Need a new Rear tire - any suggestions?

[jc54]

I need to change my rear tire on my 2016 spyder RT limited. Currently have Kumho ECSTA AST with 13,900 mi. The OEM Kenda needed replaced at 10,350. Any suggestions as I am tired of changing tires. Anybody try the Kenda Kanine KR20?

[RayBJ]

If you ride in the cold and/or rain look at the Vredestein Quadtrac for the rear. Excellent traction in dry, wet, hot, & cold.

[jc54]

Does vrad make 225/50r15 in quadtrac ?

[ulflyer]

205/60R-15 is avail from Tire Rack. Ordered two for me and buddy and they arrived in two days. I've read that others have used this size with success so decided to give it a try on the rear of mine. Currently have Vred's on front and really like them.

[RayBJ]

205/60R-15 is the right one. A side benefit is your speedo will be more accurate if not dead-on.

[Peter Aawen]

I need to change my rear tire on my 2016 spyder RT limited. Currently have Kumho ECSTA AST with 13,900 mi. The OEM Kenda needed replaced at 10,350. Any suggestions as I am tired of changing tires. Anybody try the Kenda Kanine KR20?

The OEM tires on our Spyders/Rykers are simply CAR tires on CAR rims to suit the CAR type driving/riding forces imposed upon them jc, albeit they are in odd sizes (probably deliberately chosen ) so that it's hard to find an exact match in any other brand - but there are quite a few similar sized CAR tires that will fit, so go find a CAR tire that has the performmance/wear/cost/whatever characteristics you like & give it a try! The only issue here is that if you run them at the same sort of pressures you'd run under a car weighing anything up to 3 times as much, they'll STILL wear out in the centre quickly, only this time cos they're grossly OVER-inflated! A normal car tire in a size that fits shouldn't need anything more than about 16-18 psi in it to carry the loads imposed by a Spyder - & 18 psi is more than enough for the max load plus a bit that the Spyder will carry, so any more than that & you'll likely be shortening the tires potential life!

When it comes to sizes for the rear, just about any size between a 205/65R15 & a 225/60R15 is likely to fit, I've even seen one Spyder running a 195/75R15 on the rear, but IMHO it didn't look too safe or too good, but it fitted & apparently performed well over time too! Generally, if you drop a size in width (ie drop from 225 to 215) you'd go up a profile size to compensate (ie increase from 50 to 55 profile) but you do need to be a little careful, because those sidewall 'tire sizes' are only 'nominal sizes' & not necessarily a true reflection of the tires physical dimensions So you need to watch the physical size increase carefully - but the OEM tires are fairly small & make for a speedo/odo that's overly optimistic about how far/fast you're going (ie, it says you're going 70 mph but you're really only going about 63 mph... ) Which means that something like a 205/60R15 is probably going to get your speedo/odo much closer to accurate than it's ever been before!

So as others have mentioned, the Vredestein Qatrac's are good, so are the Riken's that are the current recommendation, but really, if you pick any good brand car tire that you like with specs to suit your needs/wants & in a size that'll fit, run it at an appropriate pressure for the (lighter) loads a Spyder imposes on it & I expect you'll be pleasantly surprised (if not completely astounded ) at how good it can make your Spyder feel & perform! The higher performance tires will likely have better traction & wear quicker; those tires with great tread wear characteristics generally have less traction (but most are still better than any Kenda!) but last a lot longer; and some with progressively harder compounds like the Kumho ECSTA's need you to actively manage their tire pressures as they wear in order to get the best life/maintain their traction..... but really, it's YOUR spyder, so it's all up to you as to which tire you pick, how much effort you want to put into monitoring/maintaining the ideal pressure in it for you/your loads/your riding, & how long you want it to last.

Enjoy!

[Partzman23]

I need to change my rear tire on my 2016 spyder RT limited. Currently have Kumho ECSTA AST with 13,900 mi. The OEM Kenda needed replaced at 10,350. Any suggestions as I am tired of changing tires. Anybody try the Kenda Kanine KR20?

I have the General Altimax Rt43 on the rear of my 17RTL right now. I have over 16000 miles on it now and it still looks good.
I run 18psi in this tire riding 2 up ,99% of the time. Excellent tire in my opinion .

[Deanna777]

I am running the General Altimax RT 43 Tire on the rear of my 2014 RTS-SE6.

The tire size I am using is 215/60R15. PSI is 26. I replaced the OEM at 5,824 miles in 2015. The mileage on the first General Altimax RT 43 was 18,729.

I am currently on my 2nd General Altimax RT 43 rear. The 2nd General Altimax tire was changed at 24,553, and the current mileage is 30,224. On the 2nd General Altimax has 5,671 miles on it. Life has gotten in the way.

Deanna

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

If you ride in the cold and/or rain look at the Vredestein Quadtrac for the rear. Excellent traction in dry, wet, hot, & cold.

... I have been recommending the quatrac for a couple of years now .... however I recently discovered the RIKEN HR in 215/60-15. ... I bought and mounted it a few months ago .... It also is very highly rated, and it performs very well in the WET ..... also it's about $ 99.00 delivered from TIRERACK .....Mike

[CloverHillCrawler]

Another vote for the 205/60R-15 quatrac rear here, my rear is holding up a lot better than the stock kenda. I have about 7k on my Quatrac which was about the same as the kenda when I replaced it due to being worn out in the middle.

The Quatrac has held up well with the exception of a couple of scars from bottoming out while 2 up, but that will be taken care of next spring when I upgrade my shocks to some M2's.

[jcthorne]

I need to change my rear tire on my 2016 spyder RT limited. Currently have Kumho ECSTA AST with 13,900 mi. The OEM Kenda needed replaced at 10,350. Any suggestions as I am tired of changing tires. Anybody try the Kenda Kanine KR20?

We have sold and installed a large number of Yokohama Advan Fleeva (and the S-Drive before that) to many happy customers. Its much better traction wet and dry than the OEM kenda and yet manages to average about 18k miles. Great tire from a top tier manufacture and MADE IN USA. Not the cheapest, but one of the best options out there. We also install great Yokohamas for the front of the Spyder that will far outlast the OEM tires while providing much better traction and smooth ride.