LOVE MY KENDA's

[SPECTACUALR SPIDERMAN]

Well i can't speak for others but i pulled my wheels off to power wash them in & out & paint my calipers in yellow, so
i measured my tread depth & with 8,800 miles on the bike i have almost 8/32" left on each front tire. I believe going
by that i will see well over 15k :yes: before i would need to replace them. :clap:
I'm having my guys road force balance them & using yellow tape weights too. hyea:

 

[Chupaca]

Agree...

I got over 30,000 on my fronts and 19,000 on the rear...but we are among the very few that will admit they are not as bad as this site makes them out to be...On the second set up front and had (2) on the rear and now giving the Arachnid a shot I know it has suffered the same fate as the Kenda here but from my experience it deserves a go.....:spyder:and so far so good....

 

[Bob Denman]

:congrats: I'm currently at 15,600 miles on the front Kendas... they have more than enough tread left, to get me into next Spring! :thumbup:
On my 2010 RT: I had over 17,200 miles on them, when I traded the bike in.

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

FRONT TIRES

There has never been a truly BAD issue with the KENDA tires on the FRONT ( with the exception of bad belts etc ).....as long as you have a good alignment done .........It's always been the wear on the REAR for all model's of Spyder's with the KENDA'S and ARACHNID'S ...... Even Car tires will wear quickly on the front if you don't get a LAZER alignment done .......JMHO......MIke :thumbup:

 

[Bob Denman]

:agree: There have been a couple of reports of Kendas that had busted belts, or were "out of round"...
But they've been pretty rare. :thumbup:

 

[_..stiffler..]

Ya I haven't heard anything bad about fronts. Just rear. I'll be using kendas on front. Plus they are cheap. $100 cnd per. It's the rear that sucks.

6000 miles and mine is pretty much done. And no burnouts. Plus they are crazy expensive. $300 cnd here

Sent on Note 5 in Taptalk

 

[SPECTACUALR SPIDERMAN]

For me the rear sucks because i don't know how to pull the wheel off the bike.

 

[Peter Aawen]

As good as you might think the Kenda's are now, if you really want to know how well a Spyder can ride & handle, you should try a real tire to find out how good they can be when they are running something that has better than mediocre traction, rides well, handles better, & isn't physically about 1/4 the tire everything else on the road is!! :shocked:

Not too many people comment on how little the difference there is between running Kenda's or running practically any other real tires - most are amazed at how much BETTER the real tires are - & with good reason! :thumbup:

But if you're happy running those crappy black round things from Kenda that barely keep the metal bits of your Spyder off the road, then that's your choice, altho you can't even claim they are cheap!! :sour:

 

[jaherbst]

As good as you might think the Kenda's are now, if you really want to know how well a Spyder can ride & handle, you should try a real tire to find out how good they can be when they are running something that has better than mediocre traction, rides well, handles better, & isn't physically about 1/4 the tire everything else on the road is!! :shocked:

Not too many people comment on how little the difference there is between running Kenda's or running practically any other real tires - most are amazed at how much BETTER the real tires are - & with good reason! :thumbup:

But if you're happy running those crappy black round things from Kenda that barely keep the metal bits of your Spyder off the road, then that's your choice, altho you can't even claim they are cheap!! :sour:

Tell us how you really feel Peter!

Jack

 

[Peter Aawen]

I would Jack, but Lamont doesn't allow that sort of language here! :sour:

 

[Bam Bam and Pebbles]

I got 12,000 miles on my Kenda rear tire on the Beast before I replaced it with a Kumho. I now have 8500 miles on Cocaine in the 7 months I have had her, and I will be ready to replace it in about 1000 miles. Got a Kumho ordered and should be here in a few days. Strangely enough, it seems that I get more miles out of the Kenda crap tires than some of you, especially since I ride fast all the time, two up half the time and love to kill the twisties as fast as these machines can go. Wonder what the reason is?

:dontknow::dontknow:

 

[r1100rider]

As good as you might think the Kenda's are now, if you really want to know how well a Spyder can ride & handle, you should try a real tire to find out how good they can be when they are running something that has better than mediocre traction, rides well, handles better, & isn't physically about 1/4 the tire everything else on the road is!! :shocked:

Not too many people comment on how little the difference there is between running Kenda's or running practically any other real tires - most are amazed at how much BETTER the real tires are - & with good reason! :thumbup:

But if you're happy running those crappy black round things from Kenda that barely keep the metal bits of your Spyder off the road, then that's your choice, altho you can't even claim they are cheap!! :sour:

I couldn't agree more put on a real tire and it is nite and day different it's not just about wear I put a steel belted Michelin up front 18,000 miles ago and I'm still over 50% but the real gain is in steering ride noise and handling ,the only people who still argue for the stock tires couldn't have tried a top of the line car tire

 

[Jheck]

Just had my rear tire changed out. Kenda was right down to the wear bars at 6500 miles. Had a Yokohama s drive put on. We'll see how that works out. Fronts still in great shape.

 

[Copperman]

Well i can't speak for others but i pulled my wheels off to power wash them in & out & paint my calipers in yellow.

