tire pressure

Easy Rider:

"What exactly are Kenda "Radials" ? Kanines ??

You should NEVER run the tires on any vehicle below the recommended pressures.
The original ones performed better with a couple of extra pounds but still poorly."

The sidewalls are stamped "Kenda Radial, Special use motorcycle tires". No, to the best of my knowledge they are not" Kanines" per se {which for the record are back ordered by several months} but obviously built at the same factory. The tires are stamped with a minimum psi of 15. I challenged the dealer tech on the 18 psi and he swore that was the ideal psi for these tires claiming they will wear and handle better at that number. I have a nice compressor and hose reel out in my Man Cave and will adjust as needed. First step is to try them {under a variety of road conditions} with the chalk test to illustrate how they are actually wearing and then adjust the psi as needed.

"How they feel and handle is way more important than what the wear pattern IS."

First of all sorry you are not familiar with the chalk/wear test. It is simple and very effective indicator of proper inflation. If after a few miles of riding the chalk marks across the tires are wearing evenly then you are probably close to the proper inflation. I have successfully used this simple test on my last 3 bikes {BMW R80, Harley Dyna Super Glide and my Indian Springfield} logging well north of 100K miles over the last 12 years prior to making the switch to my Spyder RT.

Secondly, as promised in my prior post I had the opportunity to give my new tires a thorough road test last week. We trailered the Can Am over to Lake Havasu and then rode 260+ miles over the next 2 days in a wide variety of road conditions. Temps were between 91 and 101 and we {my bride and I and we weigh in at a net 300#} encountered some pretty good winds {15 -25}. Highway 95 is 2 - 4 lanes and mostly posted 65. I-40 in Arizona was a 75 mph event with lots of commercial trucks doing 80+ which can generate some serious bow waves not to mention severe turbulence when overtaking them. I-40 in California was a 65 mph run but again lots of trucks. The 2 lane run from Needles up to Laughlin offered lots of twisties but nothing like riding the "Mother Road" of old Route 66 from Topock up to Oatman and back. Hard to find a finer bike road anywhere.

Its would seem that the 18 psi that the dealer put into my new front tires is just about spot on. You need to keep in mind that these Kenda's are NOT the dreaded Kenda's from 7 to 10 years ago. The bike handled far better than ever before, smooth and steady in what was obviously a very mixed bag of conditions. I will keep monitoring the psi all around and will adjust as needed, might even try the fronts at 20 - 22 just for grins to see if I can discern any significant improvement but at least now I have a benchmark for great performance based upon the 18 psi the dealership insisted was appropriate. Dealerships see and service more bikes in a month than the average rider encounters in a lifetime so it was no surprise to me that seem to have nailed it this time... it happens.

Been running front 18 psi, rear 28 psi two up. Mind you it gets over 100F here in the summer in the middle of the day so perhaps a couple of PSI more in more temperate climates may be OK. I set mine in the morning, before the heat of the day.

It is not unusual for the rear to have that center wear pattern from my experience. I think the centrifugal force causes it to wear to the center before the outside. If you add more pressure it will probably be more likely to wear to the center. If you reduce the pressure possibly the tire has less rigidity and probably still wears to the center. My guess is "they all do that sir".

The newer Kendas seem fine other than the central wear pattern on the rear. To my mind they handle fine, wet or dry, give good traction and braking. Yep, they are not as cheap as some options but compared with motorcycles I've had in the past with absurd wear rates for outrageous amounts of money I think they do OK. It weighs over 1,000 lbs after all, plus rider and passenger and luggage.

maww12 said:

I know this question has been ask many times and I don't want to beat a tired horse but! Can someone set me straight on the correct tire pressure for my 2012 RT Limited. Stock tires always ride two up can't get spyder out of the garage without the boss on the back but thats ok thats why we bought it anyway.Checked the owners manual it said 15 to 17 which seems low to me then checked whats in the front tires now and it said 33 lbs which seems high. Went and bought a new digital pressure gauge and it said 32.5. Have read several post on this subject and there all different. So now I am really confused. Bike handles ok like it is wife and I just cruse around on it nothing crazy just enjoy the ride but was just checking the tire pressure the other day and now its got me wondering.

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I can. It’s says in the manual the data is under the front right maintenance cover. It’s not, nor under the left one. On mine it is under the seat towards the back in the sticker with the tire sizes. I needed a flashlight to read it.

It says on my 2021 RT LTD, which should be the same as yours if you have stock tires. It states 20 psi front and 28 psi rear. Me, as I live where it is often over 100F during the day I run 18 front 28 rear, two up. That’s because in summer I set it in the cool of the morning and by hottest part of the day 18 front is probably 20 and 28 rear is probably 30.

I don’t check the rear that often as I’m old and getting at the valve is hard, but I check the fronts every week, not so much for the absolute pressure but to make sure front left and right match as that’s the most important thing.

if you are running 33 psi in the front, that’s at least 50% too much. It won’t have as much grip as it should, the tires will wear in their centers and it will probably feel harsh at the front. I don’t even know if the fronts are rated for that much pressure. The rear won’t matter so much, but no matter what the pressure in the rear it will always wear out the center first, like it is over pressure. That’s how they wear.

I hope that helps. The manual is wrong and just says check under the covers, but I think US regulations say it must be visible at least under the seat. The manual might reflect Canada I guess.