Dunlop Motorcycle Tires Geomax AT82 is the successor to the Geomax AT81 – a tire that we reviewed in Upshift 81 . Dunlop's goal in developing the AT82 was to up the performance of the AT81 and create a tire that worked well across the incredibly diverse spectrum of surfaces encountered in off-road racing and riding. By combining decades of tire manufacturing experience, proven technologies, and feedback from some of the world's best off-road racers, Dunlop embarked on a complete tire redesign instead of a mere revision and the result is the Geomax AT82 – a tire that we’ve ridden everywhere from the rocky deserts of Death Valley, to the high Alpine forests of the Colorado Rockies. Spoiler alert: The AT82 is one tire that can do it all.
The AT82 Front features an all-new tread pattern that leverages Dunlop’s Progressive Cornering Block Technology (PCBT) and a revised profile (Hello 90/100-21!) to improve predictability, performance, and feel. The new taller profile provides a greater dispersion area for impacts, which translates into greater rider comfort and makes the tire feel more connected to the ground. PCBT is found on the transition knobs of the tire, and these fancy looking blocks provide several benefits such as reduced block distortion, increased durability, and most importantly, increased grip, stability, and rider feel.
The AT82 Rear features a new bi-directional pattern, a new profile, PCBT, and a new construction. As with the AT82 Front, the goal was to improve handling characteristics across all terrains, and make the tire better able to absorb impacts from obstacles while simultaneously keeping the rider connected with the ground. Performance on any surface is achieved in large part thanks to the AT82’s unique bidirectional tread pattern. Mounting the tire in the hard train configuration brings the square edge of the center block to bear, which provides a broad surface area for driving forces to be distributed and provides increased tire durability. Mounting the tire in the soft terrain configuration enables the center blocks to work like a scoop for better performance in soft or sandy terrain.
We mounted a 90/100-21 AT82 Front and a 120/90-18 AT82 Rear with standard tubes on our long-term test 2024 KTM 350 EXC-F. The vast majority of our riding is in soft or intermediate conditions, so the obvious move was to utilize the soft train configuration. The AT82 is not a DOT tire, but we opted to balance the wheels to better assess dual sport performance. Both wheels took more weight than expected.
As fate would have it, our first real test of the new AT82s would happen in the same place where we started our test of the AT81/AT81EX - Page, AZ, for the Grinding Stone Hard Enduro. Page is an outstanding place to ride, with plenty of sand to test the AT82s sand/soft train performance, and all sorts of sandstone features to test how the new profile and construction would handle all of the lumps and bumps found on sandstone features. In sand that was very dry and soft on one day, and completely saturated thanks to an overnight rain on the next, the AT82s provided great drive and very predictable and consistent handling. While sessioning several sandy hill climbs and swapping bikes, the AT82s impressive drive became blatantly obvious as the 350 was consistently climbing lines other bikes with different tires struggled with. The new sizes that the AT82 is available in were also most welcome when running across the multitude of square edged features on giant sandstone formations. I'm personally really stoked that the AT82 comes in a 90/100 front and a 120 size rear tire.
After Page, it was time to put the AT82s to work on our local single track and dirt roads, which are well into dry season. On trails that I'm very familiar with, the AT82 Front quickly proved that Dunlop has in fact upped the performance over the AT81 Front in all respects. The tire provides great grip and very consistent, predictable performance on everything from soft sandy bermed single track corners, to graded gravel tracks. The AT82 Rear worked equally well in these conditions, doing everything from providing great drive to very consistent and predictable performance when cornering or power sliding your way down a dirt road. When you get on to a hard packed surface, such as a blue-grooved dirt road or a stretch of highway, the AT82s will howl, but that’s an observation and not a complaint.
Dunlop advertises the AT82 as an all terrains and conditions tire, so to round out our testing we got out for some early season high mountain Colorado single track. On endless miles of world-class single track with conditions ranging from dry and rocky to slip and slide wet and rooty, the AT82s performed quite well. Thanks to the AT82s, I had no problem hanging with my riding buddies on three hundreds with gummy enduro tires. Even with 20 odd hours and several hundred miles of wear, the AT82s still did quite well. The only situations where things got a little spicy were on steep muddy downhills where braking performance was somewhat diminished, but certainly not a situation where the AT82s dropped the ball. It’s also worth noting that in the Hard Terrain orientation, the AT82’s chevron sided center lugs will provide additional braking performance.
Dunlop Motorcycle Tires has come up with something great in the Geomax AT82. From sandy desert riding in the winter months, to high alpine riding in late spring, the AT82s have worked well absolutely everywhere we’ve taken them. Sure, a proper hard enduro tire would probably stick better to slickrock, and a mud terrain tire would do better in slip and slide muddy conditions, but the AT82s work well everywhere – and the same can't be said for terrain specific tires. Keen-eyed folks who pay attention to supercross may have even spotted AT82 Front tires up against the starting gate, which should speak volumes about this new front tire’s performance.
With more than 20 hours and over 400 miles of admittedly hard use on our AT82s, we have observed no chunking or tearing, and the tires are still performing well. The life of a tire is a function of where you ride, how you ride, and what you consider worn out, but at this point we're not dying to replace our set. When we do, we’ll most likely be putting on more AT82s, only we’re going to use Dunlop’s awesome Mousses to see what that’s like. Whether you’re an off-road racer, or just a recreational rider, you owe it to yourself to try Dunlop’s Geomax AT82. For more information on the Dunlop Geomax AT82 go to www.dunlopmotorcycletires.com
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