These sizes have been unavailable for a while, and now we know why - production has been confirmed on brand new tubeless versions of both these popular sizes, and stock should be here in Australia around mid-March.

Tubeless tyres can be fitted to standard rims with a tube, of course, but if you have tubeless rims on your bike you've either had restricted options or you've had to change (or modify) your rims to accept tubes. No more! With the arrival last year of the 150/70 E-10's, and then the 150/70 E-07's, and now the upcoming tubeless 140/80 E-07's, you are spoilt for choice in tubeless Mitas tyres for your large adventure bike - and there are even more on the way!

You begged for them, now they're here - our most popular 'Dual Sport' tyres, now in larger 150/70 sizes and - wait for it - tubeless!

The E-07 has been a hardwearing mainstay of long-distance tourers and charity riders for years, its versatile pattern giving solid performance on a wide range of surfaces and firm terrains. These new additions are great news for BMW and KTM riders. See your friendly local Mitas dealer for details.

We now have stock of the E-10 in 18 & 21inch (KTM) sizes. The E-10 has proven itself to be a big hit with the BMW and V-Strom guys, now KTM riders can see what all the fuss is about with these superb tubeless belted-bias hybrids. See your friendly local Mitas dealer for details.

Bill from Kiwi Rider Magazine was impressed by the new E-10's when he tried them on his "favourite 300km loop from Martinborough, taking in mostly gravel, smooth and muddy roads, connected with windy and varying tar seal. Saturday morning, wet and drizzly - even better to see what grip was available in such conditions ... a fairytale ride. There's nothing like the feeling a crisp brand new tyre gives you as you head off on that first ride"

Mark Davis has just ridden 20,000km across three continents in an effort to raise funds for the purchase of a $50,000 humidicrib for the Bonnie Babes Foundation. Mark chose Mitas E-07 and E-09 Dakar tyres for the trip, with the intention of letting the hardwearing dual-sport E-07's take most of the kilometres and reserving the more aggressive Dakars for tougher terrain. He writes:

"I am back in Sydney after the around the world trip. I wanted to comment on their performance. I started out on the E-07s and switched over to the E-09s I had been carrying after about 4,000 km of bitumen and 1,000 km of gravel when I knew it was dirt coming up in Mongolia. The E-09s went on in the capital, Ulan Bator, and saw about 2,000 km of dirt/mud/sand and gravel. They were well suited to the conditions and I was grateful to have them. My Italian riding partner for that part of the trip had Tourances and came off in the mud 4 times in one day. He also flatted three times in the week it took to cross Mongolia.

"I decided to leave the E-09s on once back to the bitumen in Russia and just let them wear down. I thought it might only be a few days. Well, they were still looking like new at Novosibirsk, still in great shape at Ekatrinburg, at Moscow, at Kiev, fine for the autobahn of Poland and Germany (even in the rain) all the way to Belgium. I then thought I would change them when I got to the USA but they looked fine. I rode west to Ohio through a thunderstorm and when I got the bike serviced the shop reckoned the tyres were still good so I pressed on. It rained like hell in Illinois and Iowa, with flooding even cutting off the interstate for a couple of hours but I never noticed a lack of grip. I finally changed them in Denver Colorado even though they still had plenty of miles left in them - I just didn't want to carry a set of spares on to California where shipping them back to Oz on the bike was a problem (no belongings allowed with the bike). The E-07's went back on and the Dakars went on to the bike of one of the sales staff.

"So, the E-09s lasted roughly 14,000 km [before going to their second owner], which I think is pretty good.  The red line on the map below shows how far they went.  I never had a flat the whole trip."

More: www.ride4alife.org

Steve from Wee Waa, NSW wanted to let us know about his experience with the E-09 Dakar on his BMW GS650F Dakar. He writes:

"I just completed a 7000km trip from north NSW to Alice Springs and back, riding on E09 Dakars front and rear. 40% tar 60% dirt, all high speed. I would highly recommend these tyres and will use them again on the next trip. The rear tyre is now worn out but the front tyre would do the trip again. I did the same trip last year (with different tyres) and had to change them in Alice to get home."

Thanks for the feedback Steve!

We now have stock of the E-10 in 17 & 19 inch (BMW/V-Strom) sizes, and a fine looking beast it is too. Belted-bias construction gives you all the flexibility, traction and stability of a radial, with the sidewall strength of a cross-ply for endurance in serious off-road conditions. See your friendly local Mitas dealer for details.

Greg (via email) prefers the lighter E-09 Adventure on his heavily modified BMW R80 G/S:

"I find the contruction strength and milage of the Adventure version totally acceptable. The ease of changing them makes trail-side repairs possible - I've never had to do it, but I do fit them with the tools in my standard BMW tool roll. I can't do this with the heavier Dakar version. I run standard (not HD) tubes. After spending a fortune reducing unsprung weight, I don't want to put the fat back in with stuff that is over rated and over weight for the use I give the bike.

What I like about the E09 is the good tread depth, it is stable enough not to wear too fast but deep enough to hook up on soft surfaces. Tyres with deeper knobs wear the first half of their depth in the first 30 % of the tyre's useful life, leaving me with a flat crown radius section for the remaining 70% of the tyre's life.

The E09 retains its profile well into the first 70% of its life, which gives me good transition to the edge and better hook-up when cranked over than a full knobby that is past it's prime at 30% of its life."

Thanks for the feedback Greg!

In late August two doctors headed off to circumnavigate Australia on BMW G650X Enduro bikes, to raise money for SCKOPING - a network established to support the needs of children with parents with mental illness by giving them adventure holidays throughout the year.

