Reise Moto trailR tyre test: Not treading lightly
It was only a couple of months ago that Reise Moto, a division of the Mahansaria group, joined hands with European brand Mitas to manufacture two-wheeler tyres in Gujarat, India. The group 'Reise' which reads 'travel' in German, currently manufactures six different kinds of tyres - trailR, tourR, traceR, troopR, tripR and twistR that are meant for on- and off-road usage for both motorcycles and scooters in the Indian market.
The range of Reise Moto tyres is quite extensive according to the company's brochure. The trailR, line of tyres are dual-purpose treads (meant for both on-and off-road usage) while the traceR, which uses softer compound rubber, caters to the sportier on-road side of things. The troopR is a tyre specifically designed for commuter motorcycles which is said to balance friction and grip, while the Reise tripR and twistR, are smaller size 'commuter' and 'sporty' design treads for scooters.
We were recently invited to test the company's trailR tyres dual-purpose treads at an adventure camp near Aamby Valley, Maharashtra. We started off by taking a couple of rounds around a tight dust-laden section to get ourselves acquainted with our issued RE Himalayan bikes running the new tyres after which we went straight into a proper technical section riddled with steep gradients, loose rocks, gravel and sand. To say that the Reise trailR tyres offer reassurance offer the loose stuff would be a bit on an understatement. There were a couple of off-road newbies in my batch who kept hitting the dirt, and the tyres allowed me to come to a halt and avoid further catastrophe. I found slowing the bike down over loose rocks quite confidence inspiring, because as long as you maintain balance on the machine, and your rear brake has even the slightest bit of bite in them, the tyres manage the rest very well. The wide grooves on these treads really allows you to dig in find traction, while the little groves on the outer side of the tyre are designed to channel out water, allowing you to throttle hard up through sandy patches, stop on gradients with gravel and rocks, slow waltz through and over large rocks and power out of difficult situations. These tyres give you the chance to ride a bike like this the way it was meant to be ridden, and then some. All in a day's work for these treads off the beaten path. And if felt very comfortable and confidence inspiring all throughout. I even noticed some of the lighter riders reduce tyre pressure to get some more traction over the steep inclines and that worked very well for them, even the ones who inexperienced at it.
We were all given RE Himalayans this time around, and if you've ridden one or read one of our past reviews on any of them, you'll know of the 'go-anywhere' nature of this kind of machine. On this outing the front wheel of the Himalayans were shod with a trailR TT (tubed tyre) 90/90-21 tyre while the rear had a tubed 120/90-17. The trailR TT tyres are also available with the option of 130/80-17 and 120/80-18 section treads too. As far as costs go, each trailR tyre will cost you Rs 3,450 to Rs 4,000 per piece, which might sound la bit steep, but if you're into hitting some light off-road trails on random weekends, having these running shoes on will definitely feel worth every rupee. The tyres sport a chevron tread pattern which, Reise say, has been crafted to maintain stability while reducing the road noise out on paved surfaces. But it'll be some time before we know exactly how these treads fair out on the road, because we didn't time to test out that bit on this occasion, but I have called for a set of trailRs to do just that, so do keep an eye out for that.
The manufacturer tells us that tubeless trailR tyres are in the pipeline, as well as proper full-blown off-road biased treads for two-wheelers like the Royal Enfield Himalayan, Hero Xpulse and KTM Adventure bikes, which sounds like music to our ears after checking out this pair of dual-purpose treads.