About 16 years now I have been buying tires and mounting tires and running them bald... and doing it all over again. In all that time, I can honestly say that I haven't encountered a faulty tire of bad manufacture. Sure, I was a part of the crowd that had to live with the early Shinko's that cracked on the edge of the treads, but that was about everyone's experience that put any weight and mileage on those tires. A month ago I mounted a Kenda K270 on the front of the Africa Twin and it seemed OK from the get go and at 40-75 mph it seemed to perform great. The problem was.... at 15-40 mph I would get an up and down on the front end and on the bars that drove me nuts. I took the tire off twice and checked the balance and it was perfect. For the life of me, I couldn't solve the problem until this morning, when I ripped it off the rim and mounted a RMMATV Tusk Dual Sport Adv Tire. Instantly, the "hopping" of the front end was gone. The bike is now silk smooth. Now, the Kenda K270 is by far.... NOT my favorite tire, but I have used it 4 times in the past 16 years with great success.... The only thing I can conclude is.... it is a bad tire. This one specific tire is a bad tire.
And for what it is worth, the wife and I .... 2-up..... put 160 miles of mixed tarmac and dirt roads on the AT today with the Tusk ADV tire and it is outstanding. At $49.... I am buy 4 more of them right now.
The only new tire I've ever had an issue with was a Kenda street tire back in the late 90's. It developed splits across the width of the tire. Never seen that before or since. Mounted, balanced, and rode fine though.
If it's not out-of-round the next thing is "they all do that when they're new" Same for Shinko 144. Don't know what it is about that tread pattern but the first 100 miles was always an adventure. Pretty decent in sand for a dualsport tire if you could get past the adventure.
I had the same experience with the same tire. Nothing could fix the death wobble. Kenda must have made a bad batch.
