Rear tire replacement - what is everyone liking now?

[Roadster Renovations]

Sadly, my Michelin Hydroedge rear tire has worn down to the point I will need to be replacing it in under 5k miles. I have 26k on it so I can't complain. What is everyone liking for a rear tire. I have heard very good things about the Kumo EST, I believe. Thoughts?

[dlby]

Only have 1k mi on our yokahama s drive but it was awesome in a huge rainstorm the wife said she noticed a big difference in the feel of the machine for the better as my co pilot

I love R&R put another dime in the jukebox baby!

[Aracknoid]

I replaced the Kenda rear tire within 300 miles of purchase. I have had very good luck using the Kohumo EST and see no reason to change.

Good Luck

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Sadly, my Michelin Hydroedge rear tire has worn down to the point I will need to be replacing it in under 5k miles. I have 26k on it so I can't complain. What is everyone liking for a rear tire. I have heard very good things about the Kumo EST, I believe. Thoughts?

If you want to spend the bucks The Michelin Primacy 205/60-15 has a better rating than the Altimax in 215/60-15 ) and either will more than do the job ....................IMHO........Mike

[Bam Bam and Pebbles]

I had good luck with the first Kumho I bought for the Beast and I have already purchased another that will be going on Cocaine in about a thousand miles.

[Chupaca]

If you got 26,000 with 5 to go stick with that tire...have not seen that mileage on a rear and if it's the fronts that is still good...

[Peter Aawen]

He probably would if he could Chupaca, but I don't think the Hydroedge is made any more...

[jcthorne]

I second the recommendation for the Yoko S-Drive. Smooth running, great traction, great rain performance and a highly regarded performance tire. If your only requirement is long life, then perhaps there are other choices but the Yoko is one great tire on the Spyders. Have installed a good number of them on customers bikes and not one complaint.

[Roadster Renovations]

He probably would if he could Chupaca, but I don't think the Hydroedge is made any more...

That is very true! I did find a 205/60/15. I think that size would work??

[Bob Denman]

I've had really good luck with Kumho's Ecsta AST, but I'm curious about the Yokohama S-Drive...

[kbwitt]

yokahama s drive

[Pirate looks at --]

If you got 26,000 with 5 to go stick with that tire...have not seen that mileage on a rear and if it's the fronts that is still good...

[jtoro1]

Yokohama s Drive tires I have installed 4 tires on different Can-Am no complaints

[ingramsail]

I'm running a 205/50/15 Yokohama S drive on a RT and ride 2 up . It has 17000 miles on it and looks like I could go 2000 to 3000 more. What size can I move up to, I like the tire but would like to get the speed closer to GPS.

[Richardv]

Sadly, my Michelin Hydroedge rear tire has worn down to the point I will need to be replacing it in under 5k miles. I have 26k on it so I can't complain. What is everyone liking for a rear tire. I have heard very good things about the Kumo EST, I believe. Thoughts?

In the family, we have 3 AST and one Proxie 4. We are all satisfied, and would quote them as equivalent.... mileage wise, we have around 5-6K miles on them, and no wear sign. We are all in 225/50R15 size, and running them at 26lbs single riding.

Richard

[GeorgiaBill]

Replacing Kumho with General. I've got the Kumho AST with 5/32 tread remaing at 11,000+ miles, and ordered the General Altimax R43 today from Amazon. I have a laser alignment scheduled on Oct 11, and it made sense to me to replace the rear tire at this time. The Kumho has been OK and I had 2 Kumhos on my GL1800 and they were fine. I got lots of VSS alerts in the rain with this Kumho, but I suspect that's more attributable to the low weight on the tire rather than the tire itself.

-Bill

[robmorg]

I second the recommendation for the Yoko S-Drive. Smooth running, great traction, great rain performance and a highly regarded performance tire. If your only requirement is long life, then perhaps there are other choices but the Yoko is one great tire on the Spyders. Have installed a good number of them on customers bikes and not one complaint.

Wow, five recommendations for the Yokohama s-Drive so far in this thread. When I installed mine last year not many were installing that tire.

