Tmax Tyres again - Anlas

[MrGrumpy]

We almost need a separte board for Tmax tyres - they often seem to come up for discussion!

I'm often a cheapskate, but I normally only buy tyres from top brands - Bridgestone, Michelin etc. But a while back I decided to experiment with putting Anlas tyres on the mk6 Tmax, the princpal reason being that they are 75% the price of B.stones etc! My experiences.....

Handling wise - the good news: Grip! They feel so grippy! You feel that you could stop in the middle of a corner leant over, and they'd still stick to the road! The general feel is OK, but very different to B.stone SCs / Michelin PR4s etc. The down side of the grip was that it made the handling much heavier and a bit slower, and the ride was a bit harder as well. I've oscillated between running slightly lower tyre pressures than normal to soften the ride, or having slightly higher pressures to liven the handling up! Being more of a leisure rider, I never managed to do a full wet weather test of them, but they seemed OK on roads that were pretty damp.

Life-- I'm traditionally very hard on tyres - I normally only get around 4500 miles out of a set of tyres on the Tmax, with later Tmaxs being pretty unique in getting through the front before the rear. I've now done around 3000 miles on the Anlas, and the good news is that the front still looks new! The bad news is that the rear is seriously worn. The wear on the rear is really weird - its obviously a dual compound tyre, and you can actually feel (and now see) the harder rubber strip in the centre of the tyre. Snag is that the softer tread immediately to each side of the hard strip has worn away so the tyre now seems to have a weird profile with the hard centre strip sticking out! Strangely, it doesn't seem to handle as weird as it looks.

Now whilst they are 75% of the price of other brands, they are only a bargain if they last more than 75% as long, so I'm classing this experiment as a failure, especially as they aren't that much fun to ride. I could put another Anlas rear on and hope that that would wear out at the same time as the front finally wears out, but I've bitten the bullet and have got a pair of B.stone SC2s waiting to be fitted.

As for the mk3, that has a Michelin PR4 on the rear and a Dunlop Scootsmart on the front. The Dunlop is a bit younger than the Michelin but they look quite similar now - both have life left in, but will need replacing before very long. I intend to try Metzelers then!

[Aaron]

I have the 2022 Tmax Tech max.

I did a long ride the end of 2022, rode about 7500km. Rear tyre had a big flat spot on it, wore the middle of the tyre away. The front tyre still looked great. These tyres are the stock Bridgestone Battlax SC2.

My scoots at nearly 10,000km now total. Ive always had the tyre pressure as per manual.


Im doing a long ride again at the end of 2023. Im swapping tyres to Metzeler Feel Free's. I saw they have these on the Kymco AK 550's as a stock tyre, so I'll see how these go.


One thing I don't like about the stock rear Bridgestone Battlax SC2 tyre, is the tread pattern does not really go near there centre of the tyre. Just makes it difficult to determine how much life I have left in the tyre, as you can't see how much you have actually worn away. There are no slits to see how deep the tread you have remaining. The Metzelers I have (but yet to put on) have the tread pattern (the slits in the tyre) closer to the middle of the tyre, so I will be able to see clearer how much tyre I have worn away. This is important because of the distance I have to cover here in Australia, on the long rides I do, its a long way between cities that sell Tmax tyres.

Aaron

[MrGrumpy]

Yeah. the SC2s do tend to look as if they are nearly worn out when they are brand new! Still, the handling is so much better with the SC2s than the Anlas!
I'm going to try Metzelers on my mk3 Tmax next - the current Michelin / Dunlop combo looks OK, but there's not a huge depth of tread left. If they work out OK, I'll try them on the mk6 next.