I am still not sure how accurate it reads. Below is a screenshot after riding 2up for about 45 minutes on a 75-degree day. Before I started my ride
the front 2 tires were 19.2 and 19.6, the rear was 27. I have been running them low because of the increase during the ride. These are the original tires.
What I am really concerned about is the rear temp being so high. One thought I had is that it's higher than the fronts because the rear tire is in the heat slipstream of the radiators and engine.
As the bike sits now in the garage after riding 3 hours ago. All the temps are within 2 degrees. The TP are 19.9, 20.3, and 27.6
View attachment 196499
Sorry rv6a, but if you were running tires that were anything but the OE Spec Kendas,
I'd be pretty sure that your cold start pressures are all TOO HIGH to start with! :lecturef_smilie:
The optimum cold start pressures for just about any car type pneumatic tire (other than the lightly constructed OE Spec Kendas) will
ideally see an increase after an hour's riding of 4psi, so (given the caveat that OE spec Kendas are so lightly constructed & fairly often have pretty poor quality control in that construction too!) those minimal temp & pressure increases shown after almost an hour's riding strongly suggest that if you were running real tires, your cold start pressures would've been
TOO HIGH and so you would have less traction, a harsher ride, greater risk of blow-outs/punctures from road debris, little hydroplaning resistance on wet roads, and greater wear rates et al than would be possibe at a more appropriate (
ie, marginally LOWER!) pressure! :shocked: And btw, the temp in the rear tire is
NOT YET HIGH ENOUGH to properly activate the tread compound, but I'd bet it's only as high as it is because the centre 2-3" of the tread is being over-heated due to it being 'thrown out' as the tire rotates & so that bit is working/wearing more than it should & over-heating, but only bleeding a little into the rest of the tread! :banghead:
If they were any other tires, I'd suggest that your front tires should be about 1-2psi
LOWER when starting out cold (ie,
about 17-18 psi); and that rear tire really should be about 1/2 to 1 psi
LOWER when starting out cold (ie,
about 26 psi)! While your rear tire temp & pressure increase is still a bit low, it is actually showing that it's getting somewhat closer to the ideal pressure than your fronts are - despite the excesive work/wear in the middle of the tread, the whole of the tread has barely got warm enough to work at all - the tread compound appears overall to still be very close to the ambient temp, which is
NOT GOOD for all those reasons mentioned earlier!! :shocked:
That said,
given that they are Kendas, because of the way they are made & the risk that they aren't all that well constructed to boot,
all bets are off....
. and while you
might benefit from dropping the fronts a bit, (maybe even down to 17 psi?
) regardless of what pressure you run it at, that rear is
STILL going to wear the centre of the tread as tho it's been over-inflated, even if you dropped it to 18 psi,
and for a Kenda, that WOULD NOT BE GOOD! Even the best of those Kendas are constructed with materials that are about 1/3rd to 1/2 lighter/weaker than most other car tires are, so they really
NEED to be close to about 18 psi up front and 26-30 psi in the rear
just to carry the load; and if they do happen to be a set of well made tires from Kenda, something which used to be quite rare but is now a little less common, there's still no guarantee that changing their pressure would help much nor that they are any better made! :shocked:
Sorry for the longish post
. but I hope that helps some!! :thumbup:
