KMX Trike 16x3.0 Tire review

I went thru three set of wheel on my KMX Trike and I'm finally happy with the result.

They are tagged as "e-bike tire". They are heavier but also more resistant to puncture and more wear resistant compare to big apple tires. They also contain more air and it feel safer when you hit a pothole at high speed.
They fit on the regular KMX 16" rim, so all we have to do is to replace the tire and the tube.

eBay item number: 291795130242

Another source: FinMotor Store

Tire: 16x3.0 Tire Make sure to chose the right size and diameter (39 us$ ea Free shipping.)

Tube: 16x3.0 Tube Make sure to chose the right size and diameter (13 us$ ea Free shipping.)

Free shipping may take up to a month, you have been warned!!

To compare each wheels, here is the three size I used so far:
Top: 20x4.25, weight: 8.6 lbs ea, width: 4.23in, diameter: 22.5in
Middle: 16x3.0, weight: 5.06 lbs ea, width: 2.7in, diameter: 17.5in
Bottom: 16x2.125, weight: 3.05 lbs ea, width: 2.0in, diameter: 15.75in ( Tire shown is a Schwalbe Mad Mike )
Those are inflated dimension.






This is how they look on a Trike:






If like me you don't like the colored lettering on the side wall, I got good result with Flexidip:
Before:


After:


Make sure to clean the surface and start/stop outside of the zone you want to paint.

Conclusion:

Schwalbe tire are by far the lightest tire and they are comfortable to roll with. Their weakness? Easy to puncture and not much air volume to absorb potholes.
Green Fat tire wheels sure look cool, but they are way too heavy, they impact the suspension negatively.
China E-bike 16x3 tire look like a good compromise between light weight and puncture resistant wheels for a KMX trike. I went up to 40 mph and they are well balanced, no shaking, the bike is also less twitchy. Rolling into a pothole also feel less destructive for the bike. Their weakness so far? They are really stiff and hard to install on the rim.

Sweet!! These look awesome Adam... The green monsters look cool too hah

On my 20" rims I am using 20x1.5" Schwalbe Marathon RR GLXs... so far they are holding well. I might try the 1.75 next after they are worn out. I saw they make those in 20" as well so I might pick a pair of those instead. Thanks!


G.

How do they compare in terms of rolling resistance? How do the tires compare when pedaling without electric assist? I am especially interested in the China E-bike 16x3 tire.

I don't have this information though. My trike is too heavy to be pedaled but I saw no difference on my max range since I switched.

This being said, each tire are 1kg heavier than a Schwable. So this might not be optimal if you intend to pedal the bike without motor assistance.

can't find tyre on the store, only tube

Ah... now I remember how they looked new



I can vouch for the fact that you can get 3 or 4 thousand miles of some reasonably hard ripping around on them.
Just ordered two off of Amazon, they had a buy a pair deal, but with tubes separate. There was a one tire/one tube combo deal that worked out better for me though as I wanted some extra tubes.



I check my tires often, and this bald spot opened up between one ride and the next, so was def pushing it a few too many miles. I noticed it up on the mountain when I pulled over to check temperatures, and felt a really faint thumping as I pulled over. Dropped the air pressure some, but it still blew on the way back. It was fountaining air and slime out, so hopped back on to get as far as I could, and darned if it didn't seal right up after about 20 feet! Thanks to the fairly stiff sidewalls even with the lower pressure I was able to ride what would have been a 4 mile walk back.

Voltron said:

Ah... now I remember how they looked new



I can vouch for the fact that you can get 3 or 4 thousand miles of some reasonably hard ripping around on them.
Just ordered two off of Amazon, they had a buy a pair deal, but with tubes separate. There was a one tire/one tube combo deal that worked out better for me though as I wanted some extra tubes.

Click to expand...

How much power do you put on this non suspended bike? Is it a 10kg motor? Do you have any broken spokes?

And finally, where can I buy these tyres?

I've gotten mine off of Amazon the last few times.. And pushing about 4000 watts peak on a heavy heavy bike... not sure how much just the motor weighs, but it's in a cast wheel so no worries about spokes breaking.



It's nice to have a bullet proof wheel for peace of mind with passenger weight on there.

Do you have link on your rim and tyre? I have a bike doing 35mph and also carrying passenger.

