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K61 40/60 Dual Sport Tires: The Complete 2026 Guide to KingTyre’s Road-Weighted ADV Tyre

Quick answer: The KingTyre K61 is a 40/60 dual sport (ADV) tyre — 60% of the pattern is built for sealed road, 40% for gravel, hardpack and fire road. It ships in two 18-inch rear sizes (140/80R18 and 150/70R18) on a reinforced radial carcass with a dual, silica-enriched compound, 3D-stepped siping and self-cleaning shoulders. Factory cold pressure is 32–34 psi on the road for 140/80R18 og 34–36 psi for 150/70R18, dropping to 28–32 psi on trail, with an H speed rating (210 km/h).

Last updated: November 11, 2026. Written and reviewed by the KingTyre technical team. Sizes, construction, pressures and load indices are taken from the current KingTyre K61 product specification; the tread-geometry figures are KingTyre's published design specifications.


What 40/60 dual sport tires are

40/60 dual sport tires are built with roughly 60% of the tread working on sealed road and 40% working off it. The label describes how the pattern is allocated, not how your mileage splits. A 40/60 tyre keeps a larger, more continuous centre band than a 50/50 design, so it tracks straighter and wears more evenly at highway speed, while retaining enough shoulder block and void for gravel, hardpack and maintained fire roads.

This is the compromise that suits a specific rider very well: someone whose week is mostly paved — commuting, touring, a long highway run to the trailhead — who still wants a tyre that will hold its line on the gravel section when the weekend arrives. It is the road-weighted end of the dual sport family, sitting between the 50/50 K60 and the almost-entirely-on-road K67.

KingTyre builds the dual sport range as four distinct splits, and this is the only one of the four where the off-road share is smaller than the on-road share:

  • 40/60 (K61) — road-weighted. The "ride to the trail, then ride the trail" tyre.
  • 50/50 (K60) — even split. The do-anything adventure tyre.
  • 80/20 (K66) — off-road weighted. The classic ADV trail tyre.
  • 90/10 (K67) — almost entirely road. The highway adventure touring tyre.

Our guide to what an ADV tyre actually is covers the category in general, and which dual sport tire sizes have the highest demand shows how the size mix splits across regions.

How the KingTyre dual sport families compare

Mønster On-road / off-road split Tread character Published sizes Best for
K61 40/60 Large continuous centre band, staggered shoulder blocks, 3D siping 140/80R18, 150/70R18 Riders who are on tarmac most of the week
K60 50/50 Balanced block pattern, self-cleaning channels 90/90R21, 110/80R19, 150/70R17, 150/70R18 Riders who mix highway and gravel equally
K66 80/20 Deeper, wider blocks, softer compound, strong off-road bite See the K66 product page Trail riding, gravel, mud, sand
K67 90/10 Shallow road pattern, longest road life, best highway comfort See the K67 product page Long-distance touring on sealed roads

Where the K61 sits in the KingTyre dual sport range

The K61 is the road-weighted option, and it exists because most ADV tyres are not used the way their marketing suggests. A survey of the tyres that come off adventure bikes shows that the majority of their life is spent on tarmac; the off-road portion is real, but it is not half the mileage. A tyre built for that reality gets a bigger, more stable contact patch on asphalt, a quieter ride and longer life, and it still has enough block and void structure to handle a gravel road in the rain.

Four questions usually decide it:

  1. What share of your riding is on tarmac? If it is three quarters or more, the K61 is the correct specification, and the K67 90/10 tyre is the next step further in the same direction.
  2. How rough is your off-road surface? Deep ruts, mud and rock require the taller, softer block structure of the K66 80/20 ADV tyre, not a road-weighted pattern.
  3. Do you ride in rain? The K61's silica-enriched compound and 3D siping are built for low-temperature wet grip, which is the condition that catches out a block pattern with a hard compound.
  4. Do you carry luggage or a passenger? The reinforced radial carcass and H speed rating are rated for the loaded touring use case, which is where the 40/60 split makes most sense.

If your answer to question two is "regularly, and it is technical", the K60 50/50 dual sport tyre is the better buy — it keeps a larger share of off-road capability while staying road-capable.


K61 tread design: staggered blocks, 3D siping and dual compound

The K61 pattern is a staggered-block design with a continuous, slightly offset centre band, and each element solves a specific problem that riders report on other dual sport tyres.

