The Michelin Anakee Road is a new tire specifically for road-biased adventure touring motorcycles. It’s a “90/10” tire (90% road, 10% off-road) designed to provide great paved road performance, dry or wet, with the versatility to tackle the occasional unpaved road.
Anakee Roads feature Michelin’s 2CT+ dual-compound tread technology, with more durable rubber laid below grippier shoulder rubber. On the front tire, this adds stability and grip when braking into corners. On the rear tire, it does the same when accelerating out of corners. A firmer rubber compound is laid down the middle to extend tread life on straighter roads. The Michelin Anakee Road tires are the first ADV bike tires with dual compound tread technology on front and rear tires.
Anakee Roads also have Michelin’s latest Premium Touch, Radial-X EVO, and Aramid Shield technologies that combine for optimal feedback, stability, and durability. Readers may recall that Michelin was the first motorcycle tire manufacturer to use silica, which helps bond a tire both mechanically and chemically to wet pavement. Anakee Roads’ dual-compound tread includes high silica content to enhance grip on wet roads.
Michelin provided Rider a set of Anakee Road tires for evaluation on your humble scribe’s BMW F 750 GS, a road-biased ADV bike. My maiden voyage saw steady rain pelting the winding roads of northern Connecticut and western Massachusetts. In addition to high silica content, these tires have sipes that are wider than pure road tires and angled to evacuate water across the center of the tread, and separate tapered sipes push water out at the shoulders. The GS felt nicely connected to the curvy wet pavement.
This ride included a stretch of hardpack with some gravelly sections. This wasn’t off-road, just a road no one felt the need to pave, and even when the pavement ended, the Anakee Roads retained good grip. (For serious off-road riding, Michelin offers other Anakee models with more aggressive tread.)
For my next ride, I assembled a route of some favorite twisties. On a cool, sunny, dry day, the Michelin Anakee Road tires delivered consistent feedback and grip that inspired spirited riding at sub-felonious speeds. Trail braking into corners and rolling on the throttle coming out felt stable and smooth. While new tires always feel good, these Anakee Roads are making my GS feel better.
Since I routinely ride a long distance to reach good riding regions, I added more miles on divided highways. My main takeaway is that Anakee Roads are much quieter than the Anakee III tires that were the OEM fitment on my GS. Michelin says the Anakee III line of single-compound, pavement-focused ADV tires introduced in 2011 is being phased out this year and replaced by the new Anakee Road line. With dual compound tread front and rear, Anakee Roads should last longer on slab while retaining their grip when the curves begin.
For the mission of a road-biased ADV bike like my GS, Michelin’s Anakee Road tires are feeling really good to me. Michelin Anakee Road tires are available in a variety of sizes for use with or without tubes.
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Source: RiderMagazine.com