Dunlop Trailmax Raid tires

[Eric Hall]

I'd heard a bit over a year ago there would be a new tire coming from Dunlop but they wouldn't tell me anything more.

Now we see their new Trailmax Raid being introduced in Europe.  More details here from ADVPulse.

I like the look and trust it will have stiff sidewalls, high mileage and come in tubeless options as well as more sizes than their D908RR.

The only thing bugging me is their designating this a 50/50 tire.  It's obviously 60/40 dirt/street.  Also, how do they square that with the Trailmax Mission also being 50/50?  I think it's marketing once again.  Just like Michellin did with the Anakee Wild, I think they're eager to place it in the largest segment to maximize sales.

I will wait to see if there's more to back that claim up.  They may simply claim that the tire does both pavement and dirt equally well, hence 50/50.

The initial images had people commenting the tread depth didn't look that deep but the image used that I saw was the 170 width and those always look less deep whereas the 150 widths look "deeper.'

No word on when these get to the US but I suspect we will see them some time this year in 2023.

[Eric Hall]

These tires have hit the US market as of the end of June.

I saw one article calling them 40/60 street/dirt which makes more sense and then I saw Dunlop US do the same today on Instagram.  Having two 50/50 tires that look so different doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I've only heard initial observations but no reports of longevity yet.  I hope it's more than the rouglhy 3200 miles I got from the TKC-80's on my old GSA (2500 on the 990).

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvYESahs8Ey/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

 

[Eric Hall]

Kyle has a brief overview here where he checked tread depth (10mm) and hardness with his durometer. Trouble is I can’t recall how hard other tires are .

But!!! I do have a new set in the garage ready to spoon on

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[Eric Hall]

So in Europe they were calling these 50/50 which I think is more Jedi mind tricks given that’s the biggest segment but the US just changed that, calling them 60/40 which makes more sense. The Mission is also 50/50 and you can tell this will be better in the dirt.

Kyle’s durometer reading (in warm sun to be fair) was just 64 compared to 81 for the Mission and 80 AX41.

I trust Dunlop and think the mileage on these will be respectable. Maybe warm sun is confounding that durometer? We shall see.


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[Eric Hall]

Interesting video from the UK on Dunlop’s line of ADV tires.

It calls the Mission tire 70/30 dirt/street!  The US positions it as 50/50.  So another reason they chose to call the Raid 60/40 dirt/street here.

It points out that these designations are rather arbitrary and vary country to country.  Trust your experience. 
 

 

[Eric Hall]

Another great overview of the Trailmax Raid…

Some more nuance and detail. One thing I picked up on is when he calls this maybe a 70% road/50% dirt. It actually is quite amazing on pavement. Better than a 50/50 and better than you’d expect.

Another is by calling this merely 50% dirt (keep in mind that’s Europe; here they say 60%) I think they sell themselves shorts. I beat the hell out of these at High Sierra and they were fantastic. Never let me down. Don’t think I could say the same (off road) for the Missions. To be fair though, I’ve never pushed the Missions off road that hard.


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