One for Mr Aawen on tyres in Aus

[merlot]

"I would like to stick to standard if possible as you are pretty much assured they will fit"
not a good surmise


tyres can have the same numbers but have diff OD's

are we talking 14's or 15's

gets expensive if you get it wrong:banghead:

russ

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

I would like to stick to standard if possible as you are pretty much assured they will fit.

Don't know what the situation is over there in Oz but here in the US there are VERY FEW car tires available in the OEM size. That's why you see so much discussion about what tires fit best. Generally speaking, a 215/60/R15 is a very good size choice for the rear.

 

[glennm]

Hi Glennm,

Were you going to mount the tyres yourself, or get a tyre shop to do it? I only ask as I got very excited about the number of tyre options, went to my tyre guy, only to find that many of them were no longer available. (He was quite happy to get any brand I wanted).

The best solution for me was to get him to order the best all round tyre he knew of in the specific sizes, as ANY aftermarket is better than the Kenda/Arachnid for me. That also gave him a bit of profit on the tyre purchase, which I thought was fair. He got a bit of a shock when he saw the “special motorcycle” stamp on the Kendas, but was fine with it when he saw the J type car rim underneath. There are SOME tyre places though that will refuse to mount an aftermarket car tyre on a Spyder.....worried about the “special motorcycle” stamp, I’d imagine. The easiest tyre to get was the Kuhmo Ecsta.... very happy with them.

Pete

Pete thanks for the info.
Won't be fitting myself. I asked the local Jax if they could handle the small centre hole on the fronts and they seemed to think it would be fine so here's hoping they will be happy to do the fitting when the time comes.
Looking like the Ecsta or similarly readily available tyre then. Always better to have something that can be readily replaced in case you are out in the boonies and badly damage a tyre e.g. my wife hit a dead echidna, so many punctures in 2 tyres they both had to be scrapped.
It looks like it will be a ring around when the time comes.

 

[glennm]

"I would like to stick to standard if possible as you are pretty much assured they will fit"
not a good surmise


tyres can have the same numbers but have diff OD's

are we talking 14's or 15's

gets expensive if you get it wrong:banghead:

russ

Thanks merlot yes my thinking too.
15" front and rear.

 

[glennm]

Don't know what the situation is over there in Oz but here in the US there are VERY FEW car tires available in the OEM size. That's why you see so much discussion about what tires fit best. Generally speaking, a 215/60/R15 is a very good size choice for the rear.

Thanks same situation here Idaho. Will scrutinise the sizes more closely when the times comes although I must admit with all the negative comments about the kendas I am keen to replace sooner rather than later.

 

[Peteoz]

Glennm,

You mention Kuhmo.......just another heads up. You will see some negative comments about the Kuhmo performance in the wet from some American riders. That does not appear to be the case out here. I have had zero issues in the wet, and Zoom Zoom Aawens, who rides much harder than me, has also reported zero issues. Perhaps we use a different road mix to the US?

Pete

 

[Airborne]

I had two Nankang AS-1's (same size as the OEM Kenda's ) fitted to the front of my 17 RTL yesterday, as close a match to the Nankang XR611 (same size as the OEM Kenda) rear as I could get. I've put about 130kms on them and agree with Peter, anything appears to improve on the OEMs.

You've possibly already read my write up on the XR611 https://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/showthread.php?124948-Nankang-XR611-Rear-225-50R15-fitted-to-RTL&highlight=nankang

Hi Askitee, Looking forward to getting my rear Nankang and hope you still having a good runh with yours.

The new Nangkangs on your front, can you keep us updated on their progress. I think someone said they were ASymmetrical
. What does that mean [i know dumb, but getting better]

 

[glennm]

Glennm,

You mention Kuhmo.......just another heads up. You will see some negative comments about the Kuhmo performance in the wet from some American riders. That does not appear to be the case out here. I have had zero issues in the wet, and Zoom Zoom Aawens, who rides much harder than me, has also reported zero issues. Perhaps we use a different road mix to the US?

Pete

Thanks Pete will keep that in mind.

Would like to get something decent rather than follow crap with potential crap.

 

[Peter Aawen]

...... I think someone said they were ASymmetrical
. What does that mean.....

