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Please educate me about tire sizes

That's where I'm at. To be honest, the O.E. Kenda rear tire is OK. Not great, but usable. I replaced the fronts first because it's easy and a lot of car tire changing places can do the swap for you. If you can change a spare on your car, you can pull the fronts off the Can Am Spyder. 3 lug bolts, a jack stand under each side, good to go to the tire place. My fronts were bad, and the swap was very much well worth it. The rear is more involved, and if you're not fairly proficient with basic hand tools and mechanical principal, you may be better off having someone do the work for you. For the 2014 Spyder, there are going to be some additional mechanical recommendations, bearing inspection, belt inspection, brakes, etc. while you have the wheels off.
 
If you are doing the rear tire now and the front tires later, there's a slight possibility that you'll have a few more Nanny interventions once you've got the bigger rear tire fitted and before the fronts go on, because the OE Spec Kendas are 'small' tires & the General & Federals aren't. So if you fit the rear first & give your Spyder a 'tail up' attitude, the Nanny might react to a few corners or other things she wouldn't normally get upset by, but it shouldn't hamper your normal ryding or in fact even spirited ryding much at all, she'll just kick in a touch earlier every now and then. And it'll only last until you fit the fronts too. However, if you are replacing all your tires at once, I reckon you'll be so pleased to be suddenly ryding on tires that grip & point & turn in when you want them to and all those other things that good tires do you'll be so stoked, and your 'miles of smiles' grin will be even wider!! :thumbup:

You know I agree with 99.99999999999999% of the time, but He isn't going to encounter any issues with that tire set-up ….. If He was switching to 13 inch wheels and tires probably, but not otherwise …… Mike :ohyea:
 
Front first still has a 'slight' chance the Nanny will react a little bit quicker, but it really is slight, and the better grip you get will transfer into better directional control and ryding. :2thumbs:

With the bigger rear going on first, you'll get very mild understeer, where the Nanny might feel you are going into a corner slightly over-cooked, the slightly changed front/rear heights will fool the sensors into thinking you've turned hard but the Spyder isn't responding as fast as you've turned, so she'll maybe try to stop the Spyder over-running the front tires - which she WILL do if that really does happen anyway! But if you do the front tires first you'll have better, quicker, & more direct turn in so the tail may feel a fraction loose, so the Nanny might be fooled into thinking that you've turned to hard too fast, so she'll maybe try to stop you hanging the tail &/or spinning - which she WILL do if that really does happen anyway! ;)

So whichever end you do first when you are changing tire sizes, there will be a SLIGHT CHANCE that the Nanny MIGHT try to intervervene a little more often or earlier in some instances until you fit some correspondingly taller tires on the other end! Please note the words in caps - SLIGHT, CHANCE, & MIGHT. That is not a certainty, this 'earlier intervention' is very much dependent upon a heap of things including how hard you ryde & how sticky the road surfaces you ryde on may be, but there is a SLIGHT chance that it MIGHT occur, & that can be surprising if you haven't been warned, so here's the warning. But it is a VERY slight chance and even if it occurs it shouldn't be anything drastic or upsetting or even dangerous - the Nanny we have in our Spyders is one of the best in the game at keeping you safe - most of the time you'll be hard pressed to notice any intervention anyway. ;)

This is something that you don't need to be upset about at all, you probably run a greater risk of falling over at home than you have of your Spyder's Nanny really surprising you. Just be aware that if you change the tire size on one end of your Spyder & not on the other at the same time, because you have such a great Nanny, she might intervene just a little more often than you've become used to until you change the tire/s on the other end to correspondingly taller tires. Heck, I know for a fact that there are some people out there who have purposefully fitted slightly taller tires up front and noticeably smaller tires on the back just so they can do things within the scope of the Nanny's intervention parameters to make their ryding more exciting!! Then they've discovered that the only thing about doing is that by varying tire sizes in the way they have, they've already used up some of the Nanny's safety margins so now she steps in earlier when they try to drift so they've got no nett gain!! She's a really smart piece of kit, our Nanny! :clap:

Fit whichever end first you need to, & ryde it until you need to do the other end, safe in the knowledge that your Spyder's Nanny WILL be doing her thing all the time to keep you safe, and there's not a heap of things you can do that will escape her attention! She's STILL gonna be looking after you whatever you do! :thumbup: And that shouldn't detract a heap from your ryding enjoyment, altho it might just help you develop better ryding skills once you work out where & why she's intervening so you can practice ryding right up to but not over the boundaries she sets! :2thumbs:
 
