mecsw500
Member
Well I was fortunate that all the Kenda tires I went through balanced well enough and weren't out of round in any significant way. Of course I am just one person and this is not everybody's experience. You had a much larger sample set than me. Yes, the old rear did wear out the center first and running anything but the recommended pressure didn't do anything to fix that, I agree. I think the carcass was not stiff enough to stop it ballooning at speed.
I can't see any excessive weights on the front but none of my Kenda tires required that either. Considering the cumulative improvements in most other aspects of the tire it would suggest that Kenda have likely stepped up their game on that score, but only time will tell I guess.
I would suspect that as the original or even KR20 tires get replaced, I'm sure Can Am dealers will start replacing those original tire with the XPS units they have in their spares departments rather than doubling up on two sets of spares. It will be interesting to see the comments from pre-2025 owners as to how they find these newer items.
In reality, it is going to take a whole bunch of owners using the new XPS tires over time to really get a reliable picture of what their strengths and weaknesses are. From my point of view with an OK history of the original Kendas being fitted on a 2021 bike, the new XPS tires seem quite a decent a step up, especially in road manners and wet weather behavior. Whether that is sufficient a step up to tempt car tire users to revert to the XPS branded Kendas I don't know, probably not your customers. However, given sometimes the difficulty in getting car tires to fit, or be fitted by tire shops in different parts of the country, or world, I suspect some car tire users will try reverting to BPS supplied tires for convenience. Their comments might be more much more relevant than mine.
My suggestion would be if you have a willing guinea pig customer on the original Kendas to give the new XPS tires a go and see what they think. It's going to take time and the kind of data you collect from your extensive customer base, to get a true understanding out of a large sample size. All I would say, from my very, very limited experience, is you could perhaps purchase a set and try to balance them up. If they don't appear to be an improvement for quality just return them for a refund. I do personally think they are at least worth looking at a set though with an open mind.
It might all come to down to my use case versus others, perhaps. I've only had RT LTDs and now a S2S. My riding is almost always two up. I ride the canyons, surface streets and the freeways. I ride reasonably quickly even in the canyons, but I don't ride it like I stole it, lifting inside wheels on every corner. I tend to ride it more with the Dave Moss style suggested for new track riders, i.e. brake, turn, power out. I'm sure many others might keep a higher mid corner speed than I do and perhaps that makes a difference in how my tires feel. I also have to consider my wife's comfort level with the speeds I travel at, though she's a good sport and doesn't complain. I'm getting older so my acceptable risk tolerance has got lower with age, especially in the wet.
