SAVA MC60 tyre (Tire) Rival for TKC 80??

trinituner

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This is a review for the new Sava MC60 dual sport tyre that has been available in the UK for a few months now, I could not find any review's from anyone in Europe let a lone the UK..

I came across these tyre's when at the start of December I became the owner of a BMW R1100GS of 98 vintage, I always had the intention of getting back into a bit of green laning and adventure riding to coin a phrase as such the Metzeler Tourance tyres that where fitted to the bike just would not do..

The obvious choice was to fit a set of TKC 80's as these are the "go to" tyre for such machines. Whilst doing a random google seach I happened across the Rawhyde site, basically Rawhyde Adventure is the US BMW off road school and they where pluging a new tyre that they had been using for sometime as a cheaper and longer lasting offering to the TKC. The video below will give you a sales pitch of what the Sava tyre "could" do.


The main gripe that people have with the TKC is the wear of the rear tyre and the price, out fitting my GS11 with a set of TKC's would set me back approx £130 for a rear and around £90 for a front, set's could be picked up for around £200 if you looked hard.. Now the Sava's I paid £79 for the rear and £67 for the front, delivery was free from a online supplier. That means the Sava MC60 come in at under £150 a set :thumb2..

MC60 before fitting..








I tend to fit and balance my own tyres and I was happy that the front slipped on with no issues but the rear was terrible, I have also found out from my local tyre fitter prior to fitting that the bead on these is quite easy to tear so a lot of care is needed when fitting, It was obvious after 20mins that hand fitting the rear was going to be a issue and I would end up damaging the bead so I had my local tyre centre fit it for me, these tyres (do not) have a mark on the sidewall to indicate where the tyre should fit in conjuntion with the valve.

I balanced the front wheel and a fair bit of weight was needed the same was true with the rear but after all this was done I inflated to my normal starting pressure of 30psi and went from there.

First ride:
The weather was quite cold and damp and a typical January Morning for south east England, first thing I noticed with these tyres was that when turning out of my road all be it at a very gentle rate I did not get the sharp fall in that the TKC's had offered on a previous bike, this was a very good thing as I always found new TKC's fronts to be quite unsettling, after about 5mins I was on the M11 motorway and heading down to the Loughton turn off and quickly got up to motorway speeds and was happy to find the tyre to be very stable. On turning off the motorway I was greated with typical country B road conditions, the tyre handled these road conditions really well and over the next 20 or so mins speeds increased as I got up to pace.. I was heading out to the Green lanes in the Roding area of Essex and these comprise of Open fast tracks in some areas with tighter wooded sections that really hold onto a lot of water and as such tyre pressures where dropped to 16psi, the first hour or so was on tracks that where fairly rideable as it seems the 4x4 guys had not been down them for what looked like a long time as the ruts where not deep at all but heading to the more extreme lanes in the Fyfield area that carried heavy clay, mud and deep ruts I came to a section of lane that forced me to stop. Basically the ruts where so deep that the roots from the trees on the side of the lane had had become exposed and this ment that a bike with the weight and size of the GS just could not maneuver over them.



If you look just infront of the front wheel you will see a root exposed in these conditions the bike simply didnt have enough grip to get over such a obstacle. once out of this section I was happy to see the tyres where not holding onto a great deal of mud and for this location that is a very good thing.

It was then back onto the road and a quick ride back to the local bike meet area at High beech, for this I maintained the tyre pressures at 16psi to see what the handling was like, apart from a slight vague feeling from the front tyre during very slow speeds I was happy to ride the 10 or so miles with the pressure set this low..





All in I was very happy with how the tyres faired in such conditions and it was really only super slippy roots that caused any issue, the on road performance for the first ride was very inspiring and better than expected.

All in the Sava after limited miles seems like a decent tyre for Dual sport use and if the mileage claims are to be met then I think I will stay with them for the long term, I will update this review as my mileage increases and we get a some better conditions to start seeing what they will really be like on the road.




For the record this is a personal review and I have no affiliation to Sava as a brand or any tyre retailer..
 
Like your post, they sound good.
I have always fancied trying a set of knobblies and doing a bit of 'gentle' green laning in the Peak District.
I have ordered a pair £145 delivered, 48 hours delivery and will put them on when my Tourance Next tyres have worn out later this year.
Off to Norway this summer just into The Arctic Circle but my guess is that won't need anything more than road tyres due to all being good Tarmac, I think????????
Itspilsbury
 
UPDATE

Thought I should give a update on these,

I have now had a set of Sava MC60's fitted all through last winter and this summer and apart from having to get a new rear tyre very early on due to the biggest nail in the history of the world going through the side wall (just before the essex greenlane trip I might add) they have been perfect.

I have done a fair few longer motorway rides and the wear thus far is great, offroad they are about as good as you will get with a knobbly and on the twisties I almost forget I have a offroad biased tyre.

All in I am sold and will continue to use these for both my GS's
 
Sava tyres

Hi
Now it’s three years or so down the line, are you still using these tyres?

What are your truly long term thoughts?

Tom
 
Would I be right in thinking that Sava are a sub brand of Continental ??
 


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