akaspyderman
New member
Has anyone put a rear tire on their RT that is anything other than OEM? I ride fairly agressively, and I average about 8500 miles before the tire is worn smooth. There has to be something better out there. Anybody?
I put a Michelin HydroEdge 215/60R15 on mine. The slightly larger tire diameter has not caused any Nanny issues and now has my speedometer always within 1 mph of the GPS speed & often they read the same speed. The HydroEdge is discontinued & is replaced with the Michelin Defender, which I now have on the front wheels. Both are 90,000 mile tires, although I have no idea what to expect. Both dry & wet traction are rated high, which is important to me. Cheeper to buy than OEM. Have probably 14,000 miles on the rear and am very pleased with it.
I find the OEM front tires to be fine. I've got 25k+ on mine, and they should last to at least 35k. I've run them at 22psi from the start.What kind of front tires would anyone suggest besides oem?
I have a 2010 RT and changed the original tire at 5500 miles, although this was somewhat premature because I was leaving on a long trip and didn't want to bother with a change mid-trip. I might have gotten another 500 - 1000 miles on it.
The second tire was a Sumitomo warranted for 40,000 miles wear and I got 8000 miles on this one (of course the treadwear warranty didn't apply to a Spyder). This one was really worn out and mostly bald. I now have a Kumho Ecsta on it but not long enough to get any idea as to how well this one will wear.
I'm not sure why I get worse tire wear than most. I certainly don't run the Spyder aggressively. Our Idaho rural roads tend to have a very coarse oil and screen surface so that may contribute. I also think that because our Spyders are strongly weight biased to the front and the rear is very light, there is much more slippage between tire and road surface and much more wear on the rear tire than with an auto. My conclusion is that, at least based on my experience, regardless of the tire the rear is going to wear much more rapidly than on an automobile. Only 8000 miles on a 40,000 mile rated tire is quite a striking difference.
There have been several threads in the past on this subject with many posts containing discussion and recommendations regarding specific tires, sizes, etc. You may find a lot of info by doing a search on this subject.
Mike
Idaho
www.rtwrider.net
What size are the Defenders you used on the front? Where is the best source for these?