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My station is as a cruiser rider, not one of the racers. With the 175/55R15 Vredestein Quatrac on the front, and the OE Kenda on the back, I can say I've never been slowed down by the Nanny. Haven't yet rode in the rain, prefer not to but it's inevitable. I've taken turns harder than I ever dared to on cruiser type bikes, had all 3 tires squalling in one fairly sporty turn. I've owned the bike 17 days, about 8 of which were ridable. I've only had the fronts installed for about 200 miles, dry riding conditions only so that's all I can address. I think any of the mentioned tires is better than the O.E. Kenda tires. My bike tracks truer, and turns better with the tires I have on it.
 
https://tiresize.com/calculator/

Great source for sorting out outside diameter on your tires. Simple explanation:

First number: the overall maximum width of the tire, in millimeters when mounted on a standard width (for specific tire size). This is not the width of the tread.

Second number: this is what's called the aspect ratio. A 55 series tire, for example, with have a sidewall height that's 55% of the first value. A 275/55-15, for example, will have a taller side wall than a 195/55-15, because 55 percent of 275 is more than 55 percent of 195.

Third number: wheel diameter - pretty self explanatory.

There are a bunch of other numbers and letters on the tires too, but you can probably look those up. If you have any questions, please feel free to pm me.

I worked at a tire shop through college - I'm familiar with most things having to do with tires.
 
Front first still has a 'slight' chance the Nanny will react a little bit quicker, but it really is slight, and the better grip you get will transfer into better directional control and ryding. :2thumbs:

With the bigger rear going on first, you'll get very mild understeer, where the Nanny might feel you are going into a corner slightly over-cooked, the slightly changed front/rear heights will fool the sensors into thinking you've turned hard but the Spyder isn't responding as fast as you've turned, so she'll maybe try to stop the Spyder over-running the front tires - which she WILL do if that really does happen anyway! But if you do the front tires first you'll have better, quicker, & more direct turn in so the tail may feel a fraction loose, so the Nanny might be fooled into thinking that you've turned to hard too fast, so she'll maybe try to stop you hanging the tail &/or spinning - which she WILL do if that really does happen anyway! ;)

So whichever end you do first when you are changing tire sizes, there will be a SLIGHT CHANCE that the Nanny MIGHT try to intervervene a little more often or earlier in some instances until you fit some correspondingly taller tires on the other end! Please note the words in caps - SLIGHT, CHANCE, & MIGHT. That is not a certainty, this 'earlier intervention' is very much dependent upon a heap of things including how hard you ryde & how sticky the road surfaces you ryde on may be, but there is a SLIGHT chance that it MIGHT occur, & that can be surprising if you haven't been warned, so here's the warning. But it is a VERY slight chance and even if it occurs it shouldn't be anything drastic or upsetting or even dangerous - the Nanny we have in our Spyders is one of the best in the game at keeping you safe - most of the time you'll be hard pressed to notice any intervention anyway. ;)

This is something that you don't need to be upset about at all, you probably run a greater risk of falling over at home than you have of your Spyder's Nanny really surprising you. Just be aware that if you change the tire size on one end of your Spyder & not on the other at the same time, because you have such a great Nanny, she might intervene just a little more often than you've become used to until you change the tire/s on the other end to correspondingly taller tires. Heck, I know for a fact that there are some people out there who have purposefully fitted slightly taller tires up front and noticeably smaller tires on the back just so they can do things within the scope of the Nanny's intervention parameters to make their ryding more exciting!! Then they've discovered that the only thing about doing is that by varying tire sizes in the way they have, they've already used up some of the Nanny's safety margins so now she steps in earlier when they try to drift so they've got no nett gain!! She's a really smart piece of kit, our Nanny! :clap:

Fit whichever end first you need to, & ryde it until you need to do the other end, safe in the knowledge that your Spyder's Nanny WILL be doing her thing all the time to keep you safe, and there's not a heap of things you can do that will escape her attention! She's STILL gonna be looking after you whatever you do! :thumbup: And that shouldn't detract a heap from your ryding enjoyment, altho it might just help you develop better ryding skills once you work out where & why she's intervening so you can practice ryding right up to but not over the boundaries she sets! :2thumbs:

Peter I apologize - we are on the same page with the NANNY as you described it above …… When I think of NANNY interference as being a problem, it's because the size difference between the tires is so large the NANNY - SHUTS the bike down completely and won't let you drive it ……. but after reading your last explanation I see that wasn't where you were at …… I remember back when I had mounted a Toyo Proxes T1r 185/55-15 on the front tires to my RT ( after shimming fender brackets and wheels ) … because I was getting extremely good front traction , I triggered the NANNY ( VSS ) a lot more often...… imho the NANNY detects " G " forces and responds accordingly …… NOT sliding/skidding also trips Her …… Mike
 
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