Comparing the Metzeler Karoo 3 to the Continental TKC80 on the R1200GS
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- I recently had the opportunity to compare the Metzeler Karoo 3 tyres to the Continental TKC80 tyres, both fitted to a 2016 BMW R1200GS. The purpose was to determine which one performed better in the Australian riding conditions I mostly rode in and on a heavy adventure bike.
The end result might surprise a few, though remember this: (a) it is based on my experience and only after riding these in similar conditions over the course of a few thousand kilometres, and (b) it's simply a comparison and not a technical review.
NOTE: This is not a technical review so it’s important to point out the author has expressed an opinion based on 44 years of motorcycle riding experience including 15 years of off road racing (enduro and motocross). He is also a currently serving track riding coach with the Asia-Pacific branch of the California Superbike School.
Finally someone made a proper comparison of these tires!
Cheers mate, glad you like it
cheers mate
Excellent review .... just what I was looking for .... and pleased it reaffirms my own appraisal of both tyres. Been a big Metzler Karoo 3 fan since I did a big bike sand course in South Africa before I rode around the world .... cheers ... great review
Cheers, thanks mate
Muchas gracias por la comparativa, yo estaba dudando entre TKC80 y KAROO3 para mi Benelli TRK502X. Al final me he decidido por la KAROO 3.
Cheers mate
Been running the K3's for about 3K miles. Agree with everything you mentioned. Many reviews indicate that the TK's are the bomb on pavement. As a former road racer I can vouch for the fact that the K3's will let you drag whatever you want on the pavement if you have the requisite skill. In the rain they are also very solid, but don't quite offer they feel of a Road Pilot 4/5. Off road they're absolutely solid as well. My only gripe is that the noise level is quite high when running 35-45 MPH. Other speeds lower/higher and they're fine.
I agree totally, aside from the bit of noise, I am super impressed with the K3s
agree with you mate, they are quite noisy but damn they perform well
Shinko 804/805 combo. Been using them for 100,000 miles 50/50 and love them. You get 2 full sets for what less than 1 set of either of these cost. Yeah yeah but they don't look as cool at Starbucks on your waxed GS wearing full hard Touraturd gear.
maybe I better give these a run
Mate, I had a Shinko 804 on my Versys a few years ago and found it very unreliable on wet bitumen. Took up praying and swore I'd never get another one. The Karoo 3s are just like an Italian road tyre on wet tarmac.
The best comparison I have found online. Honest informative and practical....straight to the point.... appreciate this video..
Cheers mate, much appreciated
glad you like it, gotta call it as it is
Great review. Short and covered all the points. Thanks!
Cheers mate
I was driving the tkc-80 in wet offroad on the alps. I was feeling very safe, and with exceptional/superb traction in any condition, even on my heavy Guzzi Stelvio. Now this video inspired me a genuine curiosity about the Karoo 3...
Give them a try, I am super impressed with both the offload and bitumen performance. They turn on bitumen a bit slower than the Karoo Street as one would expect but overall they're exceptional. I'm getting another set.
worth a try for sure mate
The Karoo3 performs great on dry surfaces but the front tire is TERRIBLE when it's wet! Unpredictable on tarmac and virtually no grip on wet grass or in mud. I'm happy with the back tire but I will definately switch to something else on the front! (ktm 790r)
A real review by a real Australian for our very 'real' roads! About bloody time.
Cheers mate :-)
No worries, I love my TKC80, does almost everything pretty well, bit soft in the carcass and sidewall but otherwise very, very predictable. I'm trying the Karoo from next week, based partly on your review. Let's see how we go.
Excellent comparison. Very simple, straight forward and complete. Thanks so much!
cheers mate, thanks for watching
I've been riding a Honda Africa Twin CRF1100L for the last year and I've been very impressed with the Karoo Street for all round riding. Great on the road, including the wet. I don't have much local access to hardcore offroad, but it works well on the graded green lanes I've been down. Great review by the way
thanks for the feedback mate. I have yet to ride one of those Africa Twins, I hear a lot of good stuff about them. I've done a heap of miles over the past few months on the Karoo Street and gotta say they are fantastic. Unless I'm doing serious off road, these are my go to tyres these days.
Great comparison and info. Thank you!
Hey thanks for watching, cheers
Good comparison - TKC 80's are known to be a bit soft in the shell - part of what makes'm good in the rough I suspect - Karoo 3 & Streets are amazing!
With you on that one, good tyres that do the job is all we ask.
