Kenda KM1 Sport Touring Tires $150/Set

[Ride365]

I'm not interested in saving a buck or 2 or tires, I'll stick with my expensive Michelins.

[OZVFR]

^ + 1, I prefer to have a tyre that outperforms me, than the other way around.

[jthayer09]

Dropping a quick update after 500mi on the Kenda KM1s.

They're solid, and remind me a lot of the Bridgestone T30 Evo in performance. Definitely leans on the sport side of "sport touring" with soft and grippy rubber, and they seem to be more v-shaped than the T32s with easier turn-in. Chicken strips are acceptably lean from riding public roads, on back roads I'm able to corner with my personal rule of signage speed limit x2 +10mph with full confidence:



I hate using chicken strips as a measure, but short of making a video with a lean-angle tracker this is probably the only quantitative way I have to show these are acceptable tires.

Haven't been caught out during a rainstorm yet, but no issues riding wet roads after.

As of this writing they're at 4.7/5.0 stars on Amazon out of 234 reviews and the price is up to $178.96 for a set.

Nothing bad to say about these right now. Will see where we're at after I get a few thousand miles underneath these.

[bwringer]

Thanks for the review and the "hard work" of testing!

Keep us informed as they wear. My general indicator of a high-quality tire is one that feels the same all the way down to the wear bars.

Even if they have a soft compound and don't last long, they can still be a good answer for some riders.

[jthayer09]

3000mi update with some cold weather riding.

These things are meaty, they're very slowly showing wear:

I did forget to mention in my initial post that they have a lot of rubber on them, so much so that I had to remove my rear Givi guard to mount the tire - notice its absence from the photos 😅

A VFR forum user got 14,000mi out of their set. They took wear photos at 3K, 5K, 8K, and 10K if anyone is interested:

https://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index.php?/forums/topic/110057-kenda-km1-153-tire-set/

My thoughts:

They're good in the wet, caught in two rain storms and they're nothing special. Just on par with every other sport touring tire that isn't the Michelin PR series.

They seem to warm up quickly, I can start getting aggressive less than a mile away from my home. As mentioned previously definitely a softer compound and a lot of it to extend the lifespan. I have noticed that they greatly like lower PSI. I played around with pressures and found anything above 38PSI in the rear starts to get a bit squirrely as the contact patch becomes tiny due to the V shape of the tire; braking really suffers, it is easy to slide out the rear when the roads are cold it's almost like off-roading on a dirt bike. 36PSI is good with trunk and saddle bags but 34PSI rear for hooning around is *chef's kiss*.

No issues outside of minding over inflation due to tire profile/shape.

Speculation as to why these tires are cheap: someone else's old molds/expired patent + compound you're already making and own the materials for + facilities you own (Taiwan and Columbus, OH) = minimal cost to bring products to market. That's just my hypothesis as someone with a career in supply chain/logistics in the CPG industry.

I think someone on the CBR forums did some track days with these tires with good results (after some suspension tuning from Dave Moss) but I'll have to find that post again.

[bwringer]

Nice, @jthayer09! Thanks for the solid testing and reporting. Good to hear they don't turn evil in the wet. I look forward to seeing more reports.

It really does look like Kenda is finally, at last, making a good street tire.

And yeah, no matter what the tire, Yamaha's pressure recommendations do seem to be a touch high.

 

On Revzilla, as of 11/6/23, I'm seeing $213.70 for a set, but no rears in stock. On Amazon, the sellers claim to have stock and the total for a set is $178.92. That's a significant spread.

No matter what brand or size of motorcycle tires you're buying, "supply chain" is still a household word... Motorcycle tire stocks in North America have always thinned out somewhat in the winter months, but the last few years have been far more challenging.

 

Looking back at page 1 of this thread, I have to mention that Avon has since stopped making motorcycle tires entirely, and it turned out that both tires of the made in England set of Avons I had in 2022 were defective. I guess they just stopped caring once they knew the end was near.

The front had a visible warpage and heavy vibration; it looked like an internal belt was mislaid or misplaced. I dunno; I'm no tireologist. I did eventually manage to get my money back for that one. The rear developed a heavy vibration at speed after about 1,000 miles. There was no damage to the tire, and I couldn't see a bulge or warp, and it otherwise stuck to the road just fine. Honestly I was so disgusted that I just replaced it; getting my money back on the immediately defective front was such an ordeal that I knew I wouldn't get anywhere with the rear.

Edited November 6, 2023 by bwringer

[jthayer09]

Alright ladies and gents, after riding through a NW Ohio winter into an early spring season the rear is done at ~4500mi:

 

I'm extremely happy with these, nothing has changed since my last review except that they are impressively fast to warm up. 36F and sunny? No problem. Chicken strips are 3/8-inch to 1/4-inch all the way around:

The guy on the VFR forum got a documented 14,000mi out of his rear. But he also primarily toured and ran the pressures of 42R/36F, both of those will buy him more life; even more so if he's doing interstate touring on paved asphalt.

