6000 miles, need a new rear tire

[KX5062]

I know that when my tire wears out, whenever that is, I will get a car tire. Kendas are and have been junk tires.

[bluep]

I'm using a 215/60/15 on my 2012. Speedo is closer to GPS speed, no nanny, rides softer, wife likes it. Michelin Primacy

So a 215 wide will fit this wide rim that's good. But the 60 sidewall depth is 129 . The stock 225-50 has a sidewall depth of 112. That will make the 215-60 tire taller with a larger circumference than the stock 225-50 tire.
So here is the question. The 2014 RTS has traction control. Will this larger circumference mess up the traction control??? This tire works on your bike , so does your 2012 have traction control???

[Highwayman2013]

They all have nanny watching, we have had no problems. My wife says she can't tell any difference.

[Highwayman2013]

The Michelin was $140 mounted on the rim. I did the remove and install and used counteract balance beads to balance.

[SpyderDon65]

I have 13,000+ miles on my rear tire on my 2010 RTS and will be replacing it with an Arachnid next week.

[rbob]

Just saw mention that the bars that show up at half the tread depth are not wear bars. They may be there to disperse water.Looks like the wear bars are nearer the edge.
Bob

[Dubld]

At 6,100 miles, my rear tire is shot on my 2013 RT. Going to have the Kumho Ecsta tire I bought installed this week. From what I have read, it lasts considerably longer and is smooth riding. I hope that is the case for me.

[Ronbo]

Was hoping for a least another 4000 miles on it but no way. has any thing 2014 RT's ready for a rear tire yet?

My 2014 RT needs a new rear tire from loss of tread in the middle

Ron

[MikeT]

<7,000 miles on a rear tire!!!!!! How can that be, overinflation, underinflation, burnouts????? I'd like to hear how the gent with the 2010 got 13K on his rear tire. That seems more reasonable mileage. If I have to go to a '14 SE-6 because I can't clutch either my H-D or my GW Trike after just having my left hand operated on, I would seriously going to a car tire that fits the rear of a Spyder RT series.
Mike

[bluep]

SUMITOMO tire. from TIRES -EASY. COM. 215- 60 R15 94T Touring LST Tire rated for 85,000 miles. Cost $60.00 + shipping.

[joet82]

I have had 3 OEM tires and one aftermarket, and am currently on an after market. I got more miles (avg 14000) out of my OEMs than I did my first aftermarket (12000). too early to remember the name.

[sddinnh]

I just had the 3000 mile check done and the rear looks to be about 1/2 gone in the middle. No burn outs and pressure religiously maintained at the factory recommended 28 psi. The centers are worn more than the edges (by the look of the water blocker bars). My dealer is working with me to find a suitable replacement and will mount whatever we decide on, factory or not. I'll certainly have to have it replaced before my August trip to the Gaspe because I won't go up there with a marginal tire. In fact I may need to get it replaced after my Northern VT / NH tour later this month. One thing to be careful about is that if the wear bars are on the outer edge, the tire will be dangerous long before you're down to the wear bars, especially in the rain.

Now why? If i had to guess, and judging by the overall handling of the bike, I would guess that the sidewalls are too soft which allows the tire to distort its center due to the centrifugal forces. In other words, they designed the tire to be part of the suspension system without regard to it's wear properties. I will emphasize that's purely speculation on my part.

I am also running 28 psi in the front and they seem to be holding up fine. Although this stiffens up the tire, I find that I like the feel of this much better than the 20 psi recommended by the factory. It seems to reduce the tire roll in the corners and thus also seems to reduce the tendency of the bike to "turn in" partway thru the corner. It's still not perfect and after I get back from Americade, I will probably take a serious look at replacing the front shocks with Elka's. So far there are no "nanny" problems from doing this and the tire sidewall is rated for 15-31 psi so I'm nowhere even close to that.

If the dealer and I find anything new, I'll let you guys know.

