Michelin tyres have usually been my first choice no matter which bike I have been riding and their Anakee 3 hoops are currently fitted to my ’09 660 Tenere —

I have tried other makes and been impressed with the Metzler Tourance but the wear pattern on the Metzler doesn’t rock my boat so last time round I fitted Anakee’s front and rear —

My friends at Oponeo offered me a choice of ‘soft’ or ‘hard’. Being a tightwad I decided to sacrifice some grip in favour of better wear. That front has had a bit of hammer on our grippy sou-west roads over the past two years and – unlike some – it is still wearing evenly.

It’s fairly easy to get out to the tyre walls front and rear and both have been known to let go at times when on her side.

Just little buttock clinchers so far – nothing too dramatic – unless we get on to the slimy stuff like we did today where the cleats fill up with mud and things can get a bit ‘iffy’ —

She stayed sticky side down on wet/dry and gravel washed roads as we ran up by Loch Ken and over to Clatteringshaws —

with occasional blinks of blue skies and sunshine helping to lift the mood —

but there was the occasional grey cloud threatening —

Thankfully the rain stayed away and some rock strewn forest roads took the Ten and I over to the picnic spot I was hoping to check out on the lochside in brilliant sunshine —

Don’t be fooled by the grass underfoot.for she was very greasy on top of the ground as we slid in there and mild enough to bud the catkins on the willows by the lochside —

All too soon a glimpse of darker skies to the north —

was enough to see this lightweight saddle up once more and haul ass out of there 🙂