Yep, as you probably guessed already, 'Asymetrical' means the tread pattern isn't mirrored down the centre-line/across the tread face, usually so that the tread pattern has a section/one side or half that is best suited to saaay, wet road handling; while another section/the other half of the tread is better suited to dry road handling. Best of both Worlds! hyea:

It can also (but not necessarily) mean that the tire tread only works properly when the tire is spinning in one direction, altho those tires are usually labelled 'Directional' &/or have an arrow or a label saying 'inside' or 'outside' on their sidewall. However, you can get Directional tires that aren't Asymetric, just like you can have Asymetric tires that aren't Directional! Make sense? :dontknow:

Oh, btw, Asymetric &/or Directional tires aren't usually an issue up the front (running the correct way of course, &/or at least knowingly running the 'wrong' way for a suitable reason! ) of your Spyder, and they aren't necessarily too much of an issue on the rear either, altho you do want to make sure that an asymetric &/or directional tire run on the rear of your Spyder is suitable for use as a drive tire and that it's also running in the correct direction! There's not really gonna be any 'suitable reason' for running a directional drive tire the wrong way :lecturef_smilie:

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Oh, btw, Asymetric &/or Directional tires aren't usually an issue up the front (running the correct way of course, &/or at least knowingly running the 'wrong' way for a suitable reason! ) of your Spyder, and they aren't necessarily too much of an issue on the rear either, altho you do want to make sure that an asymetric &/or directional tire run on the rear of your Spyder is suitable for use as a drive tire and that it's also running in the correct direction! There's not really gonna be any 'suitable reason' for running a directional drive tire the wrong way :lecturef_smilie:

As you know many riders of conventional trikes mount the front tire in reverse of normal. This is because the front tire is pushed instead of doing the pushing. This supposedly maximizes the traction aspect of the tire for turning, etc. I wonder if there would be any similar benefit to mounting Spyder front tires to run reverse of their specified direction of rotation. Or is the pushing traction already factored into the OEM Kenda fronts?

 

[seaweed]

IdahoMtnSpyder, that is a very good question. Perhaps Peter Aawen and/or Blueknight911 can answer that for us.

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

IdahoMtnSpyder, that is a very good question. Perhaps Peter Aawen and/or Blueknight911 can answer that for us.

I dis-agree with using the tread …. in REVERSE … of what the directional arrows are on the tire ….. the directional arrows are there because of how the manufacturer designed the tire ……. ask Peter ……. Mike hyea:

 

[Peter Aawen]

As you know many riders of conventional trikes mount the front tire in reverse of normal. This is because the front tire is pushed instead of doing the pushing. This supposedly maximizes the traction aspect of the tire for turning, etc. I wonder if there would be any similar benefit to mounting Spyder front tires to run reverse of their specified direction of rotation. Or is the pushing traction already factored into the OEM Kenda fronts?

Like Mike says....

Yeah.... NO! There is NO benefit! :shocked: At least, not for traction purposes! And that applies especially if you're talking about the OE spec Kendas!

For any other tires, at its most simple, with Non-directional tires, it doesn't matter which way you run them (even if they happen to be asymetrical) they've been designed to work rolling either way! And when it comes to directional tires that aren't specifically marked as 'Drive' or 'Steer' tires or marked with different 'Drive' or 'Steer' rotation directions (either/all of which can be either symetrical or asymetrical) then regardless of where you put them on your vehicle (inc on trikes &/or reverse trikes) then their TRACTION et al has been maximised by design for running in the appropriate indicated direction of rotation....

But there are other factors that can be involved for a whole raft of reasons, and it isn't necessarily quite so simple &/or cut & dried in some (albeit fairly limited) circumstances..... but few recreational or commuter type drivers/riders are likely to encounter any of those circumstances all that often, and even if they do, how many are likely to know when to swap their tires around, let alone bother doing that? :dontknow: Heck, many can't even be bothered checking their tire pressures regularly or knowing even roughly how much load they're putting on their tires?! :gaah:

 

[Airborne]

Thank You all.

 

[glennm]

:agree: thank you all. I know tyres get done to death however there always seems to be a new question, observation, fact that arises and I appreciate the effort forum members put in.

Makes it much easier for novices to make informed decisions and avoid mistakes.