Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1292986
P118 PRODUCT REVIEW I •SUPER STIFF SIDEWALLS MAKE THEM NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO MOUNT BY HAND •EXCELLENT STABILITY AND TRACTION ON-ROAD •SURPRISINGLY GOOD PERFORMANCE OFF-ROAD •HIGH MILEAGE Website: https://www.dunlopmotorcycletires.com/ MSRP: Front: $131.21-$219.63 Rear: $129.70-$285.23 S TANDOUT FEATURE High-mileage 50/50 tire with excellent off-road grip RIDER AN ALYSIS The first thing you need to know about the Mission is this: Don't try to mount these things by hand. Do your- self a favor and let your local dealer, or a friend with a tire machine, do it for you. The side walls are stiffer than any tire I've ever had the "pleasure" of mounting, and I've mounted a lot of tires. The good news is that the stiffness pays off big-time in perfor- mance and stability on the road. With my bloody knuckles still ach- ing, I headed out for what would be a long, long relationship with my two new friends from Dunlop. I was told to run these tires until they're gone. I didn't think it would take nearly as long as it did. I usually expect to get anywhere from 4000 to 6000 miles on ADV tires, so when I blew past 6000 miles with plenty of tread life left, I called the office to let them know that this was going to take longer than expected. That's fantastic LOWDOWN have slightly altered tread patterns so that Dunlop can achieve the same performance standards whether the customer is riding a 160 HP beast or a less aggressive 90-ish HP model. These machines place different demands on the tires, and Dunlop wants to ensure that every possible application performed the same as the next. Addition- ally, the tires are bias and bias belted, and depending on the target application, belts were added or removed in order to gain additional off-road traction on bikes that are likely to spend more time off-road than others. The Trailmax Missions are tubeless but can be run with tubes if necessary and are available in a wide range of sizes to fit everything from large ADV bikes to scram- blers and crossovers. news for prospective customers, and it meant that I'd "have to" keep riding, but I'm not complaining since these tires are stiff, sticky and super stable on the pavement. Even when the road is wet, the Missions stick and give plenty of warning before slightly losing grip, which they recover quickly. Stellar on-road performance usually translates to less-than-stellar off-road performance, but that's not at all the case with the Trailmax Mission. For a 50/50 tire, I found them to be as good, if not better than, some much more aggressive offerings that I've tested recently. In looking at the tire, you wouldn't think that it would have anywhere near the off-road grip that it does, but I rode them on everything from steep, rocky Jeep trails to muddy forest- service roads, and I never felt like I needed any more traction than what they delivered. The wraparound side lugs don't look like much, but the stepped design that Dunlop incorporated really hooks up well in the ruts and mud. The offset center lugs propel my big GSA up the trail without complaining. You know the old saying: put your money where your mouth is. Well, I'll be throwing down my own hard-earned cash for another set of Dunlop Trailmax Mission tires—they're that good. I have a little over 7000 miles on them, and they're just now getting that inevitable cupping on the front, and the rear is nearing the end of what was a long life. The on-road performance coupled with their incred- ible off-road capabilities and long life, make them totally worth the money. Keith Dowdle