After putting up with the Tourances I decided to get �real� and put some decent rubber on the bike. I had heard good and bad reports about every tyre on the market. The intended use for my Ten is 80 offroad 20 onroad. With that in mind the 606s seem to be a good place to start. The first thing you notice is these tyres howl like crazy on the tarmac. Handling is about as good as can be expected for an aggressive DOT offroad tyre, if you are into �scraping your pegs� this is probably not the best choice ! Offroad is where this tyre needs to be and after playing with pressures ( I found 22 front and rear gives the best for on/off road without fear of spinning on the rim) the tyre stacks up pretty well. The rear hooks up in all but the deepest sand and is predictable at speed on fire roads etc. The front performs well but you would not want to shove it too hard on the looser stuff (this is more to do with the fact the bike is 200 + kg and a full tank keeps the weight where it dose not need to be). For the money these seem a great tyre and really make the bike come alive in the dirt.

Which are dimensions of your 606? I am asking because I am not sure whether thy are available in the dimensions printed down in the Tenere booklet.

The 606 comes in a 90/90-21 front and a 130/90-17 rear. They have really stiff sidewalls being a DOT tyre and can be a handfull to mount, long levers and a few cold ones help. I just did a 60km ride through deep sand mixed with limestone cap rock, 15 front and 18 rear kept the bike heading in the right direction with no rim damage or pinch flats ( increasing the pre-load also helped in the deep stuff )

tnx Dave

How have you found having a 606 on the front? I have always liked the 606 as a rear tyre but only ever had one on the front once and it made my old xt600 all twitchy in the dirt, not confidence inspiring at all.

I have found the front really dependent on pressure selection. The difference between 15psi and 20+psi is huge. The problem is running too low and dinging the rim, 210+90kg is a fair load to hit blunt edges at speed. Having said that, the sidewalls are really stiff and do stand up to abuse pretty well. I usually run 22 front and rear as a compromise when I can not be bothered to take the pump, but I know what you mean with the front at that pressure, very sketchy. I will give the Pirelli MT 21 Rallycross a go on the front next time and see if that is a better match up with the 606 rear.

Fitted a set of D606's today... Really like it :-), it leans a little quicker in the turns ... Which Iike :-)