Close-up of the KingTyre K61 tread blocks showing the stepped shoulder sipes and staggered centre band
Close-up of the KingTyre K61 tread blocks showing the stepped shoulder sipes and staggered centre band

The construction features KingTyre publishes for the K61 are:

  • Staggered centre blocks — a continuous, slightly offset centre band reduces vibration and lowers rolling resistance on tarmac, which matters on a tyre that clocks long highway miles.
  • Open lateral channels at the shoulders — KingTyre publishes an 8–10% void ratio at the shoulders, which promotes debris evacuation and edge grip on hardpack and supports braking stability.
  • 3D-trinnet siping — micro-sipes interlock under load to limit tread squirm. That improves steering precision on the road and enhances wet-surface grip, which is what makes the K61 usable year-round rather than in dry summer only.
  • Formulering med to sammensætninger — a firmer centre compound for mileage and heat resistance, with softer shoulders for cornering confidence when the tyre transitions from asphalt to trail.
  • Forstærket radial krop — high-tensile plies control heat build-up on long road sections without compromising the deflection the tyre needs off-road.
  • Staggered pitch sequencing — the block pitch is sequenced to break up harmonics, which reduces the droning that otherwise builds up in a block pattern at highway speed.

KingTyre K61 40/60 dual sport tyre mounted on an adventure motorcycle, front three-quarter view
KingTyre K61 40/60 dual sport tyre mounted on an adventure motorcycle, front three-quarter view


K61 sizes and motorcycle fitment

KingTyre publishes two K61 sizes, both 18-inch rear sizes, which cover the 18-inch-rear adventure platforms. The two are alternatives for the same wheel position, not a matched front-and-rear set.

K61 size Position Wheel Section width Notes
140/80R18 Bagsiden 18 inch 140 mm The narrower of the two; the choice for scrambler and dual-sport platforms with a smaller rear rim width
150/70R18 Bagsiden 18 inch 150 mm The wider and more common 18-inch ADV rear; pairs with the higher 34–36 psi road pressure

Both are rear sizes. If your motorcycle runs a 17-inch rear — which covers the majority of the adventure market — the K61 is not the tyre for that platform, and the K60, K66 or K67 families are the ones to look at instead.


K61 technical specifications

Every published K61 specification is listed below, exactly as KingTyre specifies it for production. Where the factory publishes a range rather than a single value, the range is shown as published.

Parameter KingTyre K61 140/80R18 KingTyre K61 150/70R18
Type 40/60 dual sport tires (radial) 40/60 dual sport tires (radial)
Intended use 60% road / 40% off-road 60% road / 40% off-road
Tread compound Dual compound (silica-enriched) Dual compound (silica-enriched)
Recommended cold pressure — road 32–34 psi 34–36 psi
Recommended cold pressure — trail 28–30 psi 30–32 psi
Speed rating H — up to 210 km/h H — up to 210 km/h
Load index (typical) 70–73 (model dependent) 69–75 (model dependent)
Konstruktion Radial, reinforced carcass Radial, reinforced carcass
Key features 3D siping, self-cleaning shoulders 3D siping, self-cleaning shoulders
Shoulder void ratio 8–10% 8–10%
Sidewall construction Tubeless radial (tubeless-ready on compatible rims) Tubeless radial (tubeless-ready on compatible rims)

A note on the numbers the factory does not publish. KingTyre publishes the pressure, rating, compound and construction for the K61, but it does not publish a mileage figure or a tread-width and overall-diameter figure for this pattern. Both fields are left out of the table above rather than estimated, because a road-weighted dual sport tyre's real life depends far more on the pressure you run and the mix of road and gravel you ride than on the compound name.


Tyre pressure, speed rating and load index on the K61

The K61 is the one pattern in the KingTyre dual sport range where the pressure guidance changes with the surface, because the road-weighted carcass is designed to be run lower off-road than on it.

Three things about those numbers are worth understanding before you fit a set:

  1. Cold means cold. Both the road and the trail pressures are measured with the tyre at ambient temperature, before riding. Pressure rises with heat, so a gauge reading taken immediately after a highway run will always be higher than the placard value.
  2. The trail figures are a reduction, not a recommendation. KingTyre's own guidance for a mixed day is to start at the road pressure and drop 2–4 psi only if an extended dirt section is planned — then watch heat and rim clearance. The published trail ranges are 28–30 psi for the 140/80R18 and 30–32 psi for the 150/70R18.
  3. The placard wins. If your motorcycle's tyre placard specifies a different pressure, follow the placard. These figures describe the tyre, not the bike.

