Shinko 705 Dual Sport Tires

I have purchased 14 of these tires for extended club touring on various dual sport and adventure touring bikes including Yamaha XT-225, BMW F650GS, Suzuki V-Strom 650 etc. After tens of thousands of miles on everything from highway to gravel, to sand and packed dirt, I am totally sold. This tire, especially the radial version, is THE BEST DEAL ON THE MARKET. It is a fantastic road tire while still providing good control in gravel, packed dirt, on the beach etc. The only place this tire is not good is in deep mud. It will clog up and provide almost no traction. Since I make a concerted effort to never go there, it does not matter to me.
Tread wear is great on light bikes, average on heavier bikes. I have never had a single tire fail and have worn several down to the cords.

I installed a pair of the Shinko 705 tires on my KLR650 and on my V-Strom. They are a good inexpensive choice for a decent all around tire. On the street and highway I am very pleased with them. Quiet, smooth running with good traction. In gravel and on trails they do well with the pressure is lowered. They are not a mud tire and do not do well in mud. I installed them myself with the same hand tools I carry on the bike. They went on easily and the beads seated right away. I have tubes in the ones on the KLR and no tubes in the ones on the V-Strom. I have ben happy with them and will buy them again.

These tires won't carry you to victory in the Dakar, and they aren't going to be your go to tire for riding dunes. However, they last for an extremely long time, have amazing pavement grip, and they are surprisingly good when you get off the paved road. This will be my third or fourth rear tire. Each rear has given me well over 8k, and I got (no bs) 21k out of my last 705 front. This is on a DR650 with a heavy rider.

We've had several sets of 705s on my R1200 GSA, and we really like them. Our GSA is normally ridden two up, with a total rider weight of 280 lbs. Rears last about 5-7 k miles, and the fronts seem nearly indestructible; my last one finally wore out at about 14K.

The Shinkos remain firmly planted on the asphalt, wet or dry. We also spend time on dirt/gravel fire and logging roads where these tires also seem at home. Gravel performance is good, but mud performance not so much; the treads fill up with gunk leaving the tire surface slick. Fortunately this hasn't been an issue for us as we try to avoid mud!

Overall, an excellent tire for nearly all conditions you might expect on a ride!

I've been running the 705's for awhile now and have really enjoyed them. My main reason for running them is their gravel/dirt grip is very good without going to a full knobby tire like the TKC80. Their dry pavement performance is good and their wet performance is excellent. They also are a lot of value for the money. The front tire is very long lasting and you will easily last 2 rears, maybe 3 to one front. Rear tire wear depends a lot on the rider. A lot of playing off road can wear it out fast while a long trip with easy riding can greatly extend the rear. 5k-8k miles seems to be a good avg range for the rear

Coming from other tires, the 705's have a very neutral profile when leaned over which means the bike doesn't try to stand up on you mid turn. I really enjoy this side of them as it makes them so effortless through the turns. Some riders struggle with this different feeling early on and is what many riders interpret as a "very fast fall in". It is most pronounced when they are new and can be mitigated by running a bit lower pressure early on. After a little time on them, you develop the correct muscle memory needed and will probably enjoy their neutral handling.

Another great aspect of these tires is when you do lower the pressures to ride off road 20-25psi, their on road performance is not compromised like other tires. They still handle very well on the pavement at these lower pressures and give great performance on the gravel/dirt.

KLR 650 - I bought this tire (rear only) for a road trip 95% on road with possibilities of some fire trails. I needed something that would last longer than the average DS tire and it has. About 4300 miles on it and still has some life. Handles very well even on damp roads. Didn't have the balls to lean to hard in the rain but was dragging pegs on the dragons tail even in damp areas. Most miles on this tire were at 80mph.

I ride mostly back roads, and a ton of forest service stone roads. My Anakee II's came off around 5000 miles with the rear almost worn out, and front was not much better.

Now I have 3000 miles on the 705's (front and rear). Front still seems nice, but back is getting old. I expect to get another 1000 miles out of the back and I bet front will last as long as 2 back tires.

Traction:
Stone/hard dirt/ maybe wet hard pack (read slime coat, not deep mud), they have more traction then the Anakee 2's. But as they age, the size of the cutting edge goes down and so does traction.

Street During aggressive road riding (dry) I feel the Anakee's are better. These seem to slip a little on corners at times where the Anakee's hang on. They will wear real fast if you push them hard on Black Top.

I have the radial rear. It has one 1/2 long crack at the leading edge of one treads, not sure if I picked something up on the road, or is it stress, but it does not seem to be getting worse.

Wet road. they seem very predictable on wet roads, but I slow down when it's wet anyway.

they do have a little more vibration at city speeds then the Anakees, but that is because of the wider gap between tread pads. You feel when you first put the tires on, but you don't think about it after a couple miles.

For the price, I will be buying more of them until something else like the mitas E-07 comes available in the USA
(Maybe Anthony can become the USA distributor, Are you listening Anthony?)

This is an excellent tire, especially for the money. I have been very pleased with the traction this tire provides both on road and off. I have put just under 5,000 miles on the set with little visible wear on the front and the remaining tread on the rear should last another 2,000 miles or so. In the wet the tire is stable and predictable.

I installed a pair on my Honda CRF250 when the stock IRCs started looking thin. I got 9K miles from them and reasonable performance but since I do predominately street riding, I felt it best to move to a more street oriented tire. These Shinkos filled the bill at a most attractive price. I immediately notice a smoother, quieter ride with adequate traction on dirt/gravel roads. The turn-in was much quicker and they provide very snappy handling overall. I haven't ridden in rain yet and obviously haven't worn them out in 3K but I gave them the benefit of the doubt when I did the ratings. They show little wear at this point so I'm confident they'll go noticeably further then the originals. One odd thing I did notice at first was a rumble not unlike a bad bearing, when decelerating from 5 mph to a stop. It's not a problem and seems to have become less noticeable now, but caused me some concern til I figured where the noise was coming from. Overall, I'm very pleased with them, especially for the price.

Impressed with it performance on off road and really good on the road; already over 1K miles and still look new; we know is not a long lasting tire but it meas soft rubber and that means grip.