?90/10? tire that just barely cuts it in the dirt.

We could just run 50/50 tires all of the time, but the good ones wear out too fast, and the bad ones suck on the street. What we really need is a ?60/60? tire, one that works 60% as well as a full-on knobby off-road and 60% as well as a sport-touring tire on the street, with the longevity of 90/10 tire on the rear.
Dunlop’s Trailmax Mission tires work nearly as well off-road as more knobbed 50/50 DOT tires, without sacrificing much performance on the street. Photo by Simon Cudby.

After two years of development?a year spent on the aggressive Staggered Step tread pattern and compound alone?Dunlop has plugged the ?50/50? hole in its ADV tire lineup with its new Trailmax Mission tires. Using the criteria I suggest above, these are really 60/60 tires, since they deliver close to...