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Dealer near Portland, OR who will install a Vredestein on the rear?

PDXRTL

Member
I've checked with my three nearest dealers, SK Northwest, Motorsport Hillsboro, and ProCaliber Vancouver. None of them will touch anything other than a Kenda.

I'll get on the phone tomorrow and start calling other dealers in OR and WA, but thought I'd also check here to see if anyone in the Pacific NW has found a dealer who will install a Vredestein Quatrac on the rear.

In answer to the question some of you will be asking: I've looked at the service manual and removing the rear wheel myself looks like more than I want to tackle, especially since I've got an Alaska trip coming up in two weeks - don't want to take any chances on doing something wrong.
 
From what we've seen here on the Forum, most 'Dealers' won't touch anything but a Kenda, supposedly