Mitas E07 long term review.
 

So, i've had the Mitas fitted last week, but it's been difficuly to scrub them in properly as it's been nothing but wet and greasy here at the moment.

Off the rim the rear looks very squared, but once mounted it does round off a little but by road tyre standards remains sqaured off, the front looks rounded when loose but actually gets a little pointy once mounted.

The rear has 3 levels to it if you would like, and as the tyre wears these levels come into play, when it's new you just have nice chunky tread after roughly 5-10mm (not measured it) there is a centre line which would certainly help slow wear at that point, but still keeping most of the tread pattern, then there is another wider area after roughly the same distance which is much wider, i've not looked close enough to see if this would be the end of the tyres life depth wise but any off road handling would be scetchy by that point.

A interesting point i noticed, someone at work has some Hiedi K60's on his TTR and when parked next to each other the tread pattern is almost identical to the other (i wonder who's copied who).

My first outing was a cold frosty morning with the tyres on 0 miles, to be fair i did ride like miss daisy that morning with not knowing the tyres and the road being crap. but that evening they were better but still damp so i gave the bike a bit of a work out. I was impressed with the road handling on these tyres, they seem to stick well once they've warmed up a little, but i am noticing there's not much feedback compared to previous tyres but they still give you a idea of what is going on.

I'm finding these tyres are happier at high speeds 60mph+ than the Maxxis were, and road handling compared to them in general is far better. when on the brakes the tyres also behave very well, you can load up the front pretty heavily and they behave well, so far i'd say the road handling is very good. I've been running the tyres on the recommended 29/29.

I haven't tried off road yet as the one day i had chance i ended up ill so just stayed in, but hopefully by next week i will have had chance to go out and get them dirty.

Guys I deal with on the Triumph Tiger forum use them on their 800's and are getting 8000 miles + out of them the one has done a trip to Greece with plenty of off roading come back home and then gone down to Barcelona all on the same tyre and it still looked good but with wear like that grip is always going be a trade off.

http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/...psq3v89kxk.jpg well tonight before work i managed a quick punt down a local track, this is one of my fav tracks and today it was all wet sand/mud with a unusal amount of loose sand today. It was a inpromt ride so i was running road pressures (29/29), i was very dissappointed, the front behaved well without much problem but the rear was just awful. i'm going to go back again in a few days and i'll run a lower 26/26 and see how we do.

Well yesterday I hit my local tracks but also linked it with a gravel track that has rocks and a few mud sections. This time I dropped pressure 26/26. There was some improvement but I think theres more grip to be found. Next time I'll try 24/24. I think what isn't helping is the centre tread pattern with the thicker parts of tread that come into play as the tyre wears. I'll try to get a picture posted to show all this better.

With the crummy weather i was hoping to add a snow review but the best we could manage was a good slush. anyway the tyres trekked through, speeds were kept to 20-30, a few little twitches like it was going to slide but nothing ever came of it. I have a few long up hill sections to navigate when commuting and the rear held well on these, felt like it was wandering on occasions but never fully broke traction, but i was sat down, never actually got bad enough to consider standing. the tyres were running around 26/26 but i have not checked them for a few days and we have had a temp drop.

Ok slight update, we've had a light dusting of snow, enough to just make the roads crap but not deep enough for the tyres to really bite into. again no dramas and the tyre gripped pretty well considering.

ok i've now got round to working out how to post pics, here is the rear e07 that i have, you can see the different steps on the cnetre pattern now that i was explaining.
http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/...0.jpg~original

Ok so there's now 1k miles on the tyre now so i would say they are scrubbed in. Still not much off roading to report so this is more related to road riding.

Wear on the tyres is minimal, no obvious signs of the tread depth going down at the mo.

on the roads these tyres like normal pressure (29/29). there isn't a great deal of feed back even once the tyres get warm so you have to feel what the bike is doing as a whole but these seem to be very stiff tyres so that would go someway to explain it.

Grip on the tyres is good, i've only had one moment when hitting white lines on hard acceleration on a bend, but generally these tyres aren't to bothered by white lines and over banding.

on wet or grimey roads they behave themselves pretty well, just have to tone things down a bit as you normally would on any bike in those conditions.

SO far i'm pleased with the road manners, hopefully soon i can get a few more dirty miles on the bike and report back.

What is the lowest pressure other people use on these tyres? Once i've caught up on some running repairs i want to try get some more Green Lanes done.

I run a slightly wider EO7 on the back (140). It is an absolute pig to get on the bead, but well worth the effort. I find it far more predictable than the 130 wide EO7.

Just did 10,000 Kilometres on my last EO7 and it was thoroughly wrecked. The territory covered included sand, clay, mud, bitumen and long section of sharp edged rocks. It handled all equally well. I find the EO7 a far better choice on the Tenere than the EO9 Dakar, which I found to be highly unpredictable, and way too prone to letting go at the most inconvenient of times.

I have just replaced my Dunlop D908F RR (Rally raid) on the Front with a Pirelli Scorpion Rally. The 908 was also on the bike for 10,000K's and I loved it... The only reason for changing to Pirelli is that the 908 is currently in short supply and the Pirelli is readily available and highly recommended by friends whose opinions I trust.

I usually ride out with front and rear tyres set at 24 psi. I have a TPMS fitted to my bike and it is amazing just how quickly the pressures increase when the tyres are worked. Working hard on dirt on a warm day both tyres usually run around 28-30 psi.!!!. On tar they often go higher..!!

cheers for that suggestion, if i can get out this week i will give it a try.

