Watagans Forest Ride

I had just purchased some new off road tyres for the Royal Enfield Himalayan as I intended to use the bike mainly on dirt roads. There are a vast number of options for off road tyres ranging from 80/20 (80 % road and 20% off road) to 50/50 and even 30/70 which are basically rounded knobby tyres approved for use on the road.

I went with some cheap but effective Mitas tyres that were recommended by Paul who I bought the bike off who also bought some for his new bike and based on a review I watched on YouTube they seem to come in OK for value for money and performance.

I went with the E-07 50/50 Dual Sport and was keen to try them out in the bush as soon as I could

I had the week off after working over Xmas and New Year and the weather forecast seemed to be OK for the Wednesday after the rain we had earlier. So I called Peter and asked him to come along on a ride across the Watagan Forest.

We met at Wyong after an hour’s ride up the freeway and then took some back roads to the start of the forest road.

We climbed up onto a ridgeline and the tyres went great on the dirt / gravel etc

As we ventured deeper into the forest the road got worse with some thick heavy mud.

There were deep tyre ruts from four wheel drives that made it hard to change lines . The Mitas E-07 tyres  went exceptionally well

Peter trying to get out of a rut

Eventually it got worse

Peter got stuck

Peters bike had half worn Pirelli Scorpion MT60 ( i think) and they did not do as well  as the Mitas due to the tighter tread blocks not clearing mud

Eventually we got him out

word-image

Stopped for a break at the Picnic area

word-image

We were a bit worn out with all the mud and slow going and were getting hungry so we headed down to Cooranbong for some lunch at a café and then hit the road back to Sydney

I was very impressed with the Mitas tyres and would get them again if I dont go for something more aggressive next time