Yes, it is the stock Kenda. Maybe I should run a lower tire pressure to make it last longer?
Doing that on an OE Spec Kenda won't make any difference! :sour:
It likely would make a difference on a 'real' tire, but the OE Spec Kendas are made with 1/2 the normal number of tread plies than those used in most normal car tires AND the thread they use in those tread plies is about half the strength & thicknesss of the thread generally used in the tread plies of most normal tires (some heavy duty or high performance tires use thread that's even thicker/stronger than the usual double the Kendas strength in order to help keep the tread flat & in contact with the road surface, especially during cornering!!) so as the Kenda rotates, the centre of the tread has little resistance against being thrown out by the centrifugal force and the tire ends up running on & wearing the very narrow strip down the middle that you see worn on yours!! Then when you come to cornering, it's really only the air pressure in the tire that is stopping the whole thing from folding under due to cornering forces and peeling right off the rim - with potentially disastrous results!! And I don't really want to detail all the absobloodylutely appalling construction defects that Kenda tires have revealed.... just suffice to say that out of the 30 plus Kenda tires I have dissected/cut apart to look at their construction, only ONE has had what I would consider to be safe & roadworthy construction - all the others had significant construction defects that I would've thought most manufacturers would've picked up during their quality control inspections and rejected!! :shocked:
So while some people may be satisfied that the OE Spec Kendas meet their riding needs, & due to the exceedingly light load on the front end, if you are lucky enough to get a pair of front Kendas that ARE round & that can be balanced, they should actually work 'sorta OK' for quite a respectable tire life, especially if you get your Spyder's wheel alignment done properly by one of the competent ROLO or Laser alignment operators out there (there are some, but not all and sadly, seemingly very few dealers!) but most find out very quickly that pretty much no matter what you do, the rear OE Spec Kenda is somewhat 'less than suitable', particularly in the way & rapidity at which it wears!! However, since these Kendas are for all intents and purposes a normal Passenger CAR TIRE (except for the label on their sidewalls intended to stop some imbecile from trying to run them on their full sized car!) many have chosen to upgrade their tire choice (especially the rear tire!) to something more suitable to their riding style or tire life needs & have fitted a similar sized but higher load & often speed rated car tire on the rear! And very VERY few who have done this have failed to discover & be impressed with the improved wear that they find this brings, as well as the better traction, ride, and handling that running a better quality better constructed tires brings with it, especially if they run a lower pressure than that needed in the lightweight Kenda, ie, a pressure more suitable to carrying the significantly lesser weight of a Spyder instead of the weight of a much heavier car! In fact, I haven't heard of
anyone volunteering to go back to running the crappy Kendas once they've tried a 'proper' car tire! And with the greater range of tire construction, compounds, and tread patterns available in 'normal' car tires, you can choose a tire that is best suited to your riding style &/or what you want from your tires!
Me, since we can't readily get those Generals or Altimax here in Aus, I've chosen a slightly harder & longer wearing 'sport touring' tire that handles our mainly rough surfaced Aussie roads very well in both the wet & dry and that returns a reasonable tire life instead of wearing out rapidly, knowing that I've sacrificed a little ultimate traction for longer tread wear - and because the Spyder imposes about 1/3rd the load on this tire to that of the normal sized cars the manufacturer expected it to usually carry, I only run 16-18 psi in the rear 225/60R15 Kumho Ecsta I am currently on - any more than that & the traction drops off markedly while the ride & handling rapidly gets harsher & the tread visbly & measurably wears faster in the centre of the tread! I got somewhat less than 5000 kms out of the original OE Spec Kenda, and have since achieved over 35,000 out of the first Kumho KH17 that I ran at those pressures mentioned above, and am now well on the way to achieving about the same from the current Kumho, altho I must admit to playing 'boy racer' a helluva lot more on this one shortly after I got the 'RotaxRacing ECU Xtreme' upgrade done, and as a result I just may have sacrificed about 10,000km or so of potential tire life by converting it into tire smoke & noise by exercising my right wrist on the throttle so much & digging chunks outta the tarmac!
pps: But I've gotten over the excitement (a little, anyway) & am now behaving better so I expect the tire life to be almost as good as that of the first Kumho - regardless, the traction, ride, and handling I'm getting now is waaaaaayyyyyy ahead of that I got from the Kenda, and the massively improved tire life is just another bonus! :thumbup:
Enjoy, or whatever!
