What's the deal with the back tire wearing out so fast?

[RedStar]

I went on a 2700 mile trip and took my Spyder into the stealership to have the vibration problem looked at, and was told my rear tire was down to the wear bars. I said WHAT?! The bike only has 3100 miles on it! How could I need a new back tire?! I bought just over a month ago, and was trying to get 600 miles on it before I left for my trip. The guy at the dealer said they were pretty bad tires from the factory and a lot of riders are going to other tires. What I would like to know is what are some of you guys changing to, and how many miles are you getting out of them?

[bruiser]

The "bad" tires were on 2014 models. BRP took care of that when they went back to the original compound. I wouldn't think your tire would be worn after that many miles. Have you looked at the tire? I would look at it myself before doing anything. Search for tire threads. There are a bunch of them.

[ARtraveler]

If your issue is not the 2014 "soft tire compound" issue--then--your tires might not be inflated properly. Most use 28# in the rear tires.

I got 8,900 on my OEM 2014 RT tires. Now at 17K and the new ones are still looking good. (8,000 miles).

[Chupaca]

make sure they are talking about the wear bars and not the rain blocks. The rain blocks come up fast.....find the triangle on the tires edge and the wear bars are across from there...
all tires have these marks....

[bruiser]

Good post Gene. I forgot all about that.

[petegtsv10]

Good advice......i made that same error with the RT tires.

[Rogue Hawk]

Do you do burnouts?

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Some stealers are clueless or worse.....there are two different levels of wear bars ......make sure they using the lowest set. And I highly recommend going to the General Altimax RT-43 in 215/60-15 size when you get a new tire....Mike

[Professor]

Something isn't right. I have a little over 3000 miles on my 2014 RT and the tires all look fine.

[XB12X]

Maybe a naive question, but is it a tricky job changing the rear wheel on an F3?

[OJ UK]

I went on a 2700 mile trip and took my Spyder into the stealership to have the vibration problem looked at, and was told my rear tire was down to the wear bars. I said WHAT?! The bike only has 3100 miles on it! How could I need a new back tire?! I bought just over a month ago, and was trying to get 600 miles on it before I left for my trip. The guy at the dealer said they were pretty bad tires from the factory and a lot of riders are going to other tires. What I would like to know is what are some of you guys changing to, and how many miles are you getting out of them?

Sounds like another dealer trying to make some extra bucks or a tech who doesn't know what he's talking about!
I have almost 3000 miles on my F3 and the rear tyre's fine. I ride fairly hard and give the rubber plenty to do!

I have no intention of putting a car tyre on my F3 as the bike isn't heavy enough to ensure that the tyre would work correctly.
The side wall won't flex enough with the light weight.

[dreid999]

I went on a 2700 mile trip and took my Spyder into the stealership to have the vibration problem looked at, and was told my rear tire was down to the wear bars. I said WHAT?! The bike only has 3100 miles on it! How could I need a new back tire?! I bought just over a month ago, and was trying to get 600 miles on it before I left for my trip. The guy at the dealer said they were pretty bad tires from the factory and a lot of riders are going to other tires. What I would like to know is what are some of you guys changing to, and how many miles are you getting out of them?

Got 7800 on mine and looks like it will run another 7800 easy...F3S 2015

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Sounds like another dealer trying to make some extra bucks or a tech who doesn't know what he's talking about!
I have almost 3000 miles on my F3 and the rear tyre's fine. I ride fairly hard and give the rubber plenty to do!

I have no intention of putting a car tyre on my F3 as the bike isn't heavy enough to ensure that the tyre would work correctly.
The side wall won't flex enough with the light weight.

OJ, Lamont is testing the new tire from V-rubber, and this may work out , we'll have to see..................However I have always switched to car tires and never had the problem some have had with the sidewall issue ......because I run mine at 21 lbs PSI.....not 28 .....I just went through some serious rain with my New Michelin Hydro-Edge, and I was impressed with it's performance in deep water............It dry performance is great also........just some thoughts ....Mike

[jaherbst]

make sure they are talking about the wear bars and not the rain blocks. The rain blocks come up fast.....find the triangle on the tires edge and the wear bars are across from there...
all tires have these marks....

So if one were to get down on the floor to check his tire wear, what would he look for? Wear down to the "triangle" or colored marks across from the "triangle"?

[Highwayman2013]

Sounds like another dealer trying to make some extra bucks or a tech who doesn't know what he's talking about!
I have almost 3000 miles on my F3 and the rear tyre's fine. I ride fairly hard and give the rubber plenty to do!

I have no intention of putting a car tyre on my F3 as the bike isn't heavy enough to ensure that the tyre would work correctly.
The side wall won't flex enough with the light weight.

