April 21, 2008 - Jon Pearson

In the ever-growing Adventure trail bike market your tyre needs to be as much of a hybrid as the bikes themselves. Michelin's Anakee 2 stands up to be counted ... Scroll down for the full story

Michelin has launched an up-dated version of the Anakee, it's tyre for the still fairly limited giant trail bike/adventure tourer bike sector.

The short story is the new 'Anakee 2' steps up the performance of the out-going Anakee (1) without losing any of the tyre's life. So more feel, better grip without the compromise in tyre life you might expect to find.

I obviously can't comment on tyre life, I only rode the Anakee 2 for about an hour, but I can say it did feel as “new and improved” as Michelin led me to believe. We have a short term test BMW 1200GS with Metzeler Tourance hoops on loan at the moment and I took the liberty of borrowing it while Features ed Roots was away. Similarly the last time I rode an Anakee was not that long ago so, back-to-back on the same bike, the Anakee 2 had better drive grip out of turns, felt just as stable at high speeds and had very good front end feel braking into and around corners.

The front end is a crucial area for these heavy bikes which can push hard on their spindly, 110/80-19 front tyre. With the mighty poundage of either a BMW GS or Honda Varadero bearing down on it the feel for even loose gravely surfaces was good. Smoother road surfaces proved the tyre was capable of as much feedback at full lean too.

You'd expect a replacement of a good tyre, especially from a manufacturer with as much clout and expertise as Michelin, to be an improvement. So it should come as no surprise for me to point you at the Anakee 2 next time you need to replace the tyres on your two-wheeled Chelsea tractor. The only snag is you'll need to wait until around June to see them in the shops.

More Michelin info here