Ok first lets start with what we mean by Mullet, we don't mean the classic 80's hair style but what tyres to run for Dual Sport Adventure, everyone has a preference and everyone has an opinion, so were not going to tell you what to run, just what we run and why.. and maybe help make a decision.. At the end of the day tyre choice has so many dependencies you really need to think about what you are going to do, where and when.
So what is a Mullet set-up for a Dual Sport or Adventure bike? Well simply its running a different style of tyre from the front to the back, Beartooth on ADVRider.com described it perfectly as 'business up front and party time on the back...' when referring to a more lightweight dual sport moto, and, we couldn't agree more.
Here is what we run depending on the type of Bike and Adventure were going on.
Our 500 EXC is the go to bike for us, for just about everything, we ride it to the trails so it needs to be nice on road and off-road, where the fun is, when you hit the off road sections. So what we run is a road legal enduro tyre up front and a full 50/50 60/40 road bias on the rear currently the Maxxis Road Legal Enduro tyre and the Mefo Explorer on the rear. That way when off-road we get a really good 'bite' on the front when hitting corners and run a lower pressure making for great traction especially when on rocky loose ground, it is front that needs to bite and the rear can be a bit looser so you can control a power slide. The downside is in thick mud and steep inclines where the rear does not get as much traction, anything is possible with the right momentum and the right attitude. We also ran this setup on our KTM 950 Super Enduro for a trip across Morroco and it worked perfectly even in the Fesh Fesh!
Our GSA we actually run the reverse Mullet where we run a more Dual 50-50 tyre up front and a more aggressive rear tyre, big heavy adventure bikes need to have more traction off-road on the rear to help the bike go forward, off-road speeds tend to be lower and therefore a more dual sport tyre is perfectly sufficient up front for nearly all situations.
So what do you run and in shat conditions? Comments below.