My tires lived at 36R/32F for grip, and my miles were 90% hard recreational riding in my area and all-around Appalachia. Scooter takes care of grocery and in-town duty, and I have worked remote since 2018 so I've eliminated the need to commute. Also, nearly every back road in my area is all chip-sealed rather than pavement, it definitely accelerates tire wear. I would bet money on nicer roads and higher PSI these are a 6K-8K mile tire for the average person.

I'm also impressed with the wear pattern, that's a pretty round tire, evenly worn, and it's stable up to 140MPH tested, and the wobbling at that point comes from the bike aero rather than the tires.

Front looks about 40-60% remaining depending on where I'm measuring:

 

They're $160/set on Motosport.com currently. A rear on its own is $90.99, so you could get 9,000mi from 2 rears and 1 front riding like a knob like me and still only be at ~$270.00. They clearly perform, I have another rear being mounted by the shop as I'm typing this. I'll run higher pressures (likely 39R/35F) with the new tire to experience handling and lifespan changes.

It's probably the only tire I'm going to buy going forward, with Dunlop and Michelin playing in the $500 range, and Bridgestone's rebate is now $60 instead of the old $100 it's not just "saving a buck or two" anymore.

Only negative I can think of is that I can't run my Givi rear mudguard for the rain and winter slush because Kenda's solution to increasing mileage on a tire made out of a single, soft, and sticky compound it just to give you a lot of rubber in the center of the rear tire.

[Ride365]

Thanks for another great write up, I reckon we don't always get what we pay for. I will continue to run the Dunlop Roadsmart III if the prices stay so cheap on those "fabulous tire by the way", otherwise I may just give these a whirl. 

[bwringer]

Thanks for the real world use and abuse report!

[metallion]

3 hours ago, Ride365 said:

Thanks for another great write up, I reckon we don't always get what we pay for. I will continue to run the Dunlop Roadsmart III if the prices stay so cheap on those "fabulous tire by the way", otherwise I may just give these a whirl. 

Ride365- Have you seen what a set Dunlop RS3's cost this year? I run them on my bikes also.

Last couple years a set was $250.78 in the US. 108.55 for a front 120/70-17 and 142.23 for a rear 180/55-17.

Now they are 379.70 for a set. 167.46 for a front 120/70-17 and 212.24 for a rear 180/55-17.

Now they are almost as expensive as the Michelin Road series tires. I'm glad i changed tires on all my bikes last fall before storage to get me by for a while. 

Edited April 9 by metallion
sp.

[Ride365]

42 minutes ago, metallion said:

Ride365- Have you seen what a set Dunlop RS3's cost this year? I run them on my bikes also.

Last couple years a set was $250.78 in the US. 108.55 for a front 120/70-17 and 142.23 for a rear 180/55-17.

Now they are 379.70 for a set. 167.46 for a front 120/70-17 and 212.24 for a rear 180/55-17.

Now they are almost as expensive as the Michelin Road series tires. I'm glad i changed tires on all my bikes last fall before storage to get me by for a while. 

I paid like $135 for a rear and $117 for a front last Summer.......so climbing back up again I see. I have always considered what we must pay for all things motorcycles to be a "fun tax", but yeah the fun tax is getting ridiculous, can't buy much groceries for under $100 these days either. 🙄

[piotrek]

Appreciate your feedback on KM1 tires. Have you had any time in the wet and/or loaded for touring? I am seeing these tires priced low up here in Ontario... and I will be looking to replace Dunlop Mutants soon. They were great value last year... but no more. Roadsmart 3 are runner-up, at some 40% premium.

I don't really care for my tires to last longer than a season (~10K-12K kms)... and actually prefer to start with a new set each year rather than have to deal with replacement mid-season... so this might work out well.

[jthayer09]

25 minutes ago, piotrek said:

Appreciate your feedback on KM1 tires. Have you had any time in the wet and/or loaded for touring? I am seeing these tires priced low up here in Ontario... and I will be looking to replace Dunlop Mutants soon. They were great value last year... but no more. Roadsmart 3 are runner-up, at some 40% premium.

I don't really care for my tires to last longer than a season (~10K-12K kms)... and actually prefer to start with a new set each year rather than have to deal with replacement mid-season... so this might work out well.

Lots of wet riding over the winter and even yesterday. I never had any "oh shit" wiggles in corners or uncontrollable spins from a stop; I would say wet performance is par for the class, I never felt like I was at the limits of the tire. TCS came up once when I was trying to put down more power on top of a crosswalk paint line, but that's my fault.

I never fully loaded the bike up on the KM1s, hopefully I can do that this season for camping. I did a couple of overnight trips with loaded top and side cases but left the passenger seat empty. I did increase the rear preload but did not increase PSI to compensate for load and that probably ate up some tire life, and if I recall correctly did weigh the steering down a bit so I had to give it a bit more muscle in corners if I wanted to carry speed through.

The VFR thread I linked in a previous post has some detail for interstate touring if you want to look at that.

Actually, now on my 2nd read through of the VFR thread... is that the same @RaYzerman as on this forum? 😄