Adventure bikes have been gaining traction in recent years, with numerous offerings from BMW, KTM, Ducati, Triumph, Honda and Yamaha, to name a few. Tire manufactures have responded. Michelin’s new Anakee Adventure 80/20 ADV tire now gives riders with off-road aspirations a third option, joining the heavily street-biased Anakee III and the 50/50 on-/off-road Anakee Wild tires.
The Anakee Adventure features a new profile, tread pattern and silica compounds, and it includes a Two Compound Technology 2CT front and 2CT+ rear. Four separate compounds are used in a set, with the softest residing on the sides of the front tire for grip and the hardest being used in the center of the rear for optimal tread life.
To celebrate the launch of the new tires, Michelin held a weekend riding/camping event near Death Valley. With a fresh set of Anakee Adventures mounted on a Suzuki V-Strom 650, I was looking forward to seeing how these 80/20 tires would perform in a typical 700-mile ADV weekend ride.
Most adventures, sadly, start with freeways. The Anakees exhibited great high-speed stability, tracked well though a variety of man-made rain grooves and seams, were compliant over square-edged transitions and, most importantly, were not noisy.
After a few hours’ slog, finally: Nevada back roads. The Anakee Adventure’s tread pattern resembles a dry lakebed, with grooves that gradually open toward the sides for shedding water and dirt. They worked well and were predictable, admittedly at a restrained pace on one road in need of maintenance, with sand, rock slides and running water that covered the entire aging road surface.
With an experienced off-road rider on packed dirt, these tires punch above their weight. Throttle control and momentum are key, particularly in steep terrain whether descending or climbing. We sampled steep rock-embedded trails, jeep trails and high-speed desert roads. I did hit one well-disguised patch of deep sand at speed, causing the old “sand wash swap.” Thankfully, I rode it out.
Back in the twisting canyons near my home, it’s all grins, with the Anakee Adventures offering excellent turn-in, grip and feedback at a peg scraping pace. Both tires felt planted and stable under spirited corner braking and acceleration, thanks to bridge blocks that stabilize the tread where the grooves are at their widest points. Things went from dry to wet with a well-timed rain shower, providing the opportunity for repeated panic stops. The Adventures proved to offer impressive wet grip, and the V-Strom’s ABS kicked in much later than I expected. I wasn’t willing to push it to peg scraping pace, but at sane speeds cornering grip in the wet was more than competent.
The Michelin Anakee Adventures are a solid 80/20 ADV tire option for those looking for impressive wet and dry pavement performance, along with the confidence to tackle some surprisingly rugged terrain, and they paired nicely with the V-Strom 650. We’ll check back in with an update on tread life once we’ve had a chance to put some more miles on them.
For more information and pricing, see your dealer or visit motorcycle.michelinman.com.
I’ve got 2,756 miles on my 2019 GS Adventure 1250 that came from the factory with the Anakee Adventures. I can attest to the cornering grip of these tires but if the sides of the front tire makes 4,000 miles I’ll be surprised, the center still looks good. The back tire has started to flat spot in the center but the sides look good.
How noisy are these??
Sounds like my experience with Pirilli Scorpions on a GS. Front tire down to the wear bars at approx 4000, while back was almost “new” looking. Hadn’t even started to square off.
This was opposed to the OEM Anakee 3’s, which lasted 8400 front and back.
Can anyone compare the Anakee Adventures to either the Metzeler Tourance or the Avon Trailrider?
The Michelin Anakee Adventure rear tire is relatively quiet when going in a straight line. However, as soon as you lean the least little bit, they howl/whine or whatever you want to call it. I thought something was going out on my bike until I realized it was the new rear tire. The original was deadly silent compared to the Anakee Adventure. Now I’m going to have to put up with the horrible noise for thousands of miles or throw them away.
Highly recommend staying away from these tires.
Are you sure your not referring to the Anekee 3 tire.
I’ve rubbed through three sets of Anakee 3’s, very decent tire. However, I knew I was going to do a long ride 90% pavement, maybe a few gravel roads so I spooned on Michelin Pilot 5 Trail’s. Turned out I did a lot more hard packed off pavement than I thought, and I survived quite well. And on pavement the Pilot 5’s were absolutely brilliant. I figured they might be because I’ve had them on my Honda VFR too, but on my V-Strom? Magic!
I’ll using this anakee adv on my vstrom 650XT 2017 what can i said about it is…it’s very naughty on road when we reach at cornering its ask for more low cornering 😀😅
and for the noisy it became…for me not some big deal if your motorbike using big noise exhaust like Akrapovic…overrall i really satisfied with this tyre…gave 8.5 / 10
I’ve been using them for the past year on a r1250gsa. Couldn’t be happier ! On road they are just perfect. Not noisy at all and sensational grip. When cornering it’s like there’s no limit to which leaning angle you can go. Off-road most dry tracks are ok (no experience in wet off-road conditions), just a bit of floating from the front in deep gravel. At 5500 miles the rear is gone and the front could probably go for double that.
Front made it to 5,200 miles, but the rear was done at around 4,500 (flat spot). Coming from a touring bike with PR6s for as long as I can remember, there is some adjustment to the noise these generate. However, the tarmac performance is spectacular, especially when depressurized a few psi flat. Fire road performance is decent enough for my purposes. I’ll be sticking with these for some time.
I’ve had these tires on my 2019 G310 GS. Put them on when the bike had 1700 miles and the rear tire gets about 12,000-14,000 miles whereas the front about 15,000 – 17,000. I’m super impressed! ~90% road, 10% other.