Kenda tires good?
 

I bought a used Roubaix not long ago. When I posted pics someone said it looked like the previous owner had tried to turn it into a gravel bike. I am guessing it’s the blow 700x28c Kenda Kwest tires, blue tires.
Are these tires more for gravel than road? Are they good, bad or just OK?
I looked them up and read several poor reviews, but I don’t believe every review I see good or bad. Since I will be riding exclusively on paved roads or trails would a 25mm road tire give a better ride?
Once the 100* weather lets up I am planning on riding further than loops around my neighborhood and don’t want cheap tires causing problems.

kenda like trash for reliability when it comes to puncture resistant. They might be kenda ok in the mud or on smooth surfaces.

I like the Kendas', but they are getting hard to find and ordering times from CHiCom express can be long. My favorite is the Kenda 184. That particular tire holds up to light gravel and torn up asphalt well. My favorites are the Continental Ride Tour tires. The ones made in India and Germany for me are proven...

Nothing wrong with Kenda Kwest tires, just ride them until they wear out...Internet reviews are not to be taken seriously.

If you want a “better ride” and can fit 28s I wouldn’t run 25s. I’m kind of “meh” on Kendas; not terrible, but not in my top 5.

Other than yours, of course. :lol:

I will run them until they wear out. I just didn’t want to be stranded if they were prone to puncture.

Why would you be stranded? Don't you know how to change a tube? Are you not responsible enough to carry what you need to change one? If you can't be bothered to be able to take care of yourself if you flat you shouldn't ride further than you'd care to walk.

My sentiments exactly..................

You’re right. I shouldn’t have said stranded. I can change a tube.
But if the sidewall is soft and tears a tube won’t help.

You could put in a new tube and try to boot the sidewall with something like a dollar bill.

I was not able to wear a set out . They got deformed and I had to throw them away. I now run Panaracer and have for quite a while. They don’t deform . The Panaracer is only a few dollars more. The Kenda tires I ran felt ok for about 6 months of light riding but then developed a weird deformity in both tires at the same time. I only ran about 90% of max tire pressure on the rear and about 80% on the front.

I don’t quit easy. I would be trying all kinds of MacGyver stuff before I walk back.
It was one review that got me worried.
I actually like having smurf tires.

Over the last 20 yrs, have used an assortment of Kenda tires in both 700c and 26 (mtb). They've always been reliable, quite good running given the cost, never had any construction issues.
The 700c were mostly mid-priced and rode closer to upper end tires, just didn;t last quite as long. Given the tire cost, I got my money's worth.
If I'm riding an average of 6 days a week, I'm not gonna use topend wheels/tires for all those rides. The Kendas on good wheels ran reliably for 10's of thousands of miles...
Ride On
Yuri
EDIT: Don;t know about the Kwest model, it's a low level, very budget tire, so I wouldn't expect fabulous performance or ride, but prolly will hold up ... until they don't.... A prepared rider is always ready to 'replace' a tire, when and if it shows it's 'DONE'...

I run Kenda K1188 tires on my Bigfoot on the road (Jumbo Jims on the snow)

I bought them only because a local retailer had them for $50 and I wanted to ride the Bigfoot on the roads in the summer and $50/tire was a great value for an experiment compared to the insane cost of the soft winter compound JJs that wouldn't last a month on road

As it turns out the Kendas are awesome for the task. At their max 30 PSI they still have more squish than my roadbike tires and with over 2000 km on them the measured tread wear indicates that I should have another 6000-8000 km out of them. They HOWL at speed so there is no sneaking up on anyone - lol. The fastest I've run them is 70km/h down a sizeable hill on the Cabot Trail. I would have gone faster but I hit the aero limit of my bike - probably just as well as neither the bike nor the tires were designed for that speed on the highway. The HOWL was epic... and the tread squirm was almost as unsettling as the fact that my front skewer came loose. Exciting day!

The local retailer has them on clearance for $40 so I bought more to have a lifetime supply.

Not sure if any of this translates to other Kendas, but in my limited experience of one model on one bike they absolutely exceeded my hopes and expectations. I figured if they lasted more than a month they would be worth it - they last for years with little to no wear and they do everything I ask them to. The only puncture I have had was a nail that almost went through the rim so no fault of the tire... my roadbike would have lost the rim too due to the lower volume.

I have commuted on Kwests. They used to be on sale a lot at Performance Bicycle (the actual store). I found them average in terms of ride and durability, although I use tire liners with all my tires.

I haven't ridden Kenda's since I got rid of my 27" wheeled bikes. However they never gave me any issues or troubles. Ride was decent too. Though whether that was due to them be roughly a 32 mm width over the 23 mm x 622 tires the first bike had that replaced them, I don't know.

As for durability, they were certainly good enough for the daily riding and century rides I did on those bikes. Kenda probably gets most of it's bad reviews because it sells ultra low cost tires to Walmart and other big box discount stores. And likely a higher percentage of the people that buy them aren't the greatest tire changers.

Whatever mileage you get out of the Kenda's riding them till the wear out will mean the next tires you eventually replace them with will last you that much longer.

I use a few Kenda tires. I’m using one on a mountain bike, (Nevegal XPro), and a couple of others on around town bikes.

I think different tire mfg’s have their niche.

For road use, Kenda typically offers less expensive tires that are a good value. And they used to have a big mtb presence too.

Likewise Panaracer seems to excel in touring and gravel. But I don’t recall Panaracer having lightweight high end road tires like Conti or Vittoria.

Kenda does offer some higher end road tires, $60-$80, but I think it is a tougher sell for them at that price; but they might be great.

Bottom line is that a $20 tire will not be as good as a $50 tire regardless of who makes it.

If durability is you main concern Marathon Plus or Armadillos, if they still make them, might be better choices.

John

So basically they are simply a softer rubber compound and they wear quicker? They should have better traction.

Kenda Karvs were such a fun tire. Super light, no flat protection, and would wear by just looking at them, but fun. Almost like a mini Small Block 8.

John

Kenda makes some good mtb tires. Not sure about road.

Kwests are terrible, IMO. I had set. Slow rolling with the ride quality of a frozen garden hose.

what psi did you put in them?

Kenda makes some OK budget tires ride them if you have them on already and then swap to some Vittoria Corsas or Challenge Strada Biancas or Parisi Roubaix's or Continental GP5000s or something like that for a road tire. I like the Corsas personally or the Rubino Pros if I want a more puncture protectant tire.

Did not matter. They suck at any pressure. Run them low and they are slow as molasses, run them high they are less slow but ride like crap.

These are just cheap, crappy tires with stiff sidewalls.

EDIT: I just realized the OP has 700 x 28 Kwests. Mine were 26 x 2.1. Maybe they use an entirely different type of casing and tread compound for the road tires. But I kinda doubt it.