'Deathwings' - deserved bad rep?

[Dessert Storm]

Oh great: another tyre thread. Yeehar. But on here and most other 'adventure/dual-purpose/trail' forums, Trailwings are almost universally disparagingly referred to as 'deathwings'.

I've moved house recently to deepest rural Somerset, where the lanes seem to be mostly surfaced with a blend of cow poo, loose gravel, and clay from tractor tyres. I've been running Avon Distanzias front and rear for about 10,000 miles and have found them to be pretty damned good wet or dry on tarmac. On this loose stuff however, they are useless. The tread pattern seems to me to be that of a road tyre with a slightly deeper tread, and so grip in the loose stuff is hardly going to be enormous. I've lost count of the number of twitchy front end 'moments' I've had riding on the lanes.

What I actually want is something that will provide good grip on the loosery, without wearing out in twenty minutes when I get to the decent tarmac (which actually makes up about two thirds of my daily commute, and most of my other riding).

The tread pattern on the 'deathwings' seems to be a little closer to that of a pukka off-road tyre (although it isn't one, of course), but I'm a little concerned about the bad rep they seem to have.

So who has actually personally had a bad experience with 'deathwings'? I changed to Distanzias because the OEM trailwing rear wore out in about 2.5k miles; however, the front lasted about 6k and my recollection is that grip was not too bad.

Might change at least the front back to a Trailwing. Whatchathink?

[boboneleg]

I've had no problems with grip as far as trailwings are concerned, my problem is that they wear out far to quick.

TKC's are far superior and will give you the grip you need on gravel and loose stuff and they're cheaper.

[wheeliebin]

Only had two scary moments on the deathwings, first was a hot summers day returning from Cadwell Park, left-hander as fast as I dare and the rear broke away for a fraction of a second (could of been something on the road) but nearly ended up in the hedge.

Second time was braking hard coming into a roundabout, so the back-end was un-loaded, and going down the gearbox in a hurry, back-end broke away big time and I supermoto'ed the bike past 2 cars, sh*t myself but I bet it looked good. Again another dry day, I've had similar experiences with other tyres in the wet but never in the dry.

[Galloper]

I've run Distanzias and Trailwings on a Dominator. Interestingly, I found the Distanzias very good on the loose gravel and sheep poo of the Northern Dales. The wings were OK but less confidence inspiring and, as others have mentioned, wore out very quickly.

[Zonkelnut]

Deathwings (trailwings) is nothing wrong with. I have done more than 8000km on tar and 3000km on dirt with mine until someone told me they were called deathwings. Ignore them and use them. They r fine.

[faantjie]

Deathwings (trailwings) is nothing wrong with. I have done more than 8000km on tar and 3000km on dirt with mine until someone told me they were called deathwings. Ignore them and use them. They r fine.

Don't forget in the Uk the roads are much colder and wet more often than in sunny SA. I've also noticed the road surface back home is allot more coarse then here in the UK.....so for SA I would say yes they'll be fine but I speak from personal experience, they do slide!!!!

[Austin]

I replaced mine with Tourances but was just following trends/fashion as there was nothing wrong with the Trailwings except being worn out. In fact, I really don't like the front Tourance - find it twitchy and very sensitive to over-banding and white lines.

grip wise I find all tyres much of muchness and in my opinion nothing will grip particularly well on loose stuff over a hard surface as it just rolls. I suppose a huge knobbly tread will push the loose stuff into tread but its a bit tenuous to say they willhave more grip.

[Chad]

TKC80S ARE THE BULLS BOLLOX THE BIGGEST AND THE BEST sorry for shouting that but they just are

[robelst]

Trailwing is not just one tyre, but is acutually a range of tyres, either cross-ply or radial, different profile and compounds, all with rather different characteristics.
I only know the TW101 front and TW152 rear on the AT; I bought the bike with a 150 size rear (standard 140) and that was great in the dry, but worrying in the wet. The replacement (also a TW152 but in correct 140 size) seemed to have a rougher profile, more off-road-like, and was pretty loud on the motorway, reminding me of my old BMW GS running Sahara 3's. I suspect the 150 are more road-biased because this is a typical size for the more powerful big traillies (GS1100 and others). The 140 size felt a bit vague compared to the big block surfaced TW152 in 150 size but strangely, the grip in the wet was significantly better than the 150's. I like the Distanzia's better and the Distanzia rear lasts longer too, however if I could get a pair of TW101/152 for a bargain price I wouldn't mind having them. Never seen them really cheap though.

[Von Short Hausen]

I've got a Trailwing 130/80 R17 65H on the back of my 99TA - It's fine in the dry, but once the road surface gets damp it's a feckin nightmare. So much so that I hate riding in the wet.

Lord Vader rode behind me on a rideout recently, and he can testify that my rear end was kicking all over the place (stop sniggering at the back).

One thing about my bike which is non standard, is that because my legs aren't long enough, the rear suspension is wound right down at the back and the headstock is 1 inch down the front forks. I don't know if this is a factor.
Anyway whatever the reason, when the road is wet it makes the handling cack