Anyone run a Showchrome mudflap with General Altimax 215/60R15 rear tire?

[Wrongway]

I have the Showchrome rear mudflap on our 2015 RT and I am beginning to think about replacing the rear tire (Kenda).
I’d like to use the General Altimax 215/60R15, but I’m a bit concerning about it rubbing on the mudflap bolts because of the larger diameter of the Altimax verses the Kenda.
I’m hoping someone here has or is using this combination who can tell me if they experienced any rubbing?
Yes... I’ve searched the forum with no luck.
Thanks.
Greg
I’d also consider using the 205/55R15 rear tire, but the size is harder to find and I’m a bit concerned about how much narrower it is than the stock tire.

[Peter Aawen]

I doubt very much that you'll have any issues Wrong - I'm running a larger 215/65R15 on the rear of my 2013 RT atm, and it hasn't rubbed on anything yet! Well, not while the ACS has been functioning anyway, but then any of the commonly fitted tire sizes will probably rub when the ACS fails & you're riding 2-up, cos the OEM tires do too!

As for the width thing, running a 205/60 or 65R15 tire is very likely to give you MUCH BETTER tread wear than running any 225 profile on the OEM rims, and this is ESPECIALLY so if you are replacing an OEM 255 wide Kenda with its lightweight tread plies for the stronger/heavier tread plies found in a maybe 20mm narrower (ie, juuust barely over 3/4 of an inch narrower in width, IF the nominal size is accurate, only most auto tires are a tad larger anyway, so it's more likely to be LESS than that narrower! ) auto 205 wide tire, because the 225 wide tires on the OEM rim ALREADY tend to pinch the sidewalls in a little, making the centre of the tread bulge a bit even before it gets thrown out & bulges even more when it starts turning under power!! The narrower 215 or 205 tires with stronger/heavier tread plies won't do that anywhere near so much, if at all!

So any auto tire that's marginally narrower than the OEM 225's, like a 215 OR a 205 wide auto tire is most likely BETTER SUITED to the OEM rim width than a 225 anyway! Besides, running a slightly narrower tread width tire with a slightly taller profile is more likely to IMPROVE the tire's traction ability AND to reduce any potential loss of traction due to water/moisture on the road, and if you run the narrower tire at something close to the right (lower) pressure to cater for the (lighter) weight of the Spyder over that of a car, you'll probably increase the traction of the narrower tire even more than that of an OEM width tire, while the taller profile & larger rolling diameter will either completely or better compensate for any potential extra tread wear due to the narrower tread width!

So I really don't think you'd go wrong running EITHER a 215/60R15 OR a 205/60 or 65R15 on the rear of your Spyder, but you'd probably be negating at least part if not all of the potential improvements/benefits of running an auto tire over an OEM Kenda if you ran a 205/55R15, cos that's just too small in the 55 PROFILE, not the 205 WIDTH!

Just Sayin'

[Woodaddict]

I run the General Altimax 215/60R15 on 2015 RT with the mud flap. Its close clearance in there. I think there are acorn nuts on end of bolts? I'll have to look tonight when I get home. Occasionally riding 2 up over a heavy bump you might hear the nuts bump the tire. its not a hard bump, just a minor one. But we don't ride with ACS all the way UP, that would help more. Just me as a driver, I don't hear it over bumps. I have looked at tire, (this my second one of these), no marks or grooves have been in tire for 30,000 miles.

[Wrongway]

I run the General Altimax 215/60R15 on 2015 RT with the mud flap. Its close clearance in there. I think there are acorn nuts on end of bolts? I'll have to look tonight when I get home. Occasionally riding 2 up over a heavy bump you might hear the nuts bump the tire. its not a hard bump, just a minor one. But we don't ride with ACS all the way UP, that would help more. Just me as a driver, I don't hear it over bumps. I have looked at tire, (this my second one of these), no marks or grooves have been in tire for 30,000 miles.

Is your mudflap the Showchrome mudflap??

[Wrongway]

I doubt very much that you'll have any issues Wrong - I'm running a larger 215/65R15 on the rear of my 2013 RT atm, and it hasn't rubbed on anything yet! Well, not while the ACS has been functioning anyway, but then any of the commonly fitted tire sizes will probably rub when the ACS fails & you're riding 2-up, cos the OEM tires do too!

As for the width thing, running a 205/60 or 65R15 tire is very likely to give you MUCH BETTER tread wear than running any 225 profile on the OEM rims, and this is ESPECIALLY so if you are replacing an OEM 255 wide Kenda with its lightweight tread plies for the stronger/heavier tread plies found in a maybe 20mm narrower (ie, juuust barely over 3/4 of an inch narrower in width, IF the nominal size is accurate, only most auto tires are a tad larger anyway, so it's more likely to be LESS than that narrower! ) auto 205 wide tire, because the 225 wide tires on the OEM rim ALREADY tend to pinch the sidewalls in a little, making the centre of the tread bulge a bit even before it gets thrown out & bulges even more when it starts turning under power!! The narrower 215 or 205 tires with stronger/heavier tread plies won't do that anywhere near so much, if at all!

So any auto tire that's marginally narrower than the OEM 225's, like a 215 OR a 205 wide auto tire is most likely BETTER SUITED to the OEM rim width than a 225 anyway! Besides, running a slightly narrower tread width tire with a slightly taller profile is more likely to IMPROVE the tire's traction ability AND to reduce any potential loss of traction due to water/moisture on the road, and if you run the narrower tire at something close to the right (lower) pressure to cater for the (lighter) weight of the Spyder over that of a car, you'll probably increase the traction of the narrower tire even more than that of an OEM width tire, while the taller profile & larger rolling diameter will either completely or better compensate for any potential extra tread wear due to the narrower tread width!

