Front tire recommendations for 86 kxt

[phantomtracer]

Looking to buy front tire, something that is close to stock. Any suggestions?

[*ATC*]

cheng shin has a nice looking front tire close to stock 83-84 atc 250r/ 83-85 atc 200x

[christph]

Kenda's Front Max is an excellent front tire and they offer it in 23x8x11. I put it on my 86 Tecate and it holds a line much better than stock. Here is what it looks like.

[barnett468]

.
23 x 8 x 11

http://www.pureoffroad.com/kenda_fro..._atv_tires.htm

[Ragar]

I third the Front Max!

[barnett468]

Kenda's Front Max is an excellent front tire and they offer it in 23x8x11. I put it on my 86 Tecate and it holds a line much better than stock.

i was typing in the box while you were posting so i didn't see your post until after i pushed the button . . i guess the kenda gets the popular vote, lol.

[tecaterob]

I'm also using the Front Max tire on my build. 22 in front and 18 in rear

[Dimitris]

Cheetah Tires HP577cf 23x8.00-11, coming available this Nov.,$89 each HP577cf 23x8x11

[Queef Chief]

Just put a Cheng-Shin C832 on my '86 250r, and reall like it. I actually run them on the front of both my Rs. They look very old school.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cheng-Shin-C...8cb5cc&vxp=mtr

[tecaterob]

That company is by my house. A lot of the drag guys are using their tires on Raptors and Banshees. They are soft and work great. That a nice looking tire. I know there was a lot of stuff going on when they came on here promising the tire and took longer then it did but it's a good tire but pricey.

[onformula1]

Cheetah Tires HP577cf 23x8.00-11, coming available this Nov.,$89 each HP577cf 23x8x11

I can't wait for this tire, so cool

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[3WW Star-John_Neary]

It is the shame they went with 23 inch, i found a 21 inch front tire to be the perfect size while the 23 had to much sidewall flex and made the front wanna push in tight turns. Only works stuff i got from Honda in 87 was access to their Ohtsu tires and the 21 inch front on the 250R was awesome, it looked just like a stock front with no air but when aired up it did not expand in size at all.

It was the same front Marty and those guys always used, i lusted for one back in 85 and 86 but Wes would not share even their used tires.

[onformula1]

It is the shame they went with 23 inch, i found a 21 inch front tire to be the perfect size while the 23 had to much sidewall flex and made the front wanna push in tight turns. Only works stuff i got from Honda in 87 was access to their Ohtsu tires and the 21 inch front on the 250R was awesome, it looked just like a stock front with no air but when aired up it did not expand in size at all.

It was the same front Marty and those guys always used, i lusted for one back in 85 and 86 but Wes would not share even their used tires.

Great info on the tires and we are using the 21" for MX, but for BAJA, desert and dunes I like the tall tire

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[3WW Star-John_Neary]

oh for sure, i was only speaking of close course tracks with smaller size flat track style tires. The 21 would be a liability in the desert by the raising the risk of damaging your front wheel.

[barnett468]

.

It is the shame they went with 23 inch, i found a 21 inch front tire to be the perfect size while the 23 had to much sidewall flex and made the front wanna push in tight turns.

oh for sure, i was only speaking of close course tracks with smaller size flat track style tires. The 21 would be a liability in the desert by the raising the risk of damaging your front wheel.

Here's a brief history about the 86 Tecate and how the 23” front tire got on there for anyone that has interest in how Kawasaki did their development on this particular bike.

First of all, the 86 Tecate is an unfinished bike and is NOT as good as it could have been because we simply ran out of time . . Japan did the orig design and mfg of it which was pretty much a total piece of crap, however, the side mount radiators definitely looked cool . . One of the problems it has is a slight/moderate high speed steering head shake, however, I never heard any complaints about even from the magazines that tested it, therefore, I'm guessing people either don't consider it to be that bad or they don't ride it fast enough to notice, however, it is definitely there and I definitely didn't like the fact that it was there, unfortunately, due to the way they screwed the initial prototype up, there was simply not enough time to fix it, and since it wasn't bad enough that it would endanger anyone, it was decided that it was “Acceptable for production”, which does not always mean that we thought something was as good as it could be . . It but basically means that a vehicle was not so horrible that it simply shouldn't be made . . Obviously every mfg, wants to make something as good as it can be within the constraints they have but due to these constraints, it is just not possible so they all do the best they can . . For example, it would have cost Kawi a bazilion dollars in lost sales revenue if they postponed introducing the bike for another year.

The first 86 prototype had the 85 rim and tire on it, and the second I saw it, I said it had to go just based on appearances alone, because it simply looked retarded [yes this is an official engineering term] on that bike.

As John and onformula implied, one size does not work perfectly for all applications . . I was a motocross rider/racer [not an ATV rider], so I liked rough tracks and wanted the bike to perform well on what most ATV riders would consider extremely rough like Saddleback or Carlsbad Motorcycle MX tracks that had NOT been graded perfectly smooth for weeks, and John Neery knows how rough that is . . One of the reasons I did this is because if a bike performs well on extremely rough terrain, it will work pretty good on smooth tracks, however, a bike that is developed for smooth tracks or less harsh terrain, will work like crap on a rough track, therefore making it work on a rough track was the best of both worlds . . Also, since the stock Honda doesn't work very well on extremely rough terrain at high speed, I knew our bike would have a distinct advantage if both bikes were in box stock form, plus not everyone only rides a 3 wheeler on a glass smooth TT track.