[StanProff]

I have averaged A little over 11,000 on the first two OEM rear tires on my 2010 RTS . I am sure i could have gotten another couple of thousand on each one but with longer trips coming up I replaced both times just to be safe. I am still on the original front tires with 23,000 miles on them and they look good fro another 5,000 or so. I am very happy with the fronts, tread ware is even on both and they are smooth as silk ( I run 18 psi in front and 26 to 28 in the rear) . If I had a '14 only getting 6,000 or so on the rear, I would for sure go to a car tire. I am considering a '15 so maybe they'll come with a better tire from the factory by then.

[Rid'nrandy]

SUMITOMO tire. from TIRES -EASY. COM. 215- 60 R15 94T Touring LST Tire rated for 85,000 miles. Cost $60.00 + shipping.

Bluep,
Where did you order your tire from?

[ARtraveler]

<7,000 miles on a rear tire!!!!!! How can that be, overinflation, underinflation, burnouts????? I'd like to hear how the gent with the 2010 got 13K on his rear tire. That seems more reasonable mileage. If I have to go to a '14 SE-6 because I can't clutch either my H-D or my GW Trike after just having my left hand operated on, I would seriously going to a car tire that fits the rear of a Spyder RT series.
Mike

I guess I am one of the gents with the 13K on the 2010. I drove it like the bank still owned it. No burnouts, normal operation, run it up to 5000 rpms when shifting. No sudden stops, or race track type driving. Kept the tire inflation at 28 psi. All four pre-2014 's gave the same mileage on tires. Hoping I can get better than the 6000 predicted for the 2014. Coming up on 2000 so far.

[granpa in Cincy]

I got 21100 on my 2010 SM5.

http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/s...ange-this-tire

[bluep]

Bluep,
Where did you order your tire from?

I haven't got mine yet but { tires-easy.com} or { tire rack.com} is advertising these tires.
I have used SUMITOMO before and they are good. I have a 2009 Honda silverwing scooter that I bought new in Jan. of 2010. This is a 600 cc scooter.It has a top end of over 100 MPH and will cruise at 70 all day. At 15.000 mi I had the stock rear tire worn smooth .The stock tire size is 150 70 13. I replaced it with a sumitomo 165 70 13 car tire .The tire cost $58.00 This sumitomo tire is rated for 75,000 mi. My scooter now has 76.000 + miles on it . I run them all on myself. That puts 61,000 miles on this sumitomo tire . Its still on the scoot and running strong. I'm guessing shes good for at least 5.000 more.
I'm going to post this now ,and make a new post on my theary of our problem with our great beloved spyders rear tire.

[bluep]

I just bought a 2014 RT-S with SE6 . Bought it on 5-8-14. I now have 2500 miles on it . Rear tire showing wear on the center. Not much yet but it isn't wearing flat as it should. Here is my theary .
Tire is too large and too wide for the load it carries. The tire is made of soft rubber which makes it worse but hard rubber wont fix the problem ,harder rubber would give more miles but the center would still ware out , just take 10,000 instead of 7,000.
If you put too much air in the tire will round out the center and the center wears. The faster you go the more centrifical force is applied pushing the center out more. You don't have to hotrod to cause this ,just running 60 mph will do it.
If you put too little air in the tire will be more flexible and the centrifical force will be worse! Problem here is not enough wt on tire pushing it to road to make tire center go up on bottom putting the outside edges of tire onto road to cause a normal underinflated tire wear.!! Which is outside edges of tire wearing and center NOT wearing. To fix this NORMAL problem you would adjust air pressure to hold the tire center out on bottom giving a nice flat wear pattern on tire!!
As we all know our tires are wearing the center regardless of air pressure or how we drive. Whats causeing this?? Tire too wide for the wt. it carries.
Our biggest handicap is the wide wheel back there! We are limited on how small a tire you can mount there. However somebody stated they mounted a 205 width on this wheel .A 205 width tire should be more then is needed for the wt. here. 205-55-15 tire will give you the same circumference as the stock 225-50-15. However someone else stated he mounted a 215-60-15 and it works well. A 215-60-15 will give you a larger circumference then the stock 225-50-15, but the man said it was better then stock!! The 215 is going to fit the wide rim better then the 205.
I'm going to try a sumitomo car tire 215-60-15 that's rated for 85,000 on a car, when I replace my 225 on my RT-S Will cost me $80.00 delivered to my door.
Lets have some input here.