OJ that is your choice not to use a car tire. Having used one for 12,000 miles I can say it does work correctly.

[Chupaca]

So if one were to get down on the floor to check his tire wear, what would he look for? Wear down to the "triangle" or colored marks across from the "triangle"?

The wear bar in the tread.... they will set lower that the rain blocks unless your tire is truly worn down to the wear bar. Then they will all be the same....

[JayBros]

In Gene's picture look below the triangle on your tire and you see the DOT information with an oval and some numbers, four, in it. Those numbers are the week and year of manufacture of the tire. For your F3 the number should be well later than 2814. Who knows! If it is not later than 2814 you got an old, soft compound tire and I personally would raise hell. JMO

[rob1833]

OJ that is your choice not to use a car tire. Having used one for 12,000 miles I can say it does work correctly.

what car tire do you run?

[Martin Slovakia]

Guys, so If i do understand this right..
The indicator marked in red circle - is something like information bar that tells me Be careful the tire is worn
The indicator in green circle - is an indicator that is tell you till when the tire is LEGALLY okie to still have it on bike..
am I right??

But anyway I dont see my tire to least 17.000km not even thinking about miles.. so maybe I am driving like idiot - but I dont do burnouts.. or maybe you guys drive like grandpa-s??? -just joke no offense.. ))

[109spyder]

Guys, so If i do understand this right..
The indicator marked in red circle - is something like information bar that tells me Be careful the tire is worn
The indicator in green circle - is an indicator that is tell you till when the tire is LEGALLY okie to still have it on bike..
am I right??

But anyway I dont see my tire to least 17.000km not even thinking about miles.. so maybe I am driving like idiot - but I dont do burnouts.. or maybe you guys drive like grandpa-s??? -just joke no offense.. ))

I think they get a bit carried away with the wear indicators on tyres...remember they are selling them, the higher the indicator the quicker you say , **** tyres are getting low, I better get another set. More coin for them

[Peter Aawen]

Martin, the bar you have circled in red is NOT a 'tread wear' indicator; there will be a few sets of bars like that which are set about that high in the tread that are generally either block/tread 'squirm limiters' or 'water/ice breakers' that are there to make sure that any water/ice/snow etc caught or collected in those grooves does actually clear the tread as the tire turns on the road surface.

The bar you have circled in GREEN IS a tread wear indicator; and when the tread is worn down as low as that, it's definitely time to replace the tire!! If you can't see any height difference between the tread wear indicator bar & the tread blocks, the tire will no longer be legal/roadworthy.

As for the Kenda tires lasting &/or working as well as other tires, they won't & don't do that - even the 'better' (older?) compound that the tire manufacturer went back to after the dodgy 2014 effort still won't last a heap of distance or provide traction/work as well as you should expect from a tire.... there are many better alternatives out there that WILL last longer and provide better traction as they do so. But if anyone wants to stick with the Kendas, that's their choice!

[kaamacat]

Great info....and to add, the triangular on the side is your sidewall wear indicator. You should not scrub into that triangle basically. (Super low tire pressure and turns will have the sidewall flexing into that triangle)

[Orange Spyder Man]

Yep.. BRP installed "defective substandard" tires on the 2014 spyders .. but they won't back up their screw up.. so after buying a $30,000 machine you have to go out and buy a "real tire" to replacement a goof up... buy anything but a 2 ply junky Kenda... save yourself some money and go to a regular tire dealer .. they will install it if you take the rim off your spyder..

osm

[Martin Slovakia]

I want to buy some alternative. Peter gave me some advices but because i am from CEE Europe and summer time is almost over and the dimensions are bit unusual, I have small problem to find a good one still available.
options are:
1 - Toyo Prexes T1-R - not sure about the top quality.. price about 100Eur
2 - Toyo Proxes R888 - but they are bit pricy, and I think more suitable for tracks that for roads...
3 - Kumho 225/50/15 - ECSTA ASC - there is only one seller at my region of these tires and seem not really helpful guy
4 - NEXEN CP 641 - never heard about them
5 - Advan by Yokohama are not available - but they look like badass
any idea about different good brands.. maybe I am searching wrong....

[ThreeFeet]

I have Kuhmo's on mine and replaced at 32,000 miles, I now have 51xxx on the bike and just recently put on a new tire. I keep them on as they seem to last longer than anything BRP has. Am not too sure about "car" tires for the front. If the front is aligned correctly they last a long time ( the ones I have are the BRP ones.) misalignment can REALLY mess up your day and replacement can happen every 6000 miles. Now that I have the front correct the tires have been good for over 8000+ miles and still looking good.