Great comparison. Thank you. I had TKC 80s on my 1090R and now have Karoo 3s on my 790r. Only have 1200 miles on the Karoos but they seem to handle all the rough rocks on the Colorado BDR. I agree, Karoos are definitely better on road. I was questioning if I should go back to a knobby for my desert ride coming up, but I think I will stick to the Karoo and save some bucks.
That's what I'd be doing :-)
Great video and great info!!! Just I felt about this beautiful and powerful KAROO 3. Thank you Sr. Congratulations for your travel spirit, and Best regards from Bogotá Colombia
thanks my friend, and best to you over there in that awesome country ... a place Id love to ride one day
Guauu! Great and Thanks again. Always you are welcome! here is your Home!God Bless You
Very interesting. Rode the TKC80s rather hard on tarmac and off road on my 690 Enduro R, so I am sure you are right when it comes to what bikes the work well with and not.
cheers mate
Extraordinary review. Very thorough. I do not have any experience with the TKC 80, but I do with the Karoo 3 on a 2016 KLR 650. I am a fan of the Metzeler. I am 1500 miles on my Tenere 700, and am not a fan of the stock Pirellis performance in any conditions. I wouldn't say I hate them, but I would not go with them again. The Karoos are on my short list of preferred replacement candidates
thanks for the comments Steven, they're a great tyre, Metzeler has done a really good across their entire range. My least favourite has been the Michelin Anakees which came standard on the GS, had some horrible moments on those. I've yet to test the Karoo Street version that Metzeler have brought out, they should be superb for bitumen use with some off road.
Great review. It seems like all the other videos I find either recite the manufacturer's marketing blurbs or you get some guy saying, "Well, honestly, I don't really ride much off-road, but..." So thanks for breaking it down as you did, and for giving us something to compare it to. Super helpful!
Glad you like this approach mate, my plan is always to test them the way they were meant to be used and then look for both the things I like and what I didn't. Currently doing a number of hard bitumen runs on these up various ranges and will report of how they go on bitumen ... so far very surprising.
cheers, thanks for the comment
Great comparison! Thanks!
cheers mate
Noise wise, my experience with the Karoo 3s is that they were way too loud. They performed great on the street, and were good in the dirt, but not very good in gravel. The road noise, price, and the mileage I ended up getting out of the rear made me start looking at other tires.
Went to a Mitas E-07 Plus for a rear tire and it has been doing pretty good so far. My Honda NC700x runs a 17" front wheel, and the TKC80 is really the only knobby I can buy in the stock front size (120/70-17) but Mitas sells their E-09 rear tire in a 120/90-17 size. It fit my wheel, but my stock fender would not go back on with the larger tire. Off road I saw a lot better performance out of the E-09, but if it rained I would get soaked because I didn't have a fender.
I recently swapped over to the TKC80 on the front, and it works ok, but I'm pretty convinced that I need to spend the time to make a custom fender to make that E-09 my front tire. It's just so much better off road, and it works pretty good on the road too.
thanks for the info mate, I might have to try the Mitas myself
Good review. A fair, real-world comparison. Well done!
thanks mate
Great job !
A real world review, great job
cheers glen, sorry so long acknowledging your comment mate
Thanks Bike Stig, I've been using Karoo 3s since I bought my F700GS 3 years ago and I was wondering if maybe there's something better out there. Also watched a review of the Anakee Adventures. Think I'll stick with the Metzelers.
Im a Metzeler fan Anthony. Just put on a set of Karoo Street to do some testing, should be interesting as all reports indicate they perform well off road too. I did ride on them in the mounts of New Zealand in mud and snow and also on bitumen, loved them.
THANK YOU FOR THIS REVIEW AND FOR ALL THE INFO ✌✌✌
G DAY MATE FROM CANADA
Haha, gidday back at ya mate, cheers for watching. What I would give to do some riding around Canada!
Hi and thanks for the video. I've just found this channel tonight. I was very impressed with your delivery and thinking to try the Karoo3s on my 1200adventure...until I watched another of your videos which had a Metzeler banner as the backdrop. I'm sorry, but being new to this channel, I'm not familiar with your backstory. Would you please let us know what your relationship is with Metzeler and whether this bears any influence on the advice you represent ? Cheers, Dean
Thats a fair question Dean. When I put the studio back drop in place I asked different manufacturers for some branded items, only Metzeler obliged. We also run Metzeler tyres on the coach bikes at the California Superbike School where I coach, previously Dunlop. Other than that, I buy all of my own tyres and have no affiliation or obligations with any manufacturer. I just like good shit that works :-) ... cheers mate
Hi George,
Thanks for your reply and putting me right regarding the total independence of your reviews. As I said, apart from my query about affiliation, I very much appreciated your review and found it well presented, comprehensive, balanced and informative. It’s great for the rest of us that people such as yourself take the time and effort to put together such useful videos.