I'd like to do the same thing

adam333 said:

I don't have this information though. My trike is too heavy to be pedaled but I saw no difference on my max range since I switched.

This being said, each tire are 1kg heavier than a Schwable. So this might not be optimal if you intend to pedal the bike without motor assistance.

Click to expand...

How heavy is your trike?

Rolling resistance coefficient of your tires could be a bigger issue than weight when it comes to efficiency under pedal-only operation.

agreed,

My trike is 110 ish pound.

adam333 said:

agreed,

My trike is 110 ish pound.

Click to expand...

At what speeds do you feel that your trike is safe to operate?

How much of that weight is taken up by the following:

-Battery pack
-Battery Box
-Motor
-Controller
-Wiring
-Faring

I appreciate your answer. 110 lbs puts your trike only 10 lbs over the target weight I have in mind. I've been thinking of ordering a KMX frame and building a rapidly-accelerating electric-assist velomobile off of it that retains the legal status of a "bicycle" in my state, but my design constraints are a bit different than yours.

Also, how many miles are you getting out of the various tire configurations and under what sort of operating conditions?

It depend on your roads quality ( ours suks )
Without the suspension, I would say 30 km/h ( 20mph )
With the suspension 60km/h ( 40mph ) ( this is my max speed with this motor & voltage ) I know Gman pushed his KMX trike up to 100+ km/h ( 60 mph ) but I don't know if it felt safe

Battery pack : 35 lbs ( 72V 32Ah Lipo)
Alu Battery box : 4 lbs
Rear Motor + rear rim + rear tire : 37 lbs
Controller : ???
Wiring : ???
Fairing : 3.5 lbs

With my previous green fat tire at the front and a dirt-bike tire at the rear, I was doing around 22.5Wh/ km
I changed all 3 tire two week ago for a slick version and I got 16.4 WH/km at an average speed of 19km/h ( there is a mix of max speed and slow cruising on the bike lane )
Following my wife on her regular bike : 10.6 Wh/km at an average speed of 21km/h ( on a 43 km ride )
I still need to test the max distance on this configuration, but it should be at least 100 km while riding slowly at 20 km/h

Thanks for the information.

Do you know of any low-rolling resistance tires that will fit your rim yet provide the reliability that you are seeking? the low speeds and high consumption figures that you have quoted show that you have very lossy tires. The Crr of those Chinese e-bike tires is probably in excess of 0.025, wheras a normal car tire is around 0.01.

I never researched much about low rolling tire since I have too much range available for the distance I do on the trike, but I remember an article saying that its pretty hard to beat bicycle's tire low rolling resistance.

They just wont last or be as strong sadly.

What is important for me is mainly the low noise level right now.

I even removed the palm springs in the rear freewheel since I never pedal the bike :wink:

In the event that you ever need a 60 mph rated tire that has low rolling resistance, you may want to check out the following link describing a 16" solar car tire being used on a 20" bicycle rim:

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=82489

The Toecutter said:

In the event that you ever need a 60 mph rated tire that has low rolling resistance, you may want to check out the following link describing a 16" solar car tire being used on a 20" bicycle rim:

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=82489

Click to expand...

Thank you, I do regularly hit 60 on mine so yeah, that looks great thanks!

G.

Ahhh... Now I remember what new was like...part 2






The interior molding and trimming on this one is way better than the older one with the same tread pattern.

Halfway on...
View attachment 2

That was satisfying when it slipped on after all the work to get to this point... That was all thumbs too.. No levers going on


Ready for the next 4000 miles..

I am curious how long it would last if you didn't abuse it. :lol:

With a lighter bike that doesn't get put through the punishing s curve treatment this one does, they would prob go 6 or 7 thousand. But who knows with generic tires, they could be from the same mold but one made out of recycled flip flops. I just noticed mine are a little different from the OPs, having a slightly raised center strip. Looks to be about 500 extra miles thick D

cwah said:

can't find tyre on the store, only tube

Click to expand...

It seems out of stock from China Kingstar.

Here is another seller: It seems to sell both the tire and tube together for 39$ us Jare Bike YiWu

They have an even cheaper deal on Amazon... I got the 2 tires and the 2 tubes for $56 and free shipping.