Kenda's new Big Block Tires

[lucky_strike]

gotta bring this back up. now that tire has been used for some time. whats every ones thoughts

[Buzztail]

Originally Posted by lucky_strike

gotta bring this back up. now that tire has been used for some time. whats every ones thoughts

Lucky,
Mine are still sitting in the garage.... I suck

[Jud]

I'll use the front but I'll use a Shinko 705 rear. The rears just don't last long enough for me. Cheaper than TKCs and last roughly as long in my book.

[vnsfxr]

I like mine on hard pack. No deep mud yet and to new to know mileage yet.

With the way it feels on pavement seems pretty close to 50/50 to me for my DR650.

[ktmnate]

I mounted the front last week. It now has just under 3k. I'm liking it. I tried it at 30 PSI and it sucked. I dropped the pressure to 25 and it was better than I expected. It handled pavement, sand, rain, fast paced gravel a little mud and even snow. It wasn't great in the sand and snow but what is? I will buy it again!



Nate

PS - its has a much stiffer sidewall than the TKC and will handle lower tire pressure.

[TroyWolf]

I paid about $220 for both. (The 150/70 17 tires are always expensive compared to narrower versions.)

Mounted last night, but have not even started the bike with them yet. I'll only get in a little pavement riding next week. Sometime in the next 4 weeks, I hope to ride some rugged AR forest roads including some mud. I'll come back here with a report. I don't claim to be much of an expert, so take my opinion for what it's worth.

They look really nice on the bike. Just working with them, they feel soft so I'm not expecting them to last a long time. I am expecting them to grip the rocky trails relatively well.

I was going to embed some photos, but Picasaweb is not giving me the link options right now. Here is a link to the album where you can see 3 photos of the Kenda Big Block tires on my F800.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1149614...eat=directlink

[jdub]

I'm now 2,000 miles into my Big Block experiment and the rear tire is toast while the front looks only about one third worn. I'd read all of the other posts about short tread life before I decided to give them a go, and this is the lowest mileage I've ever gotten out of any rear tire. For comparison, I consistently get 12k miles from rear Tourances, 10k to 12k from rear Anakees, 6k to 7k from rear TKC-80s, and was over 12k on a rear Heidenau K60 when I pulled it with tread remaining.

Also, today near the end of a 300 mile rain ride I happened to cross a 300 foot long steel grate bridge. I've crossed this bridge for years in all conditions with many different tires with nothing but a gentle weave from the bike. This is the first time I crossed with the BB's, and holy crap! Started across at about 30 mph and I thought I was going down. The front tire just started dancing all over the open grating while those tread blocks tried to decide where they wanted to go, with accompanying handlebar movements. Hopefully the seat cover will return to normal in a couple of days from the butt pucker it received. TKCs and the K60s were downright solid on the same bridge compared to the BBs. Beware the grating!

On the plus side, other than the first 150 miles or so after mounting while the BBs first settled in, I really liked them. Great in mud and gravel, stuck great in spirited twisty riding, no slips on wet asphalt, no slips on wet or dry tar strips (unlike K60s), noisy of course, but more like a whirring sound instead of a roar.

I thought maybe in the future I'd keep running a BB front with a TKC rear, but after the bridge incident today I'm off of BBs.

[regnock]

I can back up jdub's experience with BBs and grated bridges. I had a few butt puckering experiences on the Trans-Labrador highway with them :)

[TroyWolf]

Originally Posted by TroyWolf

I paid about $220 for both. (The 150/70 17 tires are always expensive compared to narrower versions.)

Mounted last night, but have not even started the bike with them yet. I'll only get in a little pavement riding next week. Sometime in the next 4 weeks, I hope to ride some rugged AR forest roads including some mud. I'll come back here with a report. I don't claim to be much of an expert, so take my opinion for what it's worth.

They look really nice on the bike. Just working with them, they feel soft so I'm not expecting them to last a long time. I am expecting them to grip the rocky trails relatively well.

I was going to embed some photos, but Picasaweb is not giving me the link options right now. Here is a link to the album where you can see 3 photos of the Kenda Big Block tires on my F800.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1149614...eat=directlink

I completed 3 days in the Arkansas forest on my new Kenda Big Blocks. 460 miles total with about 100 of that pavement. The rest was very rocky and rough roads. The rear tire is probably 50% gone! Seriously. My F800GS ate that thing. However, it performed fantastic--I was very happy with how it handled. $70 for 3 days of riding is kind of expensive! Then again, I had a fantastic adventure, so I'm not made about it. I'll probably try something else next time though.

The Kenda Big Block front tire performed well for me, but new on pavement it made the front end feel a little squirrely as those soft knobs danced around. I can live with that.

[WVhillbilly]

My buddy's 800 ate the rear tire quick as well.
My LC4 400 is not so hard on them

[caljw]

Less thank 2K on rear tried it twice cause I'm an idiot...never again.

[mouthfulloflake]

2597 miles on my rear big block tire
95 r1100gs, 95% pavement, some gravel, some mud, some sand, some actual 'offroad' riding

its got some life left to give, I figure it will goto 3000 miles easily, which is longer than the tkc80 lasted for me.

-? interesting to hear how the other guys get such high mileage out of the tkc and so little out of this one?

the tire is NOISY as hell, LOUD, earplug required for any paved surface over 30 mph

grips better than the tkc on pavement wet, and dry.
too subjective to rate how it grips in the dirt/mud/sand but I can say it does it as well as a tire can do on an overly heavy, overly powered pig. ( it works better in the sand than a tkc in my opinion)

its hard to mount, a VERY stiff sidewall.

in fact I rode the bike to work and back a couple of days before realizing the rear was flat.
I mean flat, zero, zilch.... psi

Ill buy another one if I can find them for under $120, 4 cents a mile is about what im willing to pay for a knobbed tire.

[Jud]

Originally Posted by mouthfulloflake

2597 miles on my rear big block tire
95 r1100gs, 95% pavement, some gravel, some mud, some sand, some actual 'offroad' riding

its got some life left to give, I figure it will goto 3000 miles easily, which is longer than the tkc80 lasted for me.

-? interesting to hear how the other guys get such high mileage out of the tkc and so little out of this one?

the tire is NOISY as hell, LOUD, earplug required for any paved surface over 30 mph

grips better than the tkc on pavement wet, and dry.
too subjective to rate how it grips in the dirt/mud/sand but I can say it does it as well as a tire can do on an overly heavy, overly powered pig. ( it works better in the sand than a tkc in my opinion)

its hard to mount, a VERY stiff sidewall.

in fact I rode the bike to work and back a couple of days before realizing the rear was flat.
I mean flat, zero, zilch.... psi

Ill buy another one if I can find them for under $120, 4 cents a mile is about what im willing to pay for a knobbed tire.

Great review and pretty much on par with other reports. Never thought about breaking tire cost down to the penney.Cool idea!

[jdub]

Originally Posted by mouthfulloflake

Ill buy another one if I can find them for under $120, 4 cents a mile is about what im willing to pay for a knobbed tire.

Here ya go, $2.53 under budget. http://www.americanmototire.com/cata...th=200_239_244

[Boatman]

Originally Posted by jdub

Here ya go, $2.53 under budget. http://www.americanmototire.com/cata...th=200_239_244

Pffttt.... 150/70-17 = $105.88

http://www.chaparral-racing.com/Prod.../328-6190.aspx