How Well Do Trials Tires Work on the Trail?

     Pirelli MT 43 Trials Tire

I have been hearing a lot of noise about the off road community using trials tires with good results. Reluctantly, I thought it was about time to give one a try instead of listening to all the second hand stories. So here I am with a Pirelli MT 43 size 400-18 on the back of my 500 KTM XCW.

The reason I said ‘reluctantly’ was because a few years back I had tried one on a buddy’s bike (300 KTM) and only got about10 minutes of ride time. The first 9 ½ minutes went great. It was that last 30 seconds that discouraged me from putting one on my bike. On my buddy’s 300 KTM I wanted to see how the tire worked when I went from trail riding to more race pace on the trail. I rode very aggressively and ripped a hole in the side wall on some rocks. In all fairness I am not sure of the brand of that particular tire, so with all the positive reports on the Pirelli I am going to give it a shot on my bike. I will be able to give a full report as I log lots of miles on it. It is a crappy job but someone has to do it and for the mx43 readers I am willing to make the sacrifice!

In the meantime I have had it on for 2 days now and have put about 150 miles of sand wash, rocks, rocky singletrack, graded roads and rocky jeep roads. The first day was casual trail riding and exploring, but the second day was a fast paced very aggressive trail ride that I almost expected to end with a flat.  No pavement yet and I am going to do my best not to abuse it on the pavement because all the info I have gotten says that is the Achilles heel of trials tires. However I did look closely at this Pirelli and see a DOT designation on the sidewall, so it may do ok on the road. But I cannot comment on that yet.

When I mounted the Pirelli I had to inflate it enough to seat the bead with a loud ‘pop’ like when they seat a car tire at the tire shop. Since I carry a bicycle tire pump that may be a bit of work to air it up when performing a trailside repair, since I do not carry co2 cartridges. I am running 12 psi until I know more of what to expect, then I will air down a bit. This is a must do repair in the event of a flat. These tires have such a soft pliable sidewall to help with their ability to get traction that they can NOT be limped home on the rim. It will destroy your tire and jeopardize your rim. You must fix it on the trail.

I will continue the torture test and let you know how it hooks up in all conditions, any problems  I encounter and how well it wears. So far it shows only a little wear on the leading edge of the knobs from me being over aggressive on the rocky sections.

My initial impression is very positive for a long wearing, competitively priced tire as long as you are not going racing.

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