I'd like to see a close up picture of your painted calipers. I think I'd like to paint mine red. Did you use the G2 paint?

 

[SPECTACUALR SPIDERMAN]

As good as you might think the Kenda's are now, if you really want to know how well a Spyder can ride & handle, you should try a real tire to find out how good they can be when they are running something that has better than mediocre traction, rides well, handles better, & isn't physically about 1/4 the tire everything else on the road is!! :shocked:

Not too many people comment on how little the difference there is between running Kenda's or running practically any other real tires - most are amazed at how much BETTER the real tires are - & with good reason! :thumbup:

But if you're happy running those crappy black round things from Kenda that barely keep the metal bits of your Spyder off the road, then that's your choice, although you can't even claim they are cheap!! :sour:

WOW :yikes: someone has a black widow up their a** about kenda. For me i will probably see 15k-20k on my fronts which means
they will be over 5 years old when i replace them & i will do so because of age not just tread depth. for my rears i expect 12k
or better which will be maybe another 18 months on my 2013 crappy o.e. kenda's.
I still don't know if i want to put car tires on the front of my :spyder2: and i do want all 3 tires to match since i do care about
handling & safety.
For those who have had a bad experience with Kenda then you should switch, for me for now i am staying with kenda. As for
Kumho i have been selling their line since 1991 and think they are very good, i would not use the federal or falken on my
:ani29: nor would i use the altimax as that is definately not designed for bike. For ride comfort i have no vibration issues, my
highway cruising speed is 66 -74, when possible 84mph & on sunday mornings on the way to obi i will cruise around 90-95
on ocean pkwy. with no vibes & no problems & no state troopers.

Now for Copperman, i do caliper painting for cars for many years, we don't use cans or brushes we use automotive eurathane
paints & have the heat lamps for drying. we clean the calipers, prep them for paint & then mask off the fender & such before
we shoot. On the spyder i had my guy mask off the red plate on the caliper so it is still red with spyder. I also had my guy
shoot some tape weights in yellow for balancing. I, my guys & my friends like the look while i am sure when my wife see's it
she won't care.

 

[Dennis in Lodi]

Altramax and Solus review

I installed the Altramax 14,000 miles ago. It is now down to the wear bars in the middle only. I had an alingment and have played with tire pressure both up and down to even the wear out with no luck. I remember in the 1st mile I noticed a difference in the Altramax over the Kenda. For me, the Altramax is the better tire for mileage and Traction especially when wet. My stock Kenda rear only lasted 4,000 miles.

I just installed the Solus on the front and notice immediatly while stopped that the front turned easier. However, going down the road in the first mile some weird bad things were happening. Basically the tires seemed to be bouncing like an over inflated basketball. When I checked EVERTHING I found the car shop inflated the front tires to 40 psi. When I dropped the pressure to 28 psi it seemed to correct the issue. My RTS seems to be more affected and twitchy by stiff cross winds and less planted going straight down the road. Make no mistake, the Solus is extremely responsive to steering input. The Solus tire snaps and hooks up through a quick corner where the Kenda kind of bounced and ground it's way.
The flat Kenda set up is probably better for flat planted highway driving. But the after market tire choices seem to be the much better for ALL other types of driving.

Denni, near Chicago

 

[jaherbst]

A lot of owners here do not use the true wear bars on there Kenda,s. If they did they would be getting a lot more miles out of them. Only the bars directly up from the triangles on the sidewall should be used for wear bars and not other tread bars in the center of the tire.

Ride Now Sports ( 40 plus dealers) sells the new compound Kendas for $180 with FREE install. I for one am quite happy with the tire and the price.

Jack

 

[AeroPilot]

I agree, that the rear kendas usually get changed out early, but just my decision..

The OEM Kendas on our 15 RT's did well, with the wifes pulled off at 12,300 miles, while my 15 OEM is at 14,500 miles. She rides daily commuting and has 38,000 total on her bike while I putt around and we ride together weekends. I have the Kumho ready to put on as the middle is slick, but just now down to the wear bars on the sides, and no uneven wear around the circumference. Just my "frugality" here in the arid west, but everyones choice and condition are theirs alone.

Thanks for everyones feedback and experiences.

 

[jtpollock]

My original Kenda's front went around 12,000 but the rear only lasted 8,000, switched to Kuhmo on the rear and Falken's on the front the Falken's have around 50,500 miles. the rear is a little deferent I am getting around 20,000 miles my 2012 RS-S has just over 62,000 miles front tires are still going strong and am ready to replace the rear this week new Kuhmo. Keep with what works for you and have fun... :thumbup: jtpollock

 

[spyderryder53]

Front ok

Well i can't speak for others but i pulled my wheels off to power wash them in & out & paint my calipers in yellow, so
i measured my tread depth & with 8,800 miles on the bike i have almost 8/32" left on each front tire. I believe going
by that i will see well over 15k :yes: before i would need to replace them. :clap:
I'm having my guys road force balance them & using yellow tape weights too. hyea:

I replaced my front Kendra tires at 18000 with plenty of tread left,
I. Just got tired of looking at the cupping from before I got my alignment .
Leon