Kenda Tires??? Thoughts??

Hey all,

Getting my 81' KZ1100 back from the mech either tomorrow or fri. Gotta get some new tires for it.

My mech doesn't have the capability for tires, so he recommended a local shop. The gave me a quote for a Kenda Cruiser tire (don't have the actual model number). They said it is a good "middle of the road" tire. $65 front, $70 rear, $80 labor, $11 tax = $226 installed.

Is this a good deal?

Dale

kendas, never again. $80 to install, I won't pay that much. I can get tires done for about $25 off the bike and i still think that is expensive.

I went from kenda's to chen shins, my next tire will be the dunlop gt501

I don't know about the price of the tires or anything about the brand, but $80 labor is a touch high imo..I bought 4 new LT225/75/r15 tires for my truck with lifetime balancing, 4 new valve stems, tire recycling, 20 new lug nuts and tax for less than you're paying for two tires installed...I bought the tires for my bike from a yamaha-honda dealership, and there was no labor charge, just $56.05 for one tire, $43.50 for the other, and they're supposed to be middle of the road tires..Barracuda I think(not too fond of the sportbike-never-leave-the-dry-pavement tread pattern though, since I ride on a lot of gravel and sand...)

Go check out motorcycle accessory warehouse for tire prices. You can choose a set of nice V rated tires from dozens of manufacturers and models for less than $200 delivered.

IIRC have Kenda on my CB650 and maye on the KZ1100B2...

Local mount and balance $20 per each. That's a high speed balance on a machine too.

I strongly recommend that you take your wheels to the shop, have the old tires removed, bring the wheels home. Get a power wire brush and clean every bit of corrosion off the bead sealing area.
Then go over it with some sand paper. Make it shine. Sand the pits out.

Check out your wheel bearings and seals while you've got the wheels off. If seals are bad and bearings are goo, repack and get new seals. If bad, replace with sealed bearings.

Do any cosmetic stuff you want to the wheels.
Now go back to the shop and get your tires mounted and balanced. Get new valve stems if you're the least bit uncomfortable with the old ones.

You'll be real happy. Your tires will hold the correct pressure for months at a time.

Post edited by: Duck, at: 2006/04/12 17:40

Found Harley valve stems for my 81 J model 1000. They fit nice were cheap (Surprise) and look great. I stay away from Kendas and Cheng shin for front tires. A good Avon, Pirelli or Dunlop for me. As far as rear tire goes? I have yet to feel a real difference, though a hard compound seems easier to do burn outs hehe.

I agree with cleaning the seal surface. Have had many tires not stay filled because of poor mounting techniques by shops. So do bring it home and clean it up!

Find an industrial bearing house to replace your bearings. Saves some cash too. Timken makes a good sealed bearing for most KZs. I have a good word document with many sizes of standard wheel bearings for many types of Kawasaki cycles should anyone be interested.

Post edited by: kzbikeman, at: 2006/04/12 18:24

I have used Kendas on my lighter bikes ,, They are less money But you dont get many miles .. By 5000 they are really on their way out ,, The Dunlops I am using now will go a good 8000 miles .. This might be one time where you get what you pay for ?? The 80.00 for mount and balance seems high even if they are taken off the bike ,, 20.00 a tire if you bring them in around here ,, also around here it is next to impossible to get a tire mounted that you didnt buy from that bike shop ,, I am not sure in your area though ,, I have changed tires myself with changing spoons // Not really for everyone ,, Just my two cents ,, shoeman

Thanks for the input all.

I was looking at acc warehouse at bridgestone s11's & dunlop Elite III's or GT501's. They had a deal on bridgestone shipping for $10/tire.

How is acc warehouse on shipping - as in rates, shipper, time, etc. ?

Looks like the tires there were roughly the same marked price as the Kenda's.

Now that I know $80 is high for two new tires mounted, balanced, etc... I think I'll call the local dealer. Granted I may pay more for the tires, but if the diff can be made up in the labor charge, I think it would be worth it.

i just bought new tires for my KZ750 from accwse.com. Dunlop F11 and DunlopK627 for $137.90 + 20 shipping. The local Motorcycle shop in town wanted $260 for the same tires plus $150 for installation. I took them off myself and took them to a garage where they were installed for $30 each.

Bridgestone BT45's (Battlax) have a decent following lately too. I recently researched tires and decided to try them starting this riding season. They are not totally broken in yet and I haven't ridden in the rain yet either but they feel really nice so far.

Metzeler Lasertecs are also supposed to be really good and match up well with older KZ's too. They were my second choice but I found a better deal on the BT45's.

.....for what it's worth.....

I took the wheels off the bike. I did not buy the tires at the shop (they didn't seem to care) and I got charged 25 per tire which included balancing.

im a big fan of metzelers also,but arent making low-profile 18" rear tires anymore ,so i guess im gonna have to switch over to 17"radials,thats gonna be a lot of rims and tires!:whistle: :woohoo: goodluck,happy wrenching!

kenda

I forgot that prielli has sizes that fit our bikes and they run about the same price as the dunlops. thanks for the reminder, I'll probably get a set of the pirellis' next