The test track Kawi owned was filled with sharp edged potholes and was bone dry and rock hard, and although I didn't have a taller front tire to test at the time, I knew from experience that a taller one would provide a less jarring ride . . One reason for this is because the taller it is, the less steep of an angle it hits the edges of bumps at . . Also, the taller the sidewall, the less harsh the ride will be . . It works the same way with car tires, which is why a car with 245 x 45 series rubber band tires will jar the teeth out of ones head when they hit a pot hole . . An easier way to imagine this is to consider a 23” tall tire rolling over a 24” long x 12” deep hole vs a huge 6' diameter tire rolling over the same hole . . The 23” tall tire will fall 12” into the hole which will cause a horrendous jarring to the rider, whereas the huge 6' tall tire may only drop around 2” into the hole, in which case it would barely be noticed.

I only had 2 weeks in Japan to re-engineer everything that was bad on that bike and there was a lot, and since I only had limited time, and the changes would be final, I had to start with the worst parts first, and one of the very worst was the wimpy ass forks they put on the thing, so I told them exactly what I wanted which had to be a best guess and they made the entire front fork assy including the tripple clamps in maybe 3 or 4 days . . I have never seen anything like it, and keep in mind that they had to do all the engineering drawings BEFORE they could even start the mfg process, then they had to make some molds and tooling etc . . They must have had at least 10 people working around the clock to pull that off . . I was in total awe, and no, they did not like me very much after that, especially because that was just the beginning of the changes I made.

Anyway, the last big change I wanted to make was the font tire and rim size, and due to time constraints, this too would be unchangeable after the decision was made, so again this was a best guess . . I knew I wanted a larger tire diameter that was also narrower, so I did some thinking, and some math, and considered the aspect ratio, and then decided on the one that is on there now . . I did see the Honda tire on an 85 model before and liked the appearance of the diameter but disliked how narrow it looked and still do but the Honda tire didn't have any influence on my decision . . If it did, I likely would have made the Kawi tire just as narrow as the anorexic looking Honda one . . Oh, I also had them narrow the front forks to my spec so there wouldn't be 3" of space between the fork tube and the tire on both sides because they were made to accommodate the extra width of the 84/85 tire, so yes, they had to remake the tripple clamps AGAIN, so by now they were simply ready to just bury me somewhere out in a rice patty or something.

Anyway, escaping a most certain long and painful demise at the hands of highly skilled Ninja's, I went back to the US, and in the meantime, they made the front tire and tripple clamp change and had one of their test riders whom I helped train when he was in the US, test it . . Fortunately he said it was better than the 85 tire, so that is the one that came on it when they shipped the bike to the US for the remainder of the testing.

I don't remember a lot about how the front tire performed basically because there were no major problems with it for the intended target market which was not flat track racing, besides, I knew that if someone was going to flat track the thing, they could easily change it if they wanted . . I did actually use the stock front 84 tire on my 84 race bike for every race, but even though it had a lower aspect ratio than the 86 tire, it would still push a bit in some of the turns and definitely was not as good as the Hoosiers that Jimmy was using . . I could have gotten the same front tire that Jimmy used, and he actually gave me the rear tires and rims that I used for every single race, however, I simply didn't care that much and it really wasn't horrible.

Below is how the tire math works out . . The aspect ratio of the ATV tires is calculated the same way it is on metric tires . . The second set of numbers on a metric tire are the aspect ratio . . For example, a 235 x 60-15 tire has an aspect ratio of 60 . . A 195 x 75-15 tire has an aspect ratio of 75, which just happens to be exactly the same aspect ratio that the 85/86 Honda tire has . . In the automotive world where tires are designed to be used, and perform well, on SMOOTH roads, the lower the aspect ratio number is, the higher the performance of the tire is considered to be.

Tires with aspect ratio numbers in the 50's would be found on high perf cars like Porsche's and Ferrari's etc.

Tires with aspect ratios in the 60's like the TECATE has, would be similar to those found on mid performance automotive tires like the extremely popular 235 x 60 series B.F. Goodrich TA Radial's that are on a large percentage of vintage muscle cars.

Lastly, tires with aspect ratios of 75 or greater are used on big luxury cars to provide a nice, comfy, ride, so ones cinnamon cafe latte doesn't spill when they hit a 1/4” deep hole in the road . . In fact, the highest aspect ratio of any automotive tire ever made, was 78 as in a 195 x 78 tire, which just so happens to be the exact same aspect ratio of the tires that GM put on their 6,357 lb, 1959 Cadillac Biarritz AND the ones that Honda put on the 85/86 ATC25R, however, since the the Honda does not have a cup holder where one could put a cinnamon cafe latte even if they wanted to, I don't know just why they would put a tire with such a high aspect ratio on it since I though it was supposed to be a "high" performance bike, and although I don't know for certain why Honda did this, one guess would be that is was an attempt to compensate for what they may have considered to be poor front suspension performance....just sayin.


FRONT TIRE SPECS WITHOUT PLY RATINGS

84/85 Tecate … 22 tall x 11 wide - 10 rim . . sidewall height = 6” . . percentage of sidewall height to tire width [aspect ratio] = 54.54.

86/87 Tecate … 23 tall x . 9 wide - 11 rim . . sidewall height = 6” . . percentage of sidewall height to tire width [aspect ratio] = 66.66 . . increase in aspect ratio from 84/85 Tecate = 22.22%

85/87 Honda … 23.5 tall x . 8 wide - 11 rim . . sidewall height = 6” . . percentage of sidewall height to tire width [aspect ratio] = 78.12 . . increase in aspect ratio from 86/87 Tecate = 17.19%


.................................................. ....... THE 6,357 LB 1969 CADILLAC BIARRITZ

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.................................................. ... THE 6,357 LB 1986 HONDA ATC250R BIARRITZ

THE LEADER IN DESIGNING THE HIGHEST ASPECT RATIO TIRES OF ANY "HIGH PERFORMANCE" ATC EVER MADE....BUT THE RIDE IS COMFY!

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