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Dunlop D908 RR Tire


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Anyone try these? I’d love to get your thoughts.

 

I’ve seen these typically on the back of KTM 950/990’s and usually run by riders I looked up to.

 

All I know is that they were designed for rally raid (“RR”) and have a very long life.

 

Rich was running one in his 690 in Baja and when he got a flat, he didn’t recognize it until later that day because they’re pretty hefty and are designed to run on low pressures.

 

I was always put off by them because I heard they were like $300 but heard they now go for as little as $159 and now come in a 150 width for the heavier adv bikes now (18” rear).

 

I hope to try one on the 990 when I get back but right now a 50/50 tire works better for this type of adventure I’m on.

 

I think the only tire that comes close these days would be either the RallZ or Desert HT by Motoz.

 

What Dunlop has to say about them:

 

Designed for the speed, horsepower and weight of large-displacement rally-type machines.

The D908RR is DOT approved for street-legal use.

Reinforced tread blocks yield enhanced traction and stability.

Generous open space around the shoulder area helps optimize traction in sand and mud.

Heavy-duty casing for excellent bump absorption and allows lower air pressures for a larger footprint and increased traction.IMG_2714.jpg.2f5a8594027e35303f11601ba0cc8f4c.jpgIMG_2712.thumb.jpg.b009034c691e3c59095b1ade4ba44f8c.jpg

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I had the D908 on my KTM 690. It is a great tire in most off-road scenarios. I don't ride a lot of deep sand, but it seemed to dig in well when i did. It also gripped very well on tarmac. Not noisy on the freeways. I felt that they had a short life (under 2000 miles), but I did a lot of city riding and long freeway rides to the trails, so I'm burning through most knobbies faster than most. I'm using the Motoz Rallz now on my Scrambler 1200 and love them, but they are much more noisy on the road.

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  • 5 months later...
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We have three reviews so far.  You can check them out here.

While @greedyg shows his rear tire just shy of 2k miles and rides a heavier and more powerful bike, @GeoMoto has a lighter and less powerful bike shows his rear about the same miles but with a lot more wear.  He (geomoto) thinks this may be due to the power delivery on the T700 and that it doesn't have traction control.  Then @Manybikes says in his video his rear is about half worn with just a few hundred miles on it.  Brent Needham (owns Adventure Center Powersports in Bakersfield) has a 950 and rides like a bat out of hell and says he gets like 5k miles so really confused here.  

I know they say "your mileage may vary" (YMMV) all the time but I'm seeing that play out quite a bit here.  I had a troll on Instagram saying ridiculous things about low mileage like "I got barely 700 miles" and I found those to be not believable.  I say troll only because the guy kept messaging me like a maniac telling me "they're a 700 mile tire!!!"  I said dude, chill!  If that's what you believe then you're free to write a review at the forum (he never did).

If you ride a 1290 like @RogersW then maybe.  I also saw a competitor make a negative comment (unprofessional, IMHO).  So being a market researcher I decided to do some research of my own.  I read a LOT of reviews of the tire at other forums and online retailers and the consensus does seem to be they get good mileage.

At Revzilla (as of this writing) there's 11 reviews and 6 mention long life.  One says short lived but quantifies it as "less than 4k miles."  If I got more than 2600 (my experience with a TKC-80 rear) then I'd call that longer tread life.  One review at Chaparral says "after 1,000 miles of AZBDR they showed very little wear."  Fortnine has four reviews and one mentions "20% longer than similar purpose tires;" none mention low mileage.

In a way, these are looking to be kind of the reverse of what I saw with the Anakee Wild.  That tire had a LOT of people saying ~2700 miles and just a FEW saying 6k-8k.  This one seems a lot saying good mileage with a few saying poor mileage.

What's "good mileage?"  10k on a K60 rear is good mileage but it's not a tire I'd ever use.  The older (heard the reformulated the rubber) Kenda Big Blocks I used to call a "900 mile tire" because that's all they got for me.  The Vee Rubber VTM 401's got about the same as the Kenda's.  The Kenda's and Vee Rubber both have great traction but I'm more of a $/mile guy and prefer more durability.

I've decided I just need to try them out for myself and see.  I'll put one on when I fly back on the 9th.  My 990 doesn't have traction control either (nor does Greg's 950) so I'll have to go simply on my own riding style and experience with other tires.  If I get more than 2600 miles (what I got from a TKC-80 rear) then I'll feel more confident calling this a high mileage tire.  2600 miles is my "Mendoza line" you might say.

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So, I just went back to look at my review and I typo'd 2700 miles should have read shy of "2000" miles.  Now for further context, I rode the COBDR w/ my dad who is 70 and slow. Real slow.  So the majority of miles on that tire thus far are some very conservative throttle miles, probably half of which were just constant speed pavement.  With all that said, and the current price of the tire, I'll be spooning on another when this one is done.... but pairing it with my go-to front, the IRC TR8.

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