On speed rating, the H marking is a homologation limit of 210 km/h, not a recommendation to ride at 210 km/h. On load index, KingTyre publishes a range per size — 70–73 for the 140/80R18 and 69–75 for the 150/70R18 — because the exact rating depends on the specific construction built for a rim width; the number moulded into your tyre is the one that counts. Our guides to DOT and ECE tyre codes explained og ECE R75 versus DOT FMVSS 119 cover how to read those markings and why importers need both.


How the K61 performs on and off the road

A 40/60 tyre is deliberately asymmetric, and knowing where the asymmetry sits prevents disappointment. The table below states plainly what the K61 does well and where another pattern is the better buy.

Surface How the K61 behaves Honest limitation
Highway asphalt The design point — stable tracking, reduced wander at speed, quieter and longer-lived than a block-heavy 50/50 tyre Still noisier than the 90/10 K67 on long motorway stints
City asphalt and wet tarmac Silica-enriched compound plus 3D siping give predictable wet grip and resist tread squirm under braking Block-pattern tyres never match a pure road tyre on cold, soaking wet asphalt
Gravel and hardpack Open shoulder channels clear debris and provide edge bite; progressive shoulder radius makes the lean predictable Less bite than the 50/50 K60 and far less than the 80/20 K66
Light mud and clay Self-cleaning shoulders eject stones and thin mud rather than packing the tread Deep sticky mud is not what a 40/60 pattern is built for
Soft sand Manageable on firm packed sand at reduced pressure Deep dunes are not the 40/60's strength — this is a road-weighted tyre
Rocky trails and hard enduro obstacles Reinforced block bases resist chunking on stony ground Technical single track calls for the K82 or the K81/K83 trail range

K61 vs K60 vs K66 vs K67: which KingTyre ADV tyre should you buy?

Pick the K61 if your riding is mostly road with a regular gravel component. Pick the K60 if the gravel component is equal to the road component, and the K66 if the trail is the point. The K67 is the next step further toward pure road.

Question K61 40/60 K60 50/50 K66 80/20 K67 90/10
Split 40/60 50/50 80/20 90/10
Road comfort Very good Good Fair Excellent
Road noise Low Moderate High Lowest
Road life High Medium — up to 20,000 km Low Highest
Gravel and hardpack Good Very good Excellent Fair
Mud and wet clay Weak Fair Strong Weak
Sand Weak Fair Good Weak
Wet-weather road use Very good — silica + 3D siping Good Fair Very good
Typical rider Commuter and weekend touring rider who joins trail days Weekend ADV rider, tourer who wants gravel access Dedicated trail and enduro rider Long-distance road adventurer

Two more commercial points matter to distributors and dealers more than to riders:

  • The K61 fills a gap the other three leave open. A dealer that stocks only the K60, K66 and K67 has no tyre for the customer who wants an 18-inch rear and mostly-road use. The K61 is that tyre.
  • Both K61 sizes are 18-inch rears. That makes the K61 the natural companion SKU to a 150/70R18 rear programme, and the best 80/20 dual sport tires of 2026 comparison covers the K66 side of the range in detail.

Getting the most out of a K61

The K61 is built to be run at two different pressures on two different surfaces, and most of the damage riders report comes from mixing those two jobs up. Six habits account for most of the difference between a K61 that lasts and a K61 that does not.

  1. Set road pressure for the road, every time. A 40/60 tyre run at trail pressure on the highway overheats the centre band, wears the shoulders out of square and is the fastest way to shorten its life.
  2. Drop pressure only for sustained off-road, and drop it gradually. Two to four psi is the published guidance, and the change should be made cold, before the ride.
  3. Check cold pressure every 2,000 km and before every long trip. A block-pattern tyre flexes more than a road tyre and loses pressure faster, particularly off-road.
  4. Rotate front to rear at roughly 10,000 km. The front carries the steering load on loose surfaces, and rotation evens out the wear profile.
  5. Clean the shoulders after every gravel ride. The self-cleaning shoulders clear the tread, but stones still lodge in the bead area and under the block bases.
  6. Inspect the block edges and sipes before each season. Our guide to Sådan finder du ud af, om motorcykeldækkene skal skiftes covers the wear-depth and damage checks in detail.

Buying K61 tires in bulk: MOQ, OEM, private label and certification

For distributors, importers and brand owners, the K61 is a compact and easy dual sport SKU to build around: two sizes, one construction, one consistent speed rating, and a certification package that clears both European and US import requirements.

