Tire balance

[vindex1963]

I've been chasing a handlebar vibration thinking it was caused by the drive belt. I've adjusted and re-adjusted finally deciding the belt is tensioned and aligned as perfect as I can get it. No matter what I did it was there around 60-65mph, not severe but noticeable. Yesterday I pulled the fronts and took them to a locally owned tire shop and had them balance them, the left tire with no weights still needed no weights the right tire weights position changed slightly to a different spot. Fixed!!! The handlebar vibration is gone, and I've gotten pretty good at adjusting the drive belt....
The fronts are still Kenda tires.

[pegasus1300]

Congratulations on solving your problem and learning about your Spyder. Also thanks for letng us know what the successful outcome is.

[south GA Farm Boy]

Sometime you have to have the front tires trued! Very few tire shops still have an old trued machine, but will it solve most vibration problems with the front tires! They actually cut some rubber off the high points on the tire making it round! A trued tire will get more mileage than one that is out of round!

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

WOW a Kenda tire that didn't require weights take that tire off and have it Bronzed , it's probably worth mucho $$$$ as a RARE collectors item ...... I've been here 8 yrs. and yours is the first one that I've heard of that didn't need weights ...........My fear for you is that wheel that tire is mounted on is Hughly out of balance and you just got lucky and the imbalances match ..... ( yes I'm being sarcastic in my post, but frankly Kenda's have the Worst record for defective tires ) ...... I'm happy you lucked out ..... Mike

[vindex1963]

I'm not sure I've ever heard a positive Kenda review.

[Owatonnaspyder]

I just put new rims on my 2020 RTL with the stock Kenda tires and when they were balanced one of them didn't require weights and the other has minimal weights. Drives nice and smooth.

[vindex1963]

Seems Kenda is manufacturing round tires these days. I bought mine used a little over a year ago and the dealer installed new tires because it still had the 2012 tires on it.

[Peter Aawen]

Seems Kenda is manufacturing round tires these days. I bought.....

They are certainly a LOT better than they were before.... altho it wouldn't have really been too hard to achieve that!

And they are still by no means a 'great' or even a 'good' tire across the board - while there are certainly some that are sorta OK and some owner/ryders even getting reasonable service from them now days, just look at the number of issues still being reported - there's still a pretty high 'problem' rate with them even on brand new Spyders/Rykers &/or with brand new tires!! And don't forget that for some, the issues with the Kendas only start to manifest as the tires start to get used a bit &/or get a few miles up!

So, better than they were, certainly, at least initially; but I still expect that pretty much any reasonable quality auto tire in similar sizes with similar or better load & speed ratings will out-perform them over the long run in every aspect of tire behaviour & performance, handling, wear, balancing etc if fitted to our Spyder/Rykers and run at somewhere near the correct pressure for the loads our machines impose upon them!

Use at your own risk!

[triplethreat]

In the two wheel motorcycle world, Kenda is the laughing stock of the motorcycle tire industry.

[Steve W.]

In the two wheel motorcycle world, Kenda is the laughing stock of the motorcycle tire industry.

The only reason that a bike with Kenda tires is allowed to roll across my shop floor is if the tires are going to be changed.

That will be happening soon on her RT-S. The rear is showing some strange wear, the fronts aren't too bad, yet.

.

[Hammer]

Any tips or what tires to buy when my Kenda’s wear out ?

[vindex1963]

I put a General Altamax RT43 on the back of mine recently, very popular tire on the forum.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Any tips or what tires to buy when my Kenda’s wear out ?

4-5 yrs ago I recommended the Altimax RT43 , and it's still a very good tire .... However time and technology move on .... The Best Spyder tire currently sold is the Vredestein Quatrac 5 ..... ( for front and rear ) many, many folks here are using them now and looooooooooooooooooove them .... PS no matter what AUTO tire you buy - the Best PSI for them is 15-17 front and 17-18 rear ..... good luck ....enjoy ..... Mike

[Hammer]

Thanks on the way to see a friend who owns a tire shop. Here in town will let ya know.