Dr Christopher Lilley is a Consultant Psychiatrist who specialises in the treatment of children and adolescents and practices from the Child and Youth Mental Health Service in Maroochydore. Dr Franco Ambrosio specialises in the diagnosis and treatment of skin cancers at Skin Alert Clinic, Minyama.

18,000km, 10 weeks, 4 states, 1 puncture (fixed 3 times!!!), 1 warped brake disk, a few days of electrical problems, 2 sets of tyres, chains, sprockets, 1 sand storm in the desert, 1 day of rain, 2 sore rear ends, many amazing sights, and 1700 photos later, the doctors returned with high praise for the MItas tyres that carried them safely on their way:

"Both Franco and I were amazed by the Mitas E-07 tyres and had considered them as the tyre for our trip after long and hard searching of the internet forums and from recommendation by Dave at AussieBiker. True to form they outlasted many tyres we have previously used, with my rear tyre covering 11000km before being changed. The second set are still roadworthy after a further 7000km on our return from Perth to Queensland.

"Our trip covered both sealed and unsealed roads, including the Savannah Way, Gibb River Road, Great Central Road, Oodnadatta Track and Birdsville Tracks. This provided many varied surfaces, from bitumen to sand, gravel to hard-pack. The tyres were tough and reassuring, struggling only in very loose sand. If they lost grip then the slip was progressive and easy to control.

"Throughout the whole trip we only suffered one puncture and that was caused by a pinch. Considering the sharp gravel and gibbers that we hit, this in itself is a huge testament to the strength and reliability of the tyres.

"In all we were so pleased with our choice that we believe that the Mitas E-07 is the best tyre currently available for Australian adventure riding."

More: www.lwdu.blogspot.com

Trelleborg motorcycle tyres, Europe's biggest name in competition motocross and enduro tyres, have been produced by Mitas under a licensing arrangement for many years. As of 2010, this licensing arrangement ends and the Trelleborg name will exit the motorcycle tyre market, but many of the tyres will live on as Mitas "Sport Xtreme".

The tyres themselves will remain unchanged, but the familiar Trelleborg tyre names will cease to be used and an 'X' prefix will be added to the model number, so for example the former Trelleborg Supermaster T-946 will become the Mitas Sport Xtreme XT-946.

Sweden's Motosport magazine has tested eight rear motocross tyres from Dunlop, Kenda, Maxxis, Metzeler, Michelin, Mitas, Pirelli and Viking. The test was carried out by test rider Michael Schwartz in Norrköping on the Kråkvilan motocross course. All rear tyres were tested on the same day with the same air pressure. The tyres were submitted to the same treatment over half an hour, starting on smooth and gravel surfaces. The test included acceleration, braking and shifting according to a repeated pattern.

Schwartz found the performance of the Mitas and Kenda tyres to be the best of the group, but that the Mitas was the hardest wearing while the Kenda had the shortest lifespan in the test. With the Mitas he found:

"full control from the first to the last minute. Excellent balance in all test sections – starting, braking, shifting, acceleration. No major wear despite the tough test conditions. The hardest-wearing tyre in the test. The easiest of the tyres to remove, even though it was slightly difficult at the start.

"This tyre is suitable for both hard and smooth surfaces. Mitas has always achieved both good balance and excellent durability. The tyre can easily be reversed if one side is worn."

More: view pdf (283kb)

MITAS has launched several new products at the MOTOCYKL 2009 Fair in Prague. First, there are the new C-10 and C-11 “Speedy Croc” motocross tyres, which are intended for recreational riding on soft to medium-hard terrain. The tyres exhibit superb guidance and grip in a range of conditions.

Another Mitas innovation is the Multi-Element Mousse – “MEM”. It is a lightweight elastomeric material replacing the classical inner tube. It has been developed especially for off-road races in motocross, enduro, and off-road rally.

Colin Cooper of Kiwi Rider magazine tries out the Mitas E-09:

Preceding this year’s ‘Most Excellent’ Capital Coast Adventure, Vege advised that I would be trying out a new pair of Mitas E09 tyres. And of course one look at them had me all stressed out.

“Yeah but I gotta cover a lotta kms to get there Vege and these look more aggressive – will they grip on the seal? Blah, blah, blah” – yep, resisting change again. But I did as I was told, and wish to report a welcome discovery – 3,500km of tarseal, and not even half worn on the rear. That is a surprisingly better wear rate than expected for a more open knobby tyre. Seal grip is satisfactory (but cautious) in the wet, and surprisingly capable in the dry. I had expected some drop in grip from such an aggressive off-road oriented tyre, but no way did I imagine I would get more than 1,000km out of it. The front does take a hammering if there’s lots of heavy braking – but that’s the same on any knob though. But what about grip off-road you ask?

"I’m glad you asked. In fact I’d have to say that wear rate aside the foremost feature of the Mitas tyres is their outstanding dirt and mud traction securing confidence in wrestling the 240kg ‘don’t-drop-me-or-I’ll-smash-my-fairings’ Cagiva. So Vege, I concede I am resistant to change, but now I am enjoying an extremely versatile set of tyres suiting an adventure ride with flexibility of whatever terrain may be encountered over the course of its next trip."

More: view pdf (162kb)

Mitas announces plans to launch 5 new tyres under the Mitas banner. Previously produced for another major 'premium' tyre brand, the Mitas E-10 will be available in the following big bike sizes:

110/80-19 E-10 59H TL Front
90/90-21 E-10 54H TL Front
150/70-17 E-10 69H TL Rear
140/80-17 E-10 69H TL Rear
140/80-18 E-10S 70H TL Rear