Introduction
Over the last few years, the motorcycle community in India has grown considerably well, and in that, the adventure and touring aspects have been deeply explored by a lot of riders. The time has gone when Indians want to explore the tarmac. Now, a lot of them want to go off the road and explore the beaten paths and that requires a couple of things on motorcycles. Tyres are one of them and Apollo Tyres has decided to tap that market. The brand believes that you don’t need an off-road or adventure bike to go ride the dusty or broken roads of the country. A good pair of off-road tyres will sort that out and that’s where the Tramplr series - the XR and the ST were born. Both these tyres have been launched in India at various price points.
Tramplr XR
The Tramplr XR tyres are more off-road focused. It gets 70 road and 30 off-road biased construction and is being positioned to fit motorcycles above 200cc. Apollo likes to call the Tramplr XR dual-purpose tyres, thanks to the way it has been constructed. The XR features large tread blocks and special grooves to take care of all the beating that comes in off-road conditions. The company claims that a special compound has also been used to handle all the abuses. And yes, the XR gets steel radial, which makes it an attractive proposition.
Now coming to the ride experience, I chose the Honda CB200X – for one simple reason. That was one of the two bikes that had some off-road product positioning, with Yezdi Scrambler being the other one. Majorly the ride had only off-road trails. But what I liked about these trails was the mix – there was gravel, sand, slush, water-crossing and some loose tarmac surfaces. I decided to take it slow initially as it was extremely important for me to understand the low-speed performance of the Tramplr XR. Here, the tyres behaved well. It was holding on to the loose surfaces decently. But things started getting fun and mesmerizing when I started to push the CB200X.
I truly loved how the XRs behaved on all kinds of surfaces. Be it the slush, sand or the water-crossing – the tyres offered plenty of grip. This feeling was confident and inspiring and that is something important to have while going off-road. One of the best traits of the XR was how seamlessly it adapts to different surfaces. For example, there was a patch of loose sand where I was riding at around 40kmph and then suddenly the trail had moderate slush. During the surface transition, I barely felt anything on the handlebar and that is such a good feeling to have. The deep grooves are to be given the credit here. The XRs track well on the majority of off-road conditions. I liked the high-speed stability too. There was no twitching or any other irregular handlebar movements. The braking too worked well. There were no scary moments.
On the road, the XRs rode fairly well. Even with those tread blocks, the tyres felt under control and comfortable. However, you should know that the road ride experience was short and through village roads. So the speeds were under 50kmph. You should also know that there is no need to reduce the tyre pressure to go off-road. The tyre pressures are the same for road and off-road riding and I find that extremely useful.
Tramplr ST
The Tramplr ST gets 80:20 road, off-road focus and is being primarily targeted at 150-200cc motorcycles. This one gets ply construction and has large alternate blocks on the shoulder to give that grip while leaning in. I had the Yamaha MT-15 to ride and that means the STs are a direct fit on 17-inch wheels. The ride time on the Tramplr ST was extremely limited but it did show some decent grip, especially on gravel surfaces. On the tarmac, it held to the ground pretty well and during braking, the ST managed to churn out good grip and stability.
The Features
Apollo has done something that barely any tyre brands have done – make these tyres look cooler and aspirational. For example, the Tramplr XR gets sidewall markings that have names and logos of certain Himalayan locations. It’s the same on the Trample ST, which has street markings on the sidewall. And then there’s also the cloth packing these tyres come on. Post the use, the packaging can be used for storing tools.
Pricing & Sizing
The Apollo XR and the Apollo ST are available in multiple sizes and hence, different pricing. The XR is available in 17, 18 and 19-inches which means it can fit on motorcycles like the Bajaj Dominar 400, Yamaha FZ series, TVS Apache, Honda CBR250R and a few new Royal Enfield’s like the Classic and the Meteor. The prices for the XR start from Rs 6500 and go all the way to Rs 12,000. The company has plans to introduce a 21-inch tyre as well that will fit the Royal Enfield Himalayan.
The Tramplr ST is available in 17-inch, which means bikes like the TVS Apache, Bajaj Pulsar and Dominar 250 can use this. The prices for the ST range between Rs 4500 and Rs 6000.
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