From: steve@zx11.cactus.org (Steve Bade)
Newsgroups: tx.motorcycles
Subject: Re: Report on Kenda Challenger
Date: 23 Jul 92 01:22:23 GMT
Reply-To: steve@zx11.cactus.org
Organization: NOT

shadow@pro-haven.cts.com (Blaine Hufnagle) writes:
>NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu
>
>
>Anyhow, It seems to be a good, sticky tire.  I haven't had any problems with
>it in dry weather, except on the damn tar strips that the City of College
>Station seems intent to use to repair the streets.  On those, both the
>Pirelli on the front and the Kenda on the rear slide neatly out from
>underneath me.  I almost ate it in the middle of University Drive leaving the
>Phone company the other day... :(
I asked the Pirellie rep at teh BMWMOA national why they could not get
tires that stick on the nasty crap that the cities of the US patch their
streets with.  His response was that no one has figured out that one.

>
>As for wet weather, well, I got the impromptu opportunity for a good wet-road
>test this afternoon.... It started raining right before I got off work at
>1:00, and I had to ride home in the rain.  I am pleased to report that it
>sticks, for all I can tell, as well on wet pavement as dry.  I tried four
>times, when sitting upright, to break the rear tire loose.  I held the front
>brake as hard as I could, revved to 7K RPM, and was letting off the clutch,
>and the bike was moving through the front brake, not spinning the Kenda.
>I tried (stupidly, I'll admit) several times to break it loose with a good
>hard goose on the throttle while I was moving down the rain-soaked road, and
>still no spin.  It stuck as if it were glued to the road.  
I'd be kind of concerned if your brakes would not hold the wheels still.
Glad you found a tire,  I unfortunately am back with a set of Metzlers
to wear out.  Not that the Pirellies wore out, in fact 3K on them and
not a sign of squaring.  As for why I have metzlers not, Well it goes 
like this (This will be kind of long so you might want to skip the
BMWMOA trip report).

The wife and I decided that for vacation this year we would go to
the BMWMOA National Rally (DuQuoin IL).  Got up there with out
incident, had a great time 5000 motorcycles arround and you
could leave a camera in plain view and not worry about it.  Tons
of vendors (I ended up buying a ton o shit).  

The return trip was un-eventful the first day, 505 miles from
DuQuoin to Texarkana and flop at the holliday in,  Took about 9.5
hours (not bad considering one of the bikes in the party was spewing
oil and the other was a 77 Guzzi V50 which shakes like a mother
over 65).

Monday morning get a late start (9:00am) but what the heck Austin
is only 300 miles away.  Get going and decide to stop for lunch
where IH35 splits into 35E and 35W.  Leave the restaruant and the   
storm clouds are in the distan, but what the hell, about 50 miles
stop for Renee to put on the rain suit (The aerostich kept me 
warm and dry). and head out, 2 of the bikes took off, I stayed
back with the Guzzi rider (a co-worker whose husband was on
one of the bikes that took off),  rain was comming down real hard in 
Temple when all of a sudden we crest a hill and everyone is stopping
and slamming into each other.  13 car pile up and I'm in the middle
of it with 80 pounds of luggage and the wife.  No problem, then I glance
to the left and a pickup truck is slamming into the car in front of
it when the rear of the bike startes to skid out.  SHIT, get off the
rear brake, and try and get off the road.  Made it through OK, but
stopped for a bit to mellow out and wait for the rain to subside.
Decided then and there that I was gonna get ABS if the deal the
dealer cut me was fair.  

Tuesday morning go down to LoneStar BMW and talk with them, and
by that afternoon I'm able to pick up a 92 K75S with ABS, weather
prevented me from doing it this morning.

Now before giving me shit about being a wimp (Joe .....) consider
that in 8 months I owned the other K75 I put 9000 miles on it and
there is no end in sight.  My wife and I found that touring america
on a motorcycle is the only way to travel, and we've been bitten
by the Rally bug so that means probably an additional 5K of mileage
a year just to Rally's above and beyond the normal tooling arround the
hill country we do most weekends.

So now I've got to wear a set of Metzlers out. Should be about
4 months and I'll be back in Pirellis which are in my opinion the
best tire you could put on a bike that size.  


---

Steve