With the popularity of dual sport and trail riding surging in the past year, the market has responded with several offerings that cater to this burgeoning segment. Manufacturers came out with bikes that were capable of handling varied terrain. Accessories are widely available for the off-road and adventure crowd. One thing that was lacking were the choice in tires.
I faced that same predicament a couple of years back as I was ready to change the stock tires of my Yamaha Serow 250 to something more off-road oriented. There was a lot of choices if your main purpose was to go off-road, there are a lot of value knobby tires in the market but when you are looking for true dual purpose (off-road and on-road) tires the choice suddenly becomes thin.
The popular models all had good tires but most of them only had sizes for the big adventure bikes, no love for the smaller bikes. The only choice was to either try untested brands or go with the available ones but pay the cost for them.
During the last Inside Racing Bike Festival, I was invited to the Motoworld press event and one brand stood out, it was Metzeler. They had the several new models on display and mixed among the super bike and scooter tire models was the MC360. A true on-road, off-road tire as claimed by the Metzeler representative. This tire I had to try.
Fast forward a few months after, and thanks the great people at Motoworld, I was finally able to get my hands on a pair of MC360 Mid-Hard for my Yamaha Serow 250. The stock tire sizes of the Serow were 120-80-18 and 90-90-21. The MC360s I installed were 120-100-18 and 90-100-21. The fit was a tight for the rear wheel. You would have to remove the stock plastic chain guard since there is a chance that it will catch the side of one of the knobs.
Off Road Performance
The Metzeler MC360 looks the part of an aggressive enduro tire and but it’s not just a pretty face. The MC360 performed well in hard pack to medium soil conditions. The large center block gave it excellent grip specially when coming out of ruts and corners. Downhill parts were confidence inspiring since the front tread pattern kept the bike in line and gave me more control of my bike. Mind you, I am in no way an expert rider and most of my rides are done with a healthy mixture of shouts of joy and agony. I think a much better rider could ride aggressively with the tires.
Having done its bit on soil we tested it on the rocky and wet trails of Sta. Ines and Daraitan. This is where it became a bit sketchy for me, for several reasons. Being Medium-Hard tires the carcass of the MC360 is extremely strong and rigid. This made lowering the tire pressure for the rocky parts tricky since I was using the stock rims of the Serow 250 which were tubeless and were without a rim lock. The lowest I could safely go was around 12-14 psi which felt like it was in the 20s on the MC360. A good rim and rim-locks would have gone a long way to make the tire more compliant to the terrain. But despite that the tires did well on the river crossings as well as the rock beds, you just had to adjust to the bike slipping and bouncing on the rocks.
The MC360 impressed me by its handling and gripping characteristics on the varied terrain we put it through. This is one tough tire.
On Road Performace
The MC360 performance on-road is pretty good as well. If you can get past the noise the aggressive knobs make and make sure that you have the proper tire pressure, the tires roll surprisingly well. Cornering was a bit sketchy when the tires were new but after a few rides under its belt they were gripping rather well on the asphalt, nothing too extreme of course, since they are knobbies. Braking performance is at par or a bit better than the stock tires on the Serow 250. No surprises equals good performance.
Overall I would give these tires an A+ for off-road performance and a B for on road riding. This would be a fine addition to any dual sport motorcycle and would be a great solution for those who ride to and from the trails.
The Metzeler MC360 Mid-Hard is available at MotoMarket Philippines.
MC360 Mid-Hard 120/100-18 Php 2,950.00
MC360 Mid-Hard 80/100-21 Php 2,350.00
Photos by excellent ride partners Patrick Frias and Raul Ona
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