The Dunlop Geomax AT82 has been fitted to our Sherco 300 SEF Factory long-term race bike for the past couple of months, and rather than just hitting a few trail rides, they went straight into race conditions. The first outing was the Roma round of the AEC, which threw just about everything at them: hardpack, dust, loamy creek beds and plenty of rocks. That was followed by the two-day Dungog enduro of the AEC, where the conditions were again dry and dusty with patches of soft loam hidden throughout the trails.
Fitting was straightforward. The sidewalls sit somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, not as soft as a Michelin but not overly stiff either, making them easy enough to fit with heavy-duty tubes. We skipped the standard tubes in favour of heavy-duty units to reduce the chance of pinch flats, and there were no issues during testing.
One of the standout features of the AT82 is its reversible tread design. We mainly ran the soft-terrain direction but did try flipping the front for harder conditions. There is a noticeable difference on hardpack with a fresh leading edge on the knobs, but after trying both, we still preferred the soft-direction setup as the best all-round option.
Where the AT82 really impressed was outright grip. The front tyre is exceptional and inspires a huge amount of confidence. It tracks accurately, hangs onto off-cambers well and gives plenty of feedback when pushing into turns. In fact, we’d rate the front as a significant improvement over the Geomax MX34.
The rear tyre has a slightly different character. On initial corner entry it doesn’t quite bite as aggressively as the MX34, but everywhere else it performs better. I’ve got a heap more on this but will hold off until we do a full evaluation with more time using them. Oh and durability? So far so good, in fact better than any other tyre buy more on that in a few months too. Jeff Briggs
RRP: $142.95 (front), $187.95 (rear)
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