I ride in the winter, my V-strom is set up to ride in about anything, snow, sleet, freezing rain, studded big block knobby in front. the darkside in back with a winter car tire, rubber actually designed for cold pavement, tread and sipes designed to evacuate slush, and heavier than a MC tire to buffer the application of power(harder to spin up)
I find I can go back and forth between my AK550, K-pipe & V-strom seamlessly, even my SV if it were still on the road, set up with GP (1up 5 down) shifting