I took the GS this morning to get the off-road tyres fitted. They are Continental TKC 80s, a road-legal tyre with a good blocky pattern that should be much better in the mud than the road tyres. I’ll get a chance to try that out tomorrow! On the way home. I was treading somewhat carefully as they were brand new and it started raining so I wasn’t expecting a lot of grip. I especially wasn’t expecting a lot of grip when it started hailing like crazy – sizeable lumps of ice that actually stung my hands through the thinnish gloves I was wearing. You can imagine my joy then, when some bright spark pulled out suddenly in front of me and I had to jam the anchors on 
. Fortunately, the ABS performed brilliantly. I stayed upright without even a wobble and stopped in time even though I had to retrieve my heart from the roof of my mouth. A very scary moment and I am very glad I chose the ABS option.
The tyres feel noticeably different from the Battle Wings I had on before. I can feel the knobbly bits at low speeds and the bike doesn’t tip into the corners like before – needs more steering effort to turn. Nothing extraordinary, just enough to be noticeable really. I shall probably keep these tyres on for the while and see how I get on with them for normal road duties.