So I'll be #6 to recommend that tire! Only 4000 miles on mine so far, but it still looks new. Like others, I've noticed a big improvement with traction on wet roads as well. The 205/55R15 is the same diameter, but just a tad wider than the stock tire, and seemed to fit the rim better than the stock. This tire has a very favorable UTQG rating of 300/AA/A. I'll likely be staying with the Yoko s-Drive, when it's time to replace it.

[jcthorne]

I'm running a 205/50/15 Yokohama S drive on a RT and ride 2 up . It has 17000 miles on it and looks like I could go 2000 to 3000 more. What size can I move up to, I like the tire but would like to get the speed closer to GPS.

Yokohama S-Drive in 205/55 - 15 is an exact match to the oem tire.

[Highwayman2013]

I'm running a 205/50/15 Yokohama S drive on a RT and ride 2 up . It has 17000 miles on it and looks like I could go 2000 to 3000 more. What size can I move up to, I like the tire but would like to get the speed closer to GPS.

215/60/15 puts the speedo right on with the GPS.

[robmorg]

If you want to spend the bucks The ************* 205/60-15 has a better rating than the ********* in 215/60-15 ) and either will more than do the job ....................IMHO........Mike

Mike, is that tire the "Voldemort" brand you are referring to?

[Roadster Renovations]

.. It could be.....actually I finally decided Doc doesn't read my posts so I'm no longer going to waste my time posting when He asks a question. ..........Mike

I read them, Mike! I promise!

[ingramsail]

Thanks, ordered 205/55/15 will be here on the 29th. Then the work begins !!

[JP58]

Wow, five recommendations for the Yokohama s-Drive so far in this thread. When I installed mine last year not many were installing that tire.

So I'll be #6 to recommend that tire! Only 4000 miles on mine so far, but it still looks new. Like others, I've noticed a big improvement with traction on wet roads as well. The 205/55R15 is the same diameter, but just a tad wider than the stock tire, and seemed to fit the rim better than the stock. This tire has a very favorable UTQG rating of 300/AA/A. I'll likely be staying with the Yoko s-Drive, when it's time to replace it.

So how does the 205 Yoko be wider than the stock 225 Kenda?

[Peter Aawen]

How can this be, JP? Simple really, it is quite likely because the manufacturer of the 205 sized tire has used the original size of the basic tire carcass when deciding on what size to label it, then they've wrapped that 205 sized carcass in a few layers of tread, bead, & sidewall rubber etc which has increased its actual physical size & external dimensions to those you see; while the manufacturer of the 225 tire added all that extra rubber first & then used the resulting size to determine the nearest nominal size when choosing what size to put on their labelling!!

Many manufacturers do this: some label their tire sizes based on the naked casing & its actual size physically increases from there as tread etc is added; while others label their tire sizes based on the already completed tire - and all of them rarely use either the casing or completed tires EXACT size anyway, they generally just go for the nearest commonly accepted 'nominal size'!! So it's common enough to find one make/type of tire that's labelled as a 205 that is actually bigger than another make/type of tire that's labelled as a 225 - and sometimes, this even happens with different types/tread pattern tires produced by the same manufacturer!! You can only really trust the specific & actual physical sizes of a given tire, all the rest is just nominal size labelling and even that is based on whatever feeling took the manufacturer at the time!!

Visit any tire retail outlet that has stocks of a range of tires of various types from different manufacturers & ask them to stand a variety of supposedly same size tires from different manufacturers together & it won't take too many tires standing alongside each other for you to see for yourself that very few tires of supposedly the same nominal size actually have the same physical dimensions - some get close, but there are often even differences in the actual size between tires with a different tread pattern or construction type that come from the same manufacturer! It happens, a whole lot more than you might think!!

You can only really trust the actual physical dimensions of any tire as being correct, & should only use their labelled nominal size as a general guide!!

Then, just to make it all harder, you should also take into account the effect that different temperatures or running different pressures can have on the overall rolling circumference of a tire, but let's not go much further into that here - suffice to say that varying your tire temperature or pressure by much can make a noticeable difference in a tires rolling diameter & circumference & therefore how close it can get to fitting a specific vehicle or not; altho that difference normally makes for only a small difference!

[Fat Baxter]

A vote for the General Altimax RT43 here. Almost 7,000 miles, still looks new, no compalints about handling.

I'm thinking about replacing the fronts with Kuhmo Solus KH16s soon.