Mefo Tire Review

I've run two sets of Mefo 99s on my KLR now and thought it would be a good time for a review.

My ride is a 2005 klr650, used mostly for the daily work commute. I live in central Indiana, riding mostly paved secondary roads (90%) though I do ride some gravel (10%). I hit an occasional farm lane but rarely get in the dirt.

The first set of Mefo's were installed on July 4, 2006 at a cost around 200$ from Arrowhead. They were retired in June 2008 with 8,100 miles and probably would have made 9,000 but I don't like the feel of squared-off rear tires so may have changed them a little early. I change my own tires and these weren't too hard to install.

Overall, i thought the Mefos were a good buy. The 8,000 miles was much better service than the OEM's ~5,000. They handled very well on the pavement, very sticky when leaned over though on some chip-sealed surfaces the front would feel a little squirrelly going straight down the road. They were better than the OE on wet pavement. I'm not an extremely agressive rider but do push it occasionally and I never had a tire related slip on pavement with the Mefos. The front end still felt squirrelly on gravel but no worse or better than the OE. I think crappy gravel performance is just the nature of the KLR. As you can see in the pictures below, the rear wore flat but the front wore into a funny saw blade pattern. I didn't really notice any handling from this wear pattern. Overall, I was satisfied with these so replaced them with another set.

The second set was installed on June, 2008 at a higher cost around 240$, again from Arrowhead. These are going to be retired in September 2009 with 7,700 miles, though they probably would have made 8,500. The rear was a harder install with this set but maybe I was having a bad day. This set didn't last quite as long as the first set but i feel like it may have been my fault. With the first set, I was anal about keeping the pressure within 1 or 2 pounds of the maximum pressure listed on the tire. On the second set, I experimented with lower pressures for the first couple thousand miles, looking for better gravel performance, then went back to the higher pressures when I thought they were wearing too fast.

Overall, i thought these were a good buy too, though the extra cost made them less so. The performance, both mileage and handling was basically the same as the first set. A good tire, no problems.

So, overall i liked the Mefos but I'm going to try something new this time around. The Mefos have increased in price (270$ as set!!) to the point where given the performance, I just don't see them as a good value. I'm going to try a lower priced, more street oriented tire this time and am currently looking at the Shinko 705 at around 110$ per set.

Hope this helps someone.

Here are pictures of the worn out Mefos.


Mefo Set 1 Front 1

Mefo Set 1 Front 2

Mefo Set 1 Rear 1

Mefo Set 2 Front 1


Mefo Set 2 Front 2


Mefo Set 2 Rear 1

Mefo Set 2 Rear 2