Title: An old 'note to self' about the Kenda Challenger
woot - December 16, 2005 05:26 PM (GMT)
Crap - I lost my first attempt at posting this at this. I was going through my MC log book and found this entry circa 2002.
The new look of a kenda k657 challenger:
Picture of tire a day or two before replacement:
The new look of a kenda k657 challenger:
Picture of tire a day or two before replacement:
| QUOTE |
| Well - that my friends is the end of my Kenda. I've put 9700km on it and its quite dead. Its died kinda funny though, as I've noticed two odd things. One - one side of the tire is at the wear bars and the other is well past the wear bars. Two - I've noticed some bubbles in the tire. Not bubbles that stick out, just small areas (about the size of a penny) that are a hairs width more worn than the rest of the tire. I've mainted a tire preasure of 34 on the rear. I've not done any burn outs. The tire died quite suddenly - I ordered a new set of tires yesterday - knowing they were going to need changing come june. I had checked them 2 days before and only put 100km on them before I went to the store. They hadn't looked bad. Infact the wear bar wasn't quite flush at that point. By the time I had rode an additional 60 km, the tire was dead. I rode back to my apartment today - another 60km and its still dead ;) As far as traction was concerned I had no problems with this tire. It makes a cheap alternative to the bt45, and offers comparable (price in mind) performance. Since tires for my bike are hard to come by (sizing issues - the front takes a 100-90-19, the rear a 130-90-16.) I ordered a set of GT501's to test those out. Cheers, 81-xj650 Maxim |
If you look at the kenda tire when it is new the grooves are narrower and shallower in the center of the tire. I beleive they say it is a dual compound tire, the edges are softer than the center. I found that the edges had very good tread depth and good traction, however, on the maxim I also found it impossible to use the edge of the tire due to it's profile. I found that as a result I wore the center out of it pretty quickly - under 6000 miles.
I also noticed bubbling. Now - this is not uncommon when you wear a tire past the wear bars, but this phenomon isn't supposed to happen until you ride a tire way past it's service life. This bubbling should have told me that this tire is getting near delamination... To be fair - I did ride it to the wear bars, beyond the 1/32" tread depth minimum so I had used the servicable life of the tire... I just was a bit surprised at just how fast it got to the danger point.
Anyhow - I've really cut my discussion short on this version of the post
Happy trails - hope you don't mind my flash back.
Woot.
madd-maxx - December 19, 2005 11:23 AM (GMT)
i was gonna buy kendas
but ended up puting spitfires!
any input on those?
but ended up puting spitfires!
any input on those?
woot - December 19, 2005 12:26 PM (GMT)
I can't really comment on the spitfires... It did have a front on when I brought the bike. At that time I was getting used to the bike and didn't really push it too hard. I replaced the tires all around shortly after.
So I can't really comment on the spitfires, although if someone want's to sponsor me as a tire tester I'd be willing to put the miles on! ;) Actually - I wonder if you have to pay duty on take-off's?
cheers,
woot.