Ok, brief update, the front has started to crack along the centre line where the wear indicator runs and is slightly worse where the blocks join the wear marker. i will post some pictures when i get chance to take some, and i will be contacting the company who supplied the tyre origanally and see what they have to say.

http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/...b.jpg~original

so is this bad to have all the way round or am i looking to much into it?

So today I clocked up a reasonable amount of local trails. Ran the tyres at 25psi. It was a nice mix of terrain. Packed sand and gravel tracks. Honestly I didnt feel inspired by the tyres. They didnt give me much confidence on any of the tracks, BUT there weren't any dramas, they always gripped and tracked well.

ok so i've now hit 2000 miles of use with the tyres. They haven't worn smooth to the centre band yet but it is almost here now. so they are a slow wearing tyre and will wear much slower once getthing to that point.

Road manners are good and predicatable when running on 29psi f/r with no noticable road noise at all.

As for off road/trails, running at 24/25 psi f/r, they seem to get through most things without to much drama, they certainely favor hard packed surfaces. in deep loose stuff they can struggle a bit, and i did have the front try to wash out on some loose sand the other day. the rears biggest problem is the stepped pattern shown earlier in the thread, it just hinders the tyres ability to bite into loose surfaces. When on the tracks i'm finding i just get on with it, and leave the tyres to do there own thing, i still don't have alot of confidence with them in the dirt, but that could just as much be me being new to trail riding.

As for the cracks i also reported earlier they are becoming more frquent around both front and rear now mostly on the edges of the blocks, but there is no hint of the blocks coming away yet. They could just be where there has been stress on that bit of the tread but i will monitor that.

I'm begining to see what these tyres are intended for now, they seem aimed at long distance riders who may want to do a gravel track every now and again, or some light trail work.

Well time for another update, for the most part I've been clocking up road miles, the tyres have been behaving very well and wearing little, I would say they are better on the road than the Tourances were, there is vibration as you get to the edge of the tyre when leaning but I suspect that is largely to the block pattern.

Yesterday I went out with my local TRF group and managed a very wide variety of conditions, grass lanes, loose gravel, chalk lanes, boggy rutted lanes, steep up hill gravel lanes and soft/loose mud, I was running the tyres at 25/25 and was pleasantly surprised, I originally expected the bike would be a hand full with these tyres but it did very well, it managed to get through everything we came across, my only complaint was with the front tyre when we came across loose soft mud, it could just not bite and was constantly trying to spit me off, although the rear was also finding it hard in the soft mud it was a lot more manageable. With the route we took I would of been happier with something more aggressive but the E07's left me pleasantly surprised.

So a update on the unusual wear from the front, with this tyre you have the usuaul alternating big block small block pattern alternating on the centre pattern, what i've started to notice is the smaller blocks are now wearing faster than the larger blocks.

ok so i've now put 3k on the tyres, on the road the handling has been brilliant, couldn't fault the tyres what so ever regardless of the weather conditions.

Wear on the rear tyre is very good, since the centre bar has worn into play the wear rate has dropped right down. The front has also been wearing well but looking at the comparative wear rates i'd of expected to have finished the front before the rear.

I was starting to find the front was struggling more and more on the trails, on packed stuff it was ok, but any loose terrain or grass I was starting to find the tyre neither gripped well or inspired any confidence, this could be my abilities were improving or i've been choosing more challenging terrain. So i decided to replace the front with a TKC80 i had sitting in the shed.

The bead broke easily without any tools, and came off nice and easy with a pair of motion pro enduro levers.

First outting with the new front i ran 24psi F/R felt awful on the road and i had doubts, but as soon as i was on the trail i was really pleased, it certainly gave me confidence, and i noticed i was instantely setting a quicker pace down the trails. Put back to road pressure they work well together but the front is not as good the 07 front. so i will be trying this set for the rest of my trail season this year.

I'll probably look to put the E07 front back on once winter starts to draw in and the roads turn crap.

ok so now I have the tyres in at just over 4K miles. road manners are brilliant still no concerns there at all. I'm becoming more active with local off roading groups here in the UK and i'm beginning to find the tyres limits off road.

i'm running it with the TKC80 front still and they seem a good pair, the rear only struggling just before the TKC starts to struggle, with the exception of hill climbs. Thick mud is prooving good fun, and I've been playing with sliding the rear in the bends. on a side note, if I hade the e07 front still fitted it would have been a nightmare, the profile does not seem to work well in the mud.

I've swapped the gearing around with the sprockets with a 14 upfront so the rear is having a harder time but I think it will take around another 4k of abuse before it's time to retire it from road dutys.

On thin gravel and hard packed off road surfaces it is still working very well. Soon the tyre will be put in the shed for another day as i'll have a E09 coming to take over rear duties.

Hi mate,

It would very interesting if you give us some feedback on the E09 similar to what we have for the 07 ones.

Thanks

Well I've just spooned off the E07 to fit the E09, it came off nice and easily. Bead was broken with only 2 levers then after that just came away easily with 1 lever the rest of the way round. Plenty of space in there for swapping a tube if you get a puncture. So for now atleast this tyre is off duty after covering 4.5k. I'd like to point out again its only been swapped out for a more serious off road tyre. And ive been very pleased with its performance.