A few of you have expressed some interest in my experiences with these tires. Having accumulated 2,000 miles on them, I thought this would be a good time for an update.
Living in AZ, my Talon is street legal. I end up running a fair amount of miles on pavement, perhaps 30% or more. This is the primary reason that I chose the KO2s. I understand that there are quite a few DOT rated UTV tires available today. The difference is that the KO2s are designed for highway usage on vehicles weighing much more than a Talon. Simply put, I feel safer on these tires on the highway. The KO2s work well on the pavement. They are quiet enough that I cannot hear them over all of the other Talon noise. As I pointed out earlier, there is an increase in steering effort on pavement at low speeds. I think this is due to the KO2s putting a lot of rubber on the ground. As I mentioned earlier, I settled on running at 10 PSI, and found the ride to be very comparable to the stock tires.
I have also run these tires on all of the other terrain that I commonly ride, including rocky trails, sandy trails, gravel/dirt roads, and sandy washes. I am probably not super demanding of my tires, but these have not let me down yet. In the last 10 days I have had the "opportunity" to run on quite a bit of muddy roads. Now, I don't normally run in a lot of mud, and I don't like mud. The KO2s would clearly not be the first choice for anyone who does ride in mud. But, in my recent experience they did pretty well. Yes, they pack up pretty quickly- see the picture below.
I have a matching spare tire and wheel, and plan to do 5 tire rotations at approximately 1000 miles. Having done just one rotation so far, I have 3 tires with 2,000 miles, and 2 tires with 1,000 miles. The KO2s have 15/32" tread when new. The tires with 2,000 miles now measure very uniformly at 13/32". The tires with 1,000 miles measure at 14/32". I realize this is a pretty short test period, but that comes out to about 1/32" of tread wear per 1,000 miles. I will be watching this going forward, but it looks like I should be able to get at least 10,000 miles out of these. I am pretty sure I would do much better if I cut back on the pavement. I sure wish the Talon had a selectable locker in the rear! The tires show no irregular wear. These tires have a 50,000 mile warranty, but I don't think I will be able to collect on that!
As a bonus, I have had absolutely no air pressure loss, even though I am running on beadlock wheels. I have been riding ATVs for 40 years, and every one had loss of tire pressure. It is very nice not to have to worry about checking tires all of the time.
When I bought these tires, they were about $140 each, which I thought was a very good value. Like most everything in this country, prices have gone up significantly. They are now $166 at Discount Tire Direct.
I am planning a trip to Sand Hollow in early October. I expect to encounter some deep sand there. I don't expect my KO2s to be great sand tires, although we shall see. Warning- reminiscing coming! Many years ago i had a 1978 Jeep J-10 pickup with a 360 4 barrel and 4 speed. I had BFG All Terrains on that truck- 10.00x15, don't remember the diameter, probably 30". That was a decent sized tire in those days. I had a limited slip in the front and a TrueTrac in the rear. We used to go to the Silver Lake sand dunes on Lake Michigan. That truck did really well in the dunes on those tires. The tires on the Talon are ~.5" narrower, on a vehicle that weighs half as much. So it may not be too bad....... i don't expect them to perform like paddles! Anyway, I will try to give a quick update after that trip.
So, as I said very recently, I remain very happy with these tires. Based on my first 2,000 miles of experience, I would buy them again.
Pictures will show a tire loaded up with mud, and a tire as it looks now with 2,000 miles.
Let me know if you have any questions.