Thanks again, and I will be giving the Karoo3’s a try on my next trip - Outback Way, west to east. Cheers mate, Dean
In changing to the K3, I’ll be coming off the Heidenau K60, so if you have any views or comparisons between those two, I’d be very appreciative.
Thank you for a great comparison
Cheers mate
Great review but here is a question I ride a Yamaha S10 and is almost time for new shoes , I prefer a more aggressive front tire so which would you prefer
Metzeler karoo street rear and karoo 3 up front OR
Motoz tractionator gps rear and adventure up front
Regards from Cape town
I really like the performance of the Metzeler but have to say I have not tested all of the off road tyres that are available as most of my time is on bitumen these days. Re your question, if I was looking for that type of mix (which I've never done By the way) id go go the Karoo way as you described. Primarily because I don't know enough about the Motoz Tractionator range mate. Sorry im not that big a help.
Great review✅👏✅
Cheers mate
BMW Enduro School in Germany uses Karoo 3 on their bikes.
Not surprised. I think there's some commercial deals behind some safaris here in Australia using the continental on the Beemers. Business doesn't always mean the best tyres are used I guess.
@@TheBikeStig tried both TKC 80 and Karoo 3 and find them similar. Karoo 3 are much cheaper than TKC 80 in Europe. So, I usually take them for this reason.
Thanks for doing this, I have a GS and have been trying to find a comparison between these two tyres. I know the BMW ORS use the Karoo 3's, but didn't know if this was due to commercial arrangements with their tyre supplier. Thanks.
cheers mate, sorry so slow responding as I just saw this. I've whacked on a set of Karoo Street and am doing some testing of those now, will be interesting.
Really neat explaination! Karoo 3 is good tires in this case
Thanks Oleg, I'm officially a fan now and have stuck with Metzeler's
@@TheBikeStig I use karoo 3 couple of years ago but I didn't like couse I need more sporty feeling on tarmac. That why I love Pirrelli rally STR.
Now I try karoo steet, is ok but not as good as rally STR. But for best off road performance Karoo 3 is best choice. I think Metzeler need to find one more balance! Something between Karoo 3 and Karoo street. Pirrelli rally STR is really good on road on and off road tires! Karoo 3 is blast for really hard enduro but on tarmac is not so good! That only my opinion of course! Cheers and drive safe
@@olegyd I better check out those Pirelli STRs then, my bitumen preference to date has been Metzeler Tourance Next which are brilliant for the road.
Great review I have the MOTOZ tractionator GPS on my GSA 1200 I really like them on and off road how would you compare them, I have 13k on my MOTOZ GPS the front looks like it’s still got 3 or 4000 km left on it.
I haven't done a comparison with the tractionators but hear good things about them. Perhaps one day I'll get the chance. I had heard the mileage on those is quite outstanding.
Thank you for the video
Normally I use pirrelli STR. Just try Karoo 3, is petty good but.. Front tire is round and in the curve just slipped away.. I really didn't like it…
What about longevity?
I've been running the Karoo Street for the past 6 months, very impressed.
Great review.
Thanks Warren, sorry I took so long to acknowledge your comment
Nicely done 👍... except you didn't mention mileage. Am I correct in assuming that with more rubber/ less open tread space the karoo 3 will last longer?
Yea, how long do they last?
Will they match the long mileage of the K60?
Yes that's true, have now done around 3,000ks and about two thirds of that on bitumen. So far the wear rate is better than I expected, definitely better than the TKC80. I'll keep plugging away on these and see what I can get out of them and let you guys know.
@@TheBikeStig I'm at 5k kms on my K3s, and they're performing really well. 90% of my riding is road, so this will affect the outcome. I think there's at least 1-2k kms left on them.
The Bike Stig do you have information now about how long do they last? Tks.
The Karoo 3 are not just a little bit noisier, they are LOUD as AF on road. Not even a comparison in that regard.
No arguments from me, I think I was being nice :-)
Have you had any experience with the Aussie Motoz Tractionators , either GPS and/or Adventures and how they compare to the Karoo's?
Have 5000 kms on a set of motoz tractionators (f800gsa)....I HATE them. Off road they are ok ....on pavement they feel disconected and are louded than spinal tap turned up to 11
Mark Verge I assume that’s the Tractionator Adventures and not the GPS?
No mate, no experience at all with those
Yeah the adventures. Just got a set of karoo 3s