Michelin Anakee Adventure review & first impressions

Last Updated on: June 4, 2024

Michelin Anakee Adventure was introduced early 2019. As reviews appeared it seemed evident that Anakee Adventure was a tire to be had.

But how good are they? Naturally I had to find out.  The tires from last year were almost done. So my BMW R1200GS Adventure was fitted with a set of the Anakee Adventure.

BMW GSA fitted with Michelin Anakee Adventure tires

2016 BMW GSA fitted with Michelin Anakee Adventure tires

Michelin Anakee Adventure – first impressions

Michelin Anakee Adventure was chosen because I wanted to try something new. Have had great experiences with the former set, Metzeler Karoo Street. These are great tires as well, you can read more here.

The immediate impression of the Michelin Anakee Adventure is that Michelin have attempted, like Metzeler with Karoo Street tire, to marry two worlds.  Attempted to bridge road qualities, with off-road qualities, and gravel or dirt capabilities. You can read details about the compound and materials elsewhere, like here for instance.

My post is more about the overall first impressions.

The thread pattern, block formations and spacing in-between is very different from those of, for instance, Karoo Street. Which proves to show that in order to come up with a good formula, it’s about the totality of contributing factors.

What hit me before, while scrutinizing the patterns and construction, is that, well at least to me, Anakee Adventure do have some commonalities with Michelin Sirac.  But the pattern is rougher, and the blocks are bigger.

Michelin Anakee Adventure

Michelin Anakee Adventure front tire

Michelin Anakee Adventure on dry pavement

Norway, and as much my region, has lots of different road types. The sort that would explain why adventure motorcycles sells so well. Pavement ranges from the neat and smooth, to the incomprehensibly bad, rough, bumpy, with cracks or fissures the size of the San Andreas fault line.

Gravel or pavement, variations exists in abundance. More about this later.  Given the range of pavement there was no need to go very far to gather the first impressions. I just had to head out on the country side which isn’t  far away from Oslo.

What hit me immediately, and during the following hours, can be summed up as follows:

Comfort

Michelin Anakee Adventure gives an immediate feeling of comfort. The likes I’ve only had with 90/10 or much more road biased rubber. From low speed and up to >100/110 + km/h no difference, the comfort was excellent. Still, they communicate in a way that makes riding in high speed, or so I’d imagine, highly predictable.

I’ve done enough distances, like 3 times in Europe, with various types of tires to say that, unless you only aim for offroad riding, comfort is (to me) absolutely paramount. Suffice to say, very much looking forwards to do an Euro trip this summer with these tires!

Noise

Have to say, although I’ve read quite a few reviews, I was kinda apprehensive about this particular subject. But I quickly realized, it was true.

Compared to Metzeler Karoo Street Michelin Anakee Adventure are delightfully quiet. The front tire is a world apart from Karoo Street, or its sibling,  Anakee 3 (aka “AnaScream” 3). It would be like comparing a rock concert with a baroque quartet.

In fact the nearest comparison I can make would be the 90/10 Pirelli Scorpion Trail 2. They’re not quite there, but close. I got used to the howling, resonance like sonic (dis)quality of Karoo Street. Anakee Adventure does not produce any noise that bothers me. Huge plus!

Michelin Anakee Adventure rear tire

Michelin Anakee Adventure rear tire, with blocks in variation

Steering, balance and response

Michelin Anakee Adventure is a very well balanced tyre.  It is precise, with responsive steering, awesome balance and response. Regardless of type of pavement, from the rough and bad to the smoother, they were very consistent.  I rode lots of bad pavement roads with fissures, or cracks, bumps and what have we.

Michelin Anakee Adventure behaved as well as I’d expected, in fact it would be fair to say the tires exceeded my expectations. As good, if not better than Karoo Street.

Breaking, cornering

As I broke them in I started to ride more aggressively. And the Michelin Anakee Adventure rear tire set did not let me down, in fact quite the opposite. Oh joy! Extremely well planted, regardless of how I either took corners, or hit the breaks.

They stuck to the various types of pavement as glue. Hard breaking, regardless of where or how was no issue at all. Now dry pavement should normally not be an issue for more modern, high tech tires. Anakee Adventure, whether we talk front or rear, will give you confidence.

Michelin Anakee Adventure on gravel & dirt

I will get back to this later. Not had any possibilities for gravel and dirt riding this far. Have planned to ride into Sweden and do other parts of Norway later. Then it will be a lot about gravel and dirt.

Sweden alone offers in excess of 20.000 kilometers of gravel roads. If you like riding gravel and off the, by tourers, beaten track, then Scandinavia should be on your list! The region of Sweden I’ll be going to next has loads of variation when it comes to gravel, and also dirt.


See also


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9 thoughts on “Michelin Anakee Adventure review & first impressions

  1. Thanks for your review Knut, i am putting the Adventure on front of my F700GS to b followed by rear in a month and half.
    It will replace the Anakee III which i did not like on the road and in the trail( not a lot of experience though).

  2. My pleasure Benoît! I’ve now done ca 8250 kilometers on the set. Remain every bit as pleased as i was during the last update. Plus they also wear nicer and more slowly than the previous Karoo Street.

  3. Hi, just installed a set on my 2014 KTM1190 Adventure after reading a lot on this tyre. Compared with former 20.000km set of Conti TKC70, after 400 km my impressions are:
    – very noisy;
    – very slippery at least till break in;
    – easy cornering but not a safeness feeling;
    – faster reaching the temperature;
    I have changed having in mind the newer technology (2019 vs. 2016), but I regret the decision.

    • Well If nothing else I think this proves how different tyres may behave different depending on bikes. Behavior on my 2016 BMW 1200GSA qualifies as the best tyre this far.

      Also, 400 kilometers is not a lot of miles but as for the rest I have but positive experiences. No tyre I have had on have ever lasted me more than 14k (was a 90/10).

      All this said, next time I will try something else. One only knows what one knows based on personal experience.

  4. Good Day
    If someone gave you a free rear tire Anakee adv or Karoo street which 1 would you choose

    • That is a very interesting question. To be honest with you, I am not sure. It would depend on usage. For Karoo street noise issues are primarily tied to the front wheel. Capabilities and performance is excellent on both.

      Maybe lifespan/longevity is a bit better with Anakee Adventure. At least in my case the rear did not square as quickly. Tough question. Both er great. Karoo Street slightly better offroad.

  5. Hi
    I am going to change tires this week (bmw 1250 gs).
    I have read your article on the pirelli scorpion and karoo street as well. Noise is not an issue for me, as I wear earplugs and my exhaust is very loud.

    I have been down the road 2 years, so I am very new. I would like to buy some tires that are very safe, and dual purpose.

    Despite the coat of the tire, which one would you think performs better, between the anakee adventure, pirelli scorpion rally str and karoo street?

    • Hi Jorge,

      and thank you for your comment! In my opinion Anakee Adventure remains one of the best 80/20 dual sport tires on the market. It’s more road biased than Pirelli Rally Scorpion STR. Even though they both handle roads very well. I have way more experience with this than the STR, latter which I never tried on a BMW GS.

      Neither is will be wrong on your motorcycle. Since you are, as you mention, relatively new to this my inclination would go in the direction of Michelin Anakee Adventure first. But it all depends on your aspirations.

      Rgds

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