With Michelin’s recent release of the Anakee Wild 50/50 tire, they’ve introduced a worthy competitor to the Continental TKC80 and Metzeler Karoo models, the moving target being durability and tread life. Michelin’s team has shown a commitment to merging traction and control with longevity and their engineers spent three years exploring different tread patterns and multiple compounds before arriving at the final product.

Michelin is one of the world’s leading tire brands and, until now, the dual-sport category was missing from their broad coverage of riding segments. Thoughtful planning behind the scenes produced an offset-block knobby pattern with subtle, assymetric, U-shaped edges which improve the harmonics of the tires on the tarmac. Deeper into the design, a “radial casing” scheme adds an additional corded ply to the crown. This stabilizes the tire at top speeds on the highway and theoretically adds tread life.

ADVMoto joined Michelin’s team of French designers and marketing heads for an all-day test ride in California in collaboration with BMW Motorcycles of Ventura County. For the off-road test we put 200 miles on the Anakee Wild with varying pressures. On the dry blacktop, there was nothing to report after a 90-mile sprint through twisty coastal foothills. No news is good news with regard to noise and vibrations.

Once off road, we rode the front tire in ruts to test for grip and trying to force wash-outs. We then played in moderately deep sand at varying speeds before spending 90 minutes running through every off-road scenario we could throw at the Anakee Wild. We pitched, jumped and plowed a new BMW R1200GS and never felt anything was being sacrificed. The front tire did very well in the deeper sand and mud pit without influencing the steering when riding parallel ruts.

The Verdict: With a slant toward off-road, the Anakee Wild delivers as promised. When compared to our experience with the Karoo 3 and TKC80, the Michelin Anakee Wild is every bit as versatile off road, with no compromise on the highway. The impressive dedication of Michelin’s design team got our attention as they demonstrated the desire to nail this segment on the first go. For serious riders, the true test will be the longevity of tread life versus the Karoo 3 and TKC80. If the Anakee Wild can best its rivals in that feat, Michelin will have raised the bar. We can’t wait to try this new tire on dual-sport bikes with 18-inch rear wheels, but we’ll have to, since size options are currently limited to (front) 120/70 R19 M/C 60R and 110/80 R19 M/C 59R; and (rear) 150/70 R17 M/C 69R and 170/60 R17 M/C 72R. MSRP: $164 - $185 Motorcycle.MichelinMan.com

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