Ok, here goes!

[Larrym]

No Brains

TC,

Uhhh....It's not like I got the bike, painstakingly did all the research and comparisons, read all the reviews, then made the conscious choice to order and install these tires.

I got the bike with these tires. The little "pointy" things hadn't even been knocked off. I guess they just threw a set of Kendos on it to make it look cool because it didn't run. D'oh!

I just took it as is and the "annunciator" holes were of no importance till one decisive moment. I'd buy another set just cause I'm too lazy to go through the effort of trying to find another set which keep me from being silly at 70mph.


More importantly I guess I'm just used to that point where these tires start scrubbing and squealing before they "let go". That's more important than silly old "specifications" IMHO

Okay. If I gotta....I'll measure the tread left and I know how many miles I've driven. You gonna forward this data to your Rocket scientists??

[xs11lover]

Glad to see this post, my back tire is a slick and I was just on my way to get a kenda, I was thinking of dropping some cash on a better tire, but not any more.

[trbig]

I don't ride aggressively (Much) as these bikes are not the "Uberbikes" meant for hanging off the sides of through "twisties". That being said, Sometimes the opportunity does present itself and what are you gonna do? What happens when the rider takes the bike up to the edge and tickles the point of no return?

I often chase down those "Uberbikes" in the twisties. I did have Bob Jones' wife, Karla with me this year on my XJ while riding rather "spirited". She stated that the XJ will lean a lot further than Bob's XS bikes would before scraping. That being said, with today's technology, you shouldn't need any warning "Drunk bumps" on your tires. These bikes will corner far better than most care to... yet they somehow want to blame the bike. Not that you should, but you CAN be leaned far enough to where your footpegs are past scraping and folded up againast the case and scraping something even more expensive before your tires will let loose. And even then, it will be bcause you got weight transfered to the bike that the tires needed. If you can't.. and the tire starts to let loose before then, then you have poorly designed tires.

There shouldn't be any problems being able to use your whole tire. Notice the scrubbed eraser look of the softer compound on the outsides of mine, along with the absence of any "Chicken strips"





I'm not telling everyone to go out there and ride past their comfort zone, but you should quit trying to blame YOUR reservations on your bike just because it's old. They'll corner just fine and you SHOULD be able to use your whole tire.. clear to the outside edge without problems.. if you have a decent tire.

And to TC... no tread depths to report, but this rear tire has a little over 8k on it now. Still several fun more to go I think.


Tod

[trbig]

OK... just noticed the chicken strips over on the sidewall and some down by the rim. Even I won't go there.. (Hopefully.. lol)


Tod

[DGXSER]

All I know is my bike had Kenda tires when I got it, the tread was fairly deep to. I rode about 2500 miles on them and the back tire had thread showing trough.

Also, my tires would grab a chalk line like life depended on it let alone a crack in the road. Not fun at all.

Personal preference only like everyone elses stated here, but for me Kenda = Kmart, for clarification watch the end of the movie Rainman.

[Larrym]

Cluck...Cluck.Cluck...

TC,

I took the measurements on my rear Kendo: 7/32 inch tread left after 1.4 K miles. You can run this through Langley or take my thumbnail math which projects that I should get about 8 K miles before there's no tread left. How that compares with the "advertised" mileage between different makes/models of tires I just don't know. No 40,000 mile tire here according to what's happening in the real world.

Tod,

That has gotta be sweet to put the fear of god into the "uberbikes" in your area. They're on the same road as you are but with a "superior handling" bike. If we rule out mechanical failure then the difference is the superior rider. I'm curious. Just what is their explanation for losing the informal "race" with a 30 year old cruiser? Or do you just point to their 2 inch wide chicken strips and snicker?

I'm not blaming the bike for my chicken strips. It really isn't an uberbike but rather the predecessor to the crotch rockets of today. And that is where we take a giant step backwards to understand why my tire and yours looks different.

I may have been out of the bike world for over 10 years but before that I owned, repaired, and rode lots of bikes for years. Problem is that I rode the bikes of the early 70's and late 60's. Short version is that all the bikes I rode had geometries (and TIRES) which tended to keep the rider in the "upright and straight" position. Curves, corners, sweepers, twisties?? No. Stable in the straights but unstable in turns. The bikes all fought back against these unsanctioned maneuvers. Some more forcefully than others but all of them liked to go in a straight line. Period. Departures from that "line" and you were asking for trouble. There weren't "chicken strips" because even the tires were squarish.

Now I own the special and all I have to do is look in the direction I want to turn and that arc begins. I like it. (A LOT!!) But I have to unlearn what over 20 years of experience is telling me to do in that turn. (Consider yourself fortunate as obviously you either never had to deal with this or you have overcome this spendidly!) I've had the bike running for less than a year now and have only put 1.4K miles into this marvelous bike which actually seems to like departing from a straight line.
I really am the weakest link in the bike, road, rider combo. I know that and I'm working on it. Those holes in the kendo reminded me of training wheels. I'll take them gladly until I reach the point where they are not needed and then I can ride with the Big Kids. (JOY!!)

