Hi folks,
Tyres on my March 2026 ADV 350 are probably about half worn now - centre sipe is almost gone at under 1500 miles and they seem quite good for grip and confidence but have certainly worn faster than my previous Forza. Obviously rear more than front. They are exactly the same size as the Forza, so has anyone fitted City Grip 2s to their ADV? If so, what was the outcome? I don't feel as though I'm riding any differently on the ADV.

Ian

I've been happy with the original tyres on my 2025 ADV 350. After 6,600 miles, the rear still has 2.7 mm tread left in the centre, and more than that towards the sides. I have not measured the front as there is plenty of tread left. I normally reckon on 4,000 miles for a back tyre on my bikes, so these are doing well, plus I have also been happy with the handling.

I've heard of people doing this on Facebook forums. They seem to like the results, but tyre life seems to be much shorter with the City Grips than with the Metzeler Karoos - the Karoos seem to clock up quite high mileages before needing replacement.

For my part, I'm quite happy with the Karoos - they seem to work well in the dry, damp and wet and seem to last well, so I'm probably won't change to something different when the time comes, especially to City Grips as I've never got on with them! Metzeler do a non-knobbly tyre (Roadtec Scooter) in the right sizes, the rear being a dual compound. I might consider that in future as I really seem to get on well with the Metzeler tyres I've ridden.

That's interesting - Mr G, do you remember the approx mileage when the central sipe on the rear disappeared? I've just seen that you tube clip where the chap has changed to City Grips (just before a European tour) and he feels they are more compliant and give far better mileage than the Karoos. Some say that the originals fitted to any bike are different from replacements of the same make - might just be bull, don't know. What I do know is that I got much higher mileage from the City Grip replacements than the originals on the Forza - but those included a 3000 mile trip from Orkney to Austria, so not like for like. I haven't fully measured the rear on the ADV - it just doesn't look great.

Ian

Karoos middle strip is a crap design as the tread is not as deep as the rest of the tyre. I replaced the rear with a city grip 2. The Karoos was nearly twice as expensive.

Orcadian wrote: Wed Aug 26, 2026 9:54 am That's interesting - Mr G, do you remember the approx mileage when the central sipe on the rear disappeared? I've just seen that you tube clip where the chap has changed to City Grips (just before a European tour) and he feels they are more compliant and give far better mileage than the Karoos.

Haven't got anywhere near tyre replacement time yet - I'm doing mostly short journeys. Tyre life is a mysterious thing. I always got pretty short tyre life on previous Tmaxs - 4000 was a good life for me! I'm not THAT an aggressive rider - I put it down to where I lived previously had lots of fast flowing open roads, so my average speed was often rather high which caused rapid wear! Here in Cumbria, I seem to spend half the time creeping along tiny little narrow twisting roads, mostly at between 15 and 25 mph and occasionally get to the giddy heights of 40 for a couple of hundred metres! So I'm hoping for longer life from these Karoos on the ADV, but we shall see! I've also read on the ADV forum that some people claim that switching to CityGrips improved fuel consumption by several mpg - though others claim that they saw no difference! As I said, I actively disliked City Grips on previous scoots, as I find they just don't give me any feel, especially in the wet, so NOT an option for me.

A little anecdote about me and City Grips - I had a mk1 TMax for a while a few years ago, which the prevous owner had fitted a CityGrip to the front. I changed it to a Metzeler - I rode across the yard at the workshop and after 10 yrds I thought 'Ooh - what's this strange feeling I'm getting?' and realised, it was actually grip!

I will have to see how things go life wise with the Karoos. I've no complaints about how they ride, and if they indeed do last up to 8k miles as some people say, I won't be tempted to change. As I said in the previous post, I might consider the Metzeler Roadtec Scooter as an alternative - if they are cheaper than the Karoos I might be tempted.

I put some City Grip 2s on my Forza but wasn’t really very impressed with them, I’d expected better

I find the OEM Karoos on my ADV350 very good in the dry, haven’t really tried them much in the wet

When they wear out I’ll certainly go for a set of ContiScoot, I’ve had 3 sets of the equivalent tyres on my GS and they’ve all been excellent

I think I will see how these Karoos fair for a bit longer - they are already starting to react to overbanding and raised white lines. I think I'll go with City Grips when change comes - it's not forever, perhaps just one year, so I can always go back.
I remember lots of discussions with GoldWing folk who said these new 'whatever make' are far better than my old 'other make' - I would never go back to those. Of course the replacements were better - they were new!

BTW, that Youtube clip on the change from Karoos to City Grips was from a guy with the 80:8 handle.

Ian

Some of the main roads in Cumbria have some strange longitudinal grooves on them - its like they tried to get rid of bumps by grinding the road surface down, but they crop up in several places. The ADV does NOT like these - you feel that you are sliding across the tarmac. The Tmax is slightly happier on the same stretch of roads. Whether this is because the ADV's tyres are slightly narrower, or maybe due to the Karoo's slightly nobbly tread pattern I don't know - but it's too soon to be caused by wear.