Kenda Kwest Tires Okay?

[JJB]

So I'm doing an e-bike conversion on my KHS Urban-X fairly soon. It came stock with Kenda Kwest tires, which I've found to be fast, puncture resistant, and slow wearing. 1.5" and 65 PSI. I've got about 1000 miles on the set now, with no issues in sight...can easily imagine getting 500 more miles easy out of them.

Are these okay tires for an e-bike, or should I be looking for something else?

 

[BlackburnPete]

Last night, my Kenda Kwest tire failed on me while I was on a bike path a few miles from the nearest road. I will admit that my trike is slightly over powered and I did not check the tread often enough, but the tire was right down to the threads and finally blew a loud hole right through the tube and tire. Now I have a Schwalbe Marathon on the trike and I will see how this one wears. The Kenda lasted only 500 km or so. I am running a Crystalyte 404, 35 Amp controller and a 48V L:ifepo4 pack. Occasionally the tire spins on take-off.

 

[JJB]

Hmm. Just given the milage on these tires, it may be wise for me to change them out at the time of the conversion. I'm probably going to go with the Schwalbe Marathon Plus or Supreme.

 

[amberwolf]

I don't know about the Kwest, but so far all the Kross, Cross, and Krossroads variations I've had or seen have wierd sidewall problems, even when not used on heavy bikes or left in the sun when not riding. The sidewall begins to flake away, exposing the threads. I think it is caused by the threads themselves pushing and pulling within the rubber, leaving the rubber unattached to the threads and eventually breaking loose in flakes. They're pretty thin sidewalls anyway, but I've had one Kross actually herniate, and a Krossroads start to. (both running at about 50-60PSI)

 

[JJB]

Now that you mention it, the sidewalls on my Kwests are beginning to display what looks like dry rot (small cracks), and the sidewalls in general do seem pretty thin. I've had great luck with them over the past year, but it's probably getting time to replace them pretty soon. At any rate, when I go electric I'm going to switch them out for something else.

For a budget/OEM tire, I think they're pretty solid (for what that's worth). But I'm probably not going to buy them again.