Confused About Rear Car Tires Options

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

http://us.coopertire.com/Tires/Passe...a-Touring.aspx

Under "Features and benefits", the third bullet says that they are asymmetrical. Goes for both CS5 tires. I was going to put one on my Spyder and the tire dealer advised against it.

" Tire Dealer " !!!, I'll bet almost all TIRE DEALERS will tell you not to put a CAR tire on a MOTORCYCLE ..... if you go to Discount Tire, to buy a tire and tell them you are putting ANY of their tires on your Spyder ..... THEY WON'T SELL YOU A TIRE !!!!!!!!! ........... as I stated earlier " if it upsets you , don't use it " ...... Mike Now I'm curious about the Asymmetrical tire thing.... there are three types of tread - directional - symmetrical and asymmetrical ..... Why exactly are you concerned about using an asymmetrical tread on the REAR of a Spyder ?..... What do you think will occur differently from the other TWO ? .... I think a lot of folks here would like to know ... Mike

[BoilerAnimal]

http://barrystiretech.com/directiona...icaltires.html

After doing some reading I don't think there would be any problems using an asymmetrical tire. The dealer I took it to didn't have any problems with mounting it on my rim. He asked what it was for and I told him. I showed him one of the tire threads on here and he said OK. He couldn't spin balance it though so I took it to a motorcycle shop to have that done. I was running about 21 PSI on it before it had to go in the shop. When I get it back, I'll try 18.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

http://barrystiretech.com/directiona...icaltires.html

After doing some reading I don't think there would be any problems using an asymmetrical tire. The dealer I took it to didn't have any problems with mounting it on my rim. He asked what it was for and I told him. I showed him one of the tire threads on here and he said OK. He couldn't spin balance it though so I took it to a motorcycle shop to have that done. I was running about 21 PSI on it before it had to go in the shop. When I get it back, I'll try 18.

.... in your post # 50 quote " the tire dealer advised against it " ? ? ? ... BUT HE had no issue with mounting it ............... soooooooooooooo did you discover that asymmetrical tread means little or nothing as far as one rear tire on the Spyder goes ????? ..... this matters because ....." GaryTheBadger " is putting this tire on His RT ................... Mike

[BoilerAnimal]

He wouldn't mount it is what I should have said. He advised against me having it done elsewhere. He had no problem with a car tire. He said the tire that was on it was just a car tire but a poor one. I ended up with a Yokohama. I put about 2200 miles on it so far and love it!

Added: see post 16.

[Peter Aawen]

Conventional motorcycle tires generally aren't asymmetrical simply because the 2 wheeled motorcycle they are most often fitted to needs to corner both ways & therefore needs both sides of the (rounded) tire to perform much the same way or you'll get handling behaviour differences depending upon which way you lean.... and many tire dealers simply can't get beyond that idea!! But to put it bluntly, that's simply not the case with our Spyders & the car tires they run because they DON'T lean to steer, especially if you are talking about a tire fitted to the rear!! The traction & 'thrust' provided by our rear (drive) tire has been designed specifically to apply along the long axis of the Spyder, straight between the two front (steer) wheels, so running asymmetrical tires will have an extremely tiny impact (if ANY at all!) on how our Spyders behave!

In fact, probably the most significant impact they might have is likely to be an IMPROVED level of traction & therefore thrust available across a wider range of road surfaces & weather conditions due to the multi-condition/surface design of the asymmetrical tire!! They have tread sections that have been designed to provide higher levels of traction in each of wet or dry conditions - nb, that's higher levels of traction than you'll ever get from a tread designed as a compromise that'll work sorta OK in all conditions or even one designed to work best in just one condition. You could probably get better traction in the wet by fitting a specially designed wet weather performance tire, but it'll probably suffer in the dry; you could probably get better traction in the dry by fitting a specially designed dry weather performance tire, but it'll very likely be crap in the wet; OR if you want something better than the usual compromise 'all weather tires' that are available, you could fit an asymmetric tire that has tread sections which have been designed to work at least as well as BOTH those specialist tires in their respective conditions!!

Bear in mind that just about ALL car tires have some degree of performance bias designed into them anyway, ie, they are often 'Sport/Touring tires that excel in the wet' or 'Ultra Performance tires with un-paralleled dry weather traction', so fitting asymmetric tires is just taking that a step further! And because our Spyders have been very carefully designed to deliver thrust from the driving rear tire thru the centre-line of the front (steer) wheels, anything that improves drive wheel traction under any or all weather conditions is likely to improve overall performance!! You just hafta try to ensure you are running any tire at an appropriate pressure to let the said tire support the load AND STILL achieve the necessary temperature increase (& therefore pressure increase) to allow its tread to reach its optimum operating temps & traction, but without going so low in pressure that it adversely impacts handling or increases the temperature too much!

So why should you hesitate to select a performance tire that suits your driving needs, regardless of it being symmetrical or asymmetrical?

[marty1096]

I have 17k on my Yokohama s drive maybe it will go 5k more not bad, I have another on order

what tire pressure are you running on yoko rear?

[gofast4]

Are any of the tires mentioned in this thread run-flats? I ran a run-flat tire on my Goldwing and was happy with the performance and mileage I got with it.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Are any of the tires mentioned in this thread run-flats? I ran a run-flat tire on my Goldwing and was happy with the performance and mileage I got with it.

I did some research on this awhile back and tire sizes were an issue ...... plus from what I learned I wouldn't get them no matter the sizing issue...... Mike

[GaryTheBadger]

Is anyone using the Vee Rubber VTR-350 Arachnid tire? It's marketed as specifically designed for the Spyder. I am most interested in mileage and a symmetrical design across the tire. No rain use.

https://www.bikebandit.com/tires-tub...SABEgK5BvD_BwE

[GaryTheBadger]

NEVERMIND...I found some posts about this tire from years ago. It's still available, but apparently no better then OEM Kenda.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Is anyone using the Vee Rubber VTR-350 Arachnid tire? It's marketed as specifically designed for the Spyder. I am most interested in mileage and a symmetrical design across the tire. No rain use.

https://www.bikebandit.com/tires-tub...SABEgK5BvD_BwE

98% of the people on this Forum have said it was no better than the Kenda and usually worse. They are a Clone of the Kenda , so it's also much weaker than any Car tire........Also tires that were designed and produced years ago, can't compete with the newer designs of today .....Mike

[pegasus1300]

I did some research on this awhile back and tire sizes were an issue ...... plus from what I learned I wouldn't get them no matter the sizing issue...... Mike

Hi Mike
What did you learn that you didn't like about runflats on a Spyder (or possibly any vehicle)?

[Bob Denman]

what tire pressure are you running on yoko rear?

That's an entirely new kettle of fish; that needs frying...

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Hi Mike
What did you learn that you didn't like about runflats on a Spyder (or possibly any vehicle)?

...... Sorry I did that research a couple of years ago and I just can't remember the details ...... but I do remember that they don't come in our sizes and they are UBER expensive ........ Mike

[Jambo Creek]

I have an 2017 F-3 Ltd that’ll need a back tire soon. I like the looks of the Altimax, but I wonder whether it’ll fit. The clearance between the mud flap and the OEM Kendra 225/50-15 is exactly one inch. The 215/60-15 Altimax, being taller, reduces that clearance to just over 3/8”. That’s pretty tight. Has anybody tried that Altimax on this exact model Spyder?

[Morturf]

I had a reply to this thread a few days ago about my new rear tire being Yokohama S Drive and it just disappeared. So did the specific reply to it. Just wondered where it went?

[missouriboy]

I had a reply to this thread a few days ago about my new rear tire being Yokohama S Drive and it just disappeared. So did the specific reply to it. Just wondered where it went?

That was on a different thread, about a Michelin tire, started by BLUEKNIGHT911. Yup, that thread is now gone... I don't know what happened to it.

[Highwayman2013]

I have an 2017 F-3 Ltd that’ll need a back tire soon. I like the looks of the Altimax, but I wonder whether it’ll fit. The clearance between the mud flap and the OEM Kendra 225/50-15 is exactly one inch. The 215/60-15 Altimax, being taller, reduces that clearance to just over 3/8”. That’s pretty tight. Has anybody tried that Altimax on this exact model Spyder?

We have the Altimax on our 2016 F3L. 215/60/15 fits fine. 8,500 miles so far.

[Jambo Creek]

I’ve noticed a lot of the tire replacement discussion addresses traction issues. I think the tread pattern on the Altimax tire might shed water better than the Kumho because it has more channels, but I was concerned about mudflap clearance. I appreciate reassurance from somebody with firsthand experience. Thanks.

[jcthorne]

We have had trouble on the RT with clearance on bikes that came in with the 215-60-15 General, and others. Its one of the reasons we standardized on and stock the Yoko 205/55/15 as its an exact match so no clearance issues.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

That was on a different thread, about a Michelin tire, started by BLUEKNIGHT911. Yup, that thread is now gone... I don't know what happened to it.

I started that Thread and removed it because like a lot of Threads on this Forum it became a discussion about something else..........IMHO if people want to discuss something else maybe they should start another TREAD !!!!! .................Mike

[GaryTheBadger]

Based on the recommendation of PitBull Powersports and reading many positive online reviews, I'm going for the Kumho Ecsta AST for the rear of my F3. Bonus...it's symmetrical across the tread

[jcthorne]

Based on the recommendation of PitBull Powersports and reading many positive online reviews, I'm going for the Kumho Ecsta AST for the rear of my F3. Bonus...it's symmetrical across the tread

If you want to do burn outs, it does break loose easier but its also not very good in the rain. We have replaced a number of those for these two reasons alone.

[Morturf]

Ridden 70 miles on the new combo of continental contact pro up front and Yokohama S drive rear. I have to say it is a night and day difference in that little amount of time. Not too mention the Baja Ron bar. Made the machine the way it always should have been! Thanks for the feedback on the other post!

[GaryTheBadger]

JCTHORNE, I never ride in the rain, so it shouldn't be a problem.