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Old 11-07-2017, 03:28 PM   #2
sqwert   sqwert is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Posts: 382
Kenda has a street oriented addition to the Big Block notion to fit RX3s with 19-inch front wheels. 100/90B19 front, 130/80B17 rear. It's called "Big Block Paver" K678.

Even though the rear cross section is a bit taller than stock I expect the 19-inch front will overcome any increase in fork angle that would steepen the already touchy high speed steering.

Nice to see Kenda has 4 sets that will fit the RX3 with, ranging from 80% street to 80% dirt. A little difficult to find a matching set of tires with the 18-inch front, but Kenda has a couple choices.

K678 Big Block Paver (19-inch front);
K784 Big Block (19-inch front);
K270 (18-inch front, inch sizes)
K760 Trak Master II 80% dirt (18- and 19-inch sizes with aggressive rear tread pattern)


K761 (rear only) is a conventional adventure tire similar to the stock front. No front match.

My experiences so far are:

With K760 rear on the front, expect some odd handling on pavement or hard pack at highway speeds. Nothing scary, just a gentle speed wobble stopped by resting a hand on the bars. This was a problem with all three knobby brands fitted to the fronts of TWs. Tradeoff is sticks like rails when cornering in anything short of marbles (1/2 to 3/4 inch hail 3 inches deep close enough to marbles?).

K270 better manners at highway speeds on TWs than K760, but nowhere near as stable or sticky in any other terrain. Not a bad tire at all, but not a super aggressive 5/2/5/2 knobby like the K760. Also, on heavier bikes (KLRs) highway cornering at speed felt a bit squiggly, as if the knobs were "walking". Never felt that on TWs, but TW tires are wider, carrying 100 pounds less load, and not leaning so far over before the pegs scrape. The RX3 is somewhere in between weightwise and tire widthwise, but the pegs are even lower than a TW so I don't expect any problems unless very heavily overloaded.

K761 on the RX3 now. Stickier than the OEM tire when braking and cornering, about the same in slippery stuff when accelerating.

Haven't played with the Big Blocks, yet. Probably going with the Pavers next set, but pricing is a way high compared to shopping sales for anything else.


 
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