I'm not a die-hard Kendo fan. It's being evaluated as I ride it and before I do get another set of tires I'm going to read as many tire threads as I can before my eyes start bleeding.

Our strips say what they say. What kind of driving we do and to what extent. That should be the determining factor in chooseing tires. Look at your chicken strip and that'll tell you how to choose a tire.

Tod, Your tire appears to have a wide flat area in the middle and an absense of chicken strips. My read on this is that you drive in a straight line at highway speeds for long periods. You also have some curvey roads where you can and do put your bike on it's ears. Mainly though, you keep the bike upright for the majority of miles driven.

What do my strips tell you?

And How long can I resist the compulsion to rent "RainMan"?

[trbig]

Your tire appears to have a wide flat area in the middle and an absense of chicken strips. My read on this is that you drive in a straight line at highway speeds for long periods. You also have some curvey roads where you can and do put your bike on it's ears.

It's actually pretty round still. Maybe it's just the angle, plus the powder from riding up the gravel to my driveway. That being said, I do travel more than most at somewhere between 20-25k miles a year, so there is a lot of straight up time. And the term "highway speeds" is debateable.. lol. I also ride with my boot about halfway off the peg while cornering, and with the turns, on-ramps, and clover leafs, I rub a boot or scrape a peg just about daily.

I try like crazy, but I've yet to wear a tire out on the outside before the inside does get flat and bald. If only I lived in Arkansas...



Tod

[cywelchjr]

Wow! I didn't really expect it to get this involved. My primary question really was about the size difference, and decided Sat that going to the 110/90 was likely a good idea. I guess I'll find out soon as I just got an email telling me that the tire shipped today, so hopefully I'll have it by the weekend and be able to mount it over the weekend and get out and break it in on Mon.

I went with the Kenda k671 and I'll report back on how it works out for me, as the price seems reasonable, so the next thing is how do they handle and wear. Of course the handling will be first and the wear will come out over time.

[Larrym]

Focus!!

Thanks for reminding me of what questions you really could use an answer to.

I have the 110 Kendo on the front of my bike. I've also noted that when I do the "posted" speed limit that the cages behind me crowd up against my backside. May be that my speedo is a little off or might be just a lack of courtesy on their part.

I have a GPS and will take a ride solely for the purpose of comparing the two devices: speedo vs GPS. Different speed ranges as well. Who knows how it'll turn out.

Recovered from the surgery, doc has green lighted me for riding, but today it's sprinkling on and off. Nuh uh for today.

Will ride and post results ASAP.

[cywelchjr]

Ok, I'm officially impressed. I ordered the tire on Sat afternoon, and got notification of it shipping yesterday morning and then last night when I got home from work the tire was already there. That is fast service in anybody's book, and fast shipping too. The delivery truck must have had warp drive

Now we will see this weekend when I install the tire and go for a ride to break it in. Then we'll see how it handles and then down the road how it wears.

[Larrym]

Leather Up!

If you're going to do the R+R yourself then the FAQ here on the site has some good directions to follow.

I didn't see the FAQ make any mention of using leather (or anything!) between the tire irons and the rim though. The first XS I got had a front rim which looked like a Pit-Bull had used it for a chew toy. The kid who owned it before me had not used anything to to protect the rim as he pried an old tire off and leveraged the "new" tire in place.

The tire didn't leak but with all those gouges .... only a matter of time till something bad would happen.

[cywelchjr]

If you're going to do the R+R yourself then the FAQ here on the site has some good directions to follow.

I didn't see the FAQ make any mention of using leather (or anything!) between the tire irons and the rim though. The first XS I got had a front rim which looked like a Pit-Bull had used it for a chew toy. The kid who owned it before me had not used anything to to protect the rim as he pried an old tire off and leveraged the "new" tire in place.

The tire didn't leak but with all those gouges .... only a matter of time till something bad would happen.

I saw some rim protectors there next to the tire irons/spoons at the dealer that I think I'll get and use. They look like they will do a good job of protecting the rim. I have read FAQ's on changing your own tire on several sites, so I think I have a good idea on that (and the one on here is one of the better ones. At some point here I figure on getting the tire mounting unit and motorcycle tire adapter from harbor freight, as I here it works quite well (and frankly then I can get a static wheel balancer and do my own car tires as well, heck, when I was in the army I used the auto shop on post to do my tires and all every time, never paid someone else to do it for me.)

I figure after doing car tires and even truck tires, I shouldn't have a problem, the only reason I had the shop do my other bike was because I seem to be incapable of mounting tube tires without pinching the tube, even when I follow all the hints to help you NOT pinch them.