Commercial and technical points to confirm before you order:

  • ECE R75 and DOT FMVSS 119 documentation for every road-legal SKU. The ECE R75 versus DOT FMVSS 119 comparison explains which standard applies to which market, and the DOT and ECE tyre codes guide shows how the moulding reads back on the tyre.
  • Factory capacity and lead time. KingTyre operates high-tonnage automated hydraulic curing, precision extrusion and barcode-tracked QA, with annual capacity above 3 million motorcycle tyres, so a two-size K61 programme is a normal production order rather than a special build. Our 2026 wholesale buyer's guide covers the import workflow, and how to choose a motorcycle tire manufacturer in China covers the audit questions to ask before you commit.
  • Traceability. End-to-end barcode traceability from mixing through final inspection means each set of dual sport tyres is auditable batch by batch, which matters for warranty and for fleet programmes.
  • Private label and OEM. The K61 is available under your own brand, with your own sidewall and packaging. The private label and OEM guide covers the minimum order and tooling requirements.
  • Radial manufacturing capability. KingTyre is one of the few Chinese factories that builds motorcycle radials at scale; the radial motorcycle tyre manufacturing guide explains why construction quality differs between radial and bias-belt suppliers.
  • Quality systems. ISO 9001 and DOT certified production, with the racing programme — including seven years of endurance running at Le Mans 24H — as the reference for the tyre engineering behind the road range.

If you want to see the tyres in person, KingTyre exhibits at CIMAMotor, Hall 7, Booth 7T05, and the full range is listed on the KingTyre product list.


Frequently asked questions

What is the KingTyre K61?

The KingTyre K61 is a 40/60 dual sport (ADV) motorcycle tyre. Its pattern is weighted 60% toward sealed-road use and 40% toward off-road use, and it is supplied in 140/80R18 and 150/70R18 as a reinforced radial with a dual, silica-enriched compound, 3D-stepped siping and self-cleaning shoulders.

What sizes does the K61 come in?

Two sizes are published: 140/80R18 and 150/70R18. Both are 18-inch rear sizes — they are alternatives for the same wheel position, not a matched front-and-rear set.

What pressure should I run on a K61?

For road use, 32–34 psi cold on the 140/80R18 and 34–36 psi cold on the 150/70R18. For sustained trail use, 28–30 psi and 30–32 psi respectively. If your motorcycle's tyre placard specifies a different pressure, follow the placard instead.

Is the K61 a full off-road tire?

No, and it is not designed to be one. The K61 is a road-weighted dual sport tyre for riders who are on tarmac most of the week but want competent gravel performance. For technical trail riding, the 80/20 K66 or the K82 and K81/K83 trail range are the correct specifications.

How does the K61 compare with the K60?

The K60 is a 50/50 pattern with a larger off-road share, published in 90/90R21, 110/80R19, 150/70R17 and 150/70R18. Choose the K61 when your riding is mostly road, and the K60 when the gravel and trail time is roughly equal to the highway time.

Is the K61 noisy on long highway rides?

The staggered pitch sequencing is designed to break up the harmonics that normally build up in a block pattern, so the K61 is quieter on sealed road than a block-heavy 50/50 or 80/20 tyre. It is still not as quiet as the 90/10 K67.

Does the K61 work in the rain?

Yes. The silica-enriched compound and 3D-stepped siping are built to limit tread squirm and improve wet braking, which is what makes the K61 usable year-round rather than only in dry conditions.

Can I tour with luggage on a K61?

Yes. The reinforced radial carcass and the H speed rating are rated for loaded touring, which is the use case the 40/60 split is designed around.

Are tubes required for the K61?

No. The K61 radial is tubeless on compatible rims, and an inner tube can be used in a tube-type rim. Check the rim specification before fitting.

Where are KingTyre dual sport tires manufactured?

The K61 is manufactured at KingTyre's own factory in China, which operates high-tonnage automated hydraulic curing lines, four-component tread extrusion and end-to-end barcode traceability, holds ISO 9001 and DOT certification, and ships to more than 45 countries. It is the same production group that builds the KingTyre racing programme used in endurance competition.


Find the K61

The KingTyre K61 40/60 dual sport tyre is available in 140/80R18 and 150/70R18, with a factory cold pressure of 32–34 psi on the road for the 140/80R18 and 34–36 psi for the 150/70R18, a load index of 70–73 and 69–75 respectively depending on construction, and an H speed rating.

For distributors and importers, the full K61 specification, the certification package and current lead times are on the KingTyre K61 product page. For OEM and private label enquiries, contact the KingTyre export team and we will quote the size mix you need.


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