Hi Spinner (or is it Dan)
The trusty R has almost 40,000 kms on it now and she has been on three major trips into the Outback ... the Oodnadatta Track, the Birdsville Loop and the latest little jaunt ... of course there have been many, many, many day and weekend trips out of Melbourne as well
The bike has proved completely reliable, entirely capable and absolutely fit for purpose. My riding buddy is generally mounted on a 660 Tenere and I have never had any problems following him where ever he goes ... yes follow because he does ride faster than me
The 'ole girl has been optioned with a few farkles but this year I was flush with a tax refund so the front forks were serviced by ProMecha in Melbourne and upgraded with a set of Pro Valves and then with a rush of blood to the head I also fitted a Ohlins rear spring unit. Finally due to a dead chain I upgraded the drive system with an Off-The-Road 525 kit running a 15/48 final ratio.
Between us we've tried a few tyres over the years ... generally I use the Heidenau K60's as a 50/50 option ... while offroad we've also tried Pirelli MT21's and Conti TKC80's as well as the Dunlop 606's.
The R and I didn't get along with the MT21's at all but the D606's have proved to be fairly agressive off-road option that provides acceptable and predictable, if somewhat noisy, on-road performance. I've never tried them in mud
but they work well on your typical outback road and the variety of surface conditions typically encountered ... yes they will climb road ridges but everything still feels well controlled !!!
This trip was some 8,000 kms overall and due to a late change in plans the majority was completed at open road speed limits on chip seal. As indicated the rear is somewhat shagged (technical term
) but the front is ... hmmm, say ... about half worn.
With a more off-road utilisation I'd probably expect some 6,000 kms from the rear and given that it's possible to obtain D606's at fairly advantageous pricing this represents pretty good value.
Happy to answer any other specific queries you might have ...