One for Mr Aawen on tyres in Aus

[Peteoz]

Glennm,

You mention Kuhmo.......just another heads up. You will see some negative comments about the Kuhmo performance in the wet from some American riders. That does not appear to be the case out here. I have had zero issues in the wet, and Zoom Zoom Aawens, who rides much harder than me, has also reported zero issues. Perhaps we use a different road mix to the US?

Pete

[Airborne]

I had two Nankang AS-1's (same size as the OEM Kenda's ) fitted to the front of my 17 RTL yesterday, as close a match to the Nankang XR611 (same size as the OEM Kenda) rear as I could get. I've put about 130kms on them and agree with Peter, anything appears to improve on the OEMs.

You've possibly already read my write up on the XR611 https://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/...hlight=nankang

Hi Askitee, Looking forward to getting my rear Nankang and hope you still having a good runh with yours.

The new Nangkangs on your front, can you keep us updated on their progress. I think someone said they were ASymmetrical
. What does that mean [i know dumb, but getting better]

[glennm]

Glennm,

You mention Kuhmo.......just another heads up. You will see some negative comments about the Kuhmo performance in the wet from some American riders. That does not appear to be the case out here. I have had zero issues in the wet, and Zoom Zoom Aawens, who rides much harder than me, has also reported zero issues. Perhaps we use a different road mix to the US?

Pete

Thanks Pete will keep that in mind.

Would like to get something decent rather than follow crap with potential crap.

[Peter Aawen]

...... I think someone said they were ASymmetrical
. What does that mean.....

Yep, as you probably guessed already, 'Asymetrical' means the tread pattern isn't mirrored down the centre-line/across the tread face, usually so that the tread pattern has a section/one side or half that is best suited to saaay, wet road handling; while another section/the other half of the tread is better suited to dry road handling. Best of both Worlds!

It can also (but not necessarily) mean that the tire tread only works properly when the tire is spinning in one direction, altho those tires are usually labelled 'Directional' &/or have an arrow or a label saying 'inside' or 'outside' on their sidewall. However, you can get Directional tires that aren't Asymetric, just like you can have Asymetric tires that aren't Directional! Make sense?

Oh, btw, Asymetric &/or Directional tires aren't usually an issue up the front (running the correct way of course, &/or at least knowingly running the 'wrong' way for a suitable reason! ) of your Spyder, and they aren't necessarily too much of an issue on the rear either, altho you do want to make sure that an asymetric &/or directional tire run on the rear of your Spyder is suitable for use as a drive tire and that it's also running in the correct direction! There's not really gonna be any 'suitable reason' for running a directional drive tire the wrong way

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Oh, btw, Asymetric &/or Directional tires aren't usually an issue up the front (running the correct way of course, &/or at least knowingly running the 'wrong' way for a suitable reason! ) of your Spyder, and they aren't necessarily too much of an issue on the rear either, altho you do want to make sure that an asymetric &/or directional tire run on the rear of your Spyder is suitable for use as a drive tire and that it's also running in the correct direction! There's not really gonna be any 'suitable reason' for running a directional drive tire the wrong way

As you know many riders of conventional trikes mount the front tire in reverse of normal. This is because the front tire is pushed instead of doing the pushing. This supposedly maximizes the traction aspect of the tire for turning, etc. I wonder if there would be any similar benefit to mounting Spyder front tires to run reverse of their specified direction of rotation. Or is the pushing traction already factored into the OEM Kenda fronts?

[seaweed]

IdahoMtnSpyder, that is a very good question. Perhaps Peter Aawen and/or Blueknight911 can answer that for us.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

IdahoMtnSpyder, that is a very good question. Perhaps Peter Aawen and/or Blueknight911 can answer that for us.

I dis-agree with using the tread …. in REVERSE … of what the directional arrows are on the tire ….. the directional arrows are there because of how the manufacturer designed the tire ……. ask Peter ……. Mike

[Peter Aawen]

As you know many riders of conventional trikes mount the front tire in reverse of normal. This is because the front tire is pushed instead of doing the pushing. This supposedly maximizes the traction aspect of the tire for turning, etc. I wonder if there would be any similar benefit to mounting Spyder front tires to run reverse of their specified direction of rotation. Or is the pushing traction already factored into the OEM Kenda fronts?

Like Mike says....

Yeah.... NO! There is NO benefit! At least, not for traction purposes! And that applies especially if you're talking about the OE spec Kendas!

For any other tires, at its most simple, with Non-directional tires, it doesn't matter which way you run them (even if they happen to be asymetrical) they've been designed to work rolling either way! And when it comes to directional tires that aren't specifically marked as 'Drive' or 'Steer' tires or marked with different 'Drive' or 'Steer' rotation directions (either/all of which can be either symetrical or asymetrical) then regardless of where you put them on your vehicle (inc on trikes &/or reverse trikes) then their TRACTION et al has been maximised by design for running in the appropriate indicated direction of rotation....

But there are other factors that can be involved for a whole raft of reasons, and it isn't necessarily quite so simple &/or cut & dried in some (albeit fairly limited) circumstances..... but few recreational or commuter type drivers/riders are likely to encounter any of those circumstances all that often, and even if they do, how many are likely to know when to swap their tires around, let alone bother doing that? Heck, many can't even be bothered checking their tire pressures regularly or knowing even roughly how much load they're putting on their tires?!

[Airborne]

Thank You all.

[glennm]

thank you all. I know tyres get done to death however there always seems to be a new question, observation, fact that arises and I appreciate the effort forum members put in.

Makes it much easier for novices to make informed decisions and avoid mistakes.