So I really don't think you'd go wrong running EITHER a 215/60R15 OR a 205/60 or 65R15 on the rear of your Spyder, but you'd probably be negating at least part if not all of the potential improvements/benefits of running an auto tire over an OEM Kenda if you ran a 205/55R15, cos that's just too small in the 55 PROFILE, not the 205 WIDTH!

Just Sayin'

Thanks for the detailed response Peter. I find the last paragraph confusing when you say that the 205 55 15 is just too small because you say the 205 width is ok but the 55 is too small although the diameter is 23.88 compared to 23.86 for the 225 50 15. Tire.

[Peter Aawen]

Thanks for the detailed response Peter. I find the last paragraph confusing when you say that the 205 55 15 is just too small because you say the 205 width is ok but the 55 is too small although the diameter is 23.88 compared to 23.86 for the 225 50 15. Tire.

Firstly, you're likely looking at & comparing the NOMINAL tire sizes rather the ACTUAL PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS of the tires, and they can differ A LOT!

Secondly, you also need to remember that the OEM 225/50R15 is TOO SMALL of a ROLLING DIAMETER and is TOO WIDE for your Spyder, the TOO SMALL bit giving many seriously optimistic Speedo's, trip meter's, & odometers - so you might THINK you're doing saaaayy, 60mph and travelling 60 miles in each hour you ride at that speed, but you're not, you're likely really only doing about something like 54-55 mph or so, maybe a tad less or more, and you probably only travelled around 55 miles or so, give or take maybe 5 miles - but it could be that you were only doing 53mph and you travelled 58 mph, cos each bike and each tire and each tire pressure and each speedo and each odometer and each ambient temperature & road temperature is likely to be slightly different, so while things might be close to your buddy's bike or someone else's on the Forum, it's unlikely to be the same, but in factory trim on factory OEM Tires, they'll ALL BE OPTIMISTIC to some (variable) degree!!

Next, there's the TOO WIDE bit - the OEM width tire, AND many replacement tires of the same Nominal width are simply too wide for the OEM rim, it makes the tread (that should be flat to sit flat on the road surface) bulge up in the middle because the beads are pinched too closely together when you fit those tires onto the rim, meaning that you WILL be running on a narrow 'less than full tread width' strip in the middle of the tread, even on a heavier/stronger built auto tire (altho it might be a tad wider than that of the OEM) while the OEM Tires make this 'only run on & wear the strip in the middle' thing even worse by having such a light construction that the tread plies CAN'T hold the tread even slightly flat on the road surface once the tire starts rotating at speed, throwing/bulging the centre of the tread even further out and narrowing the little strip of rubber that you're actually running/riding on even more!!

So while running a SMALL DIA tire isn't really such a biggie, it isn't helping you any, altho it might be fooling you into thinking you're riding faster and getting better fuel economy that you really are. But running a TOO WIDE tire for the Rim IS reducing your contact patch; making the centre of the tread wear more/quicker than it needs to; exacerbating lack of traction issues and increasing your chances of hydroplaning in the wet and scoring tire damage if you hit road debris; and a bunch of other stuff that's not really good for you/your safety/your pocket, et al.

How can I put all this simply.... OK - You can fix this by running a narrower tire, saaay, a 215 or a 205, BUT, if you reduce the width of the tread, the 225, 215, or 205 bit, YOU NEED to increase the Profile accordingly, or YOU NEGATE THE IMPROVEMENTS OR YOU MAKE ALL THOSE BAD THINGS WORSE!! Go down one size in width, go up one size in profile is the 'standard practice' in order to maintain the designed dynamics of the machine, and that means that if you go down TWO sizes in width, like from a 225 to a 205, you really need to go UP TWO sizes in profile, ie from 50 to 60 AT LEAST, or you are just repeating &/or compounding all those issues identified above instead of improving/reducing them, which is generally at least part of the reason for changing the tire to something other than the OEM Kenda, isn't it??

If you want better tire life, better tread wear, better ride, better road holding, better traction, better handling, better ability to withstand road debris strikes without damage, a closer to accurate speedo & odo &/or any/all those other things, mentioned or glossed over above, then running a 215/55R15 OR a 205/60R15, maybe even a 215/60R15 or a 205/65R15 will do that, but running a 205/55R15 is pretty much a no gainer, cos it's TOO SMALL of a rolling diameter, just like the OEM Kendas are, but it's NOT TOO NARROW, for all the points raised above. Make sense??

Ps: Normal tire sizing/naming conventions call for the inclusion of the 215/65R15 bits between the numbers, cos without them, 205 65 15 might be just numbers, but with them, 205/65R15 IS an internationally recognized tire size.

[Wrongway]

Thanks Peter. I had to read it twice but I think I’ve got it now lol. I really appreciate your help

[Woodaddict]

I saw mudflap and at first didn't see "showchrome". I just have the mudflap that a vendor was on this site at one time. Don't know the design of showchrome. But, my nuts are a nylon lock nut type. I shortened the bolts so they don't stick out from nuts. I could use a low type of nut for more clearance, but its ok how it works now

[Wrongway]

I saw mudflap and at first didn't see "showchrome". I just have the mudflap that a vendor was on this site at one time. Don't know the design of showchrome. But, my nuts are a nylon lock nut type. I shortened the bolts so they don't stick out from nuts. I could use a low type of nut for more clearance, but its ok how it works now

No problem. Thanks for the reply. I’ll probably just reverse the nuts on mine just to be safe. I’ve pretty much decided to go with the general Altimax 215/60R15 when I replace to stock Kendra that’s on it now.