Dunlop Trailmax Mission ADV tires.

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.
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 DOT knobby-like performance off-road and footpeg-dragging levels of grip and stability on the street. They also promise better wear — Dunlop says independently contracted test riders got 8,000 miles out of a rear on a Suzuki V-Strom 1000.

Designed and manufactured at Dunlop?s factory in Buffalo, New York, the Missions start with a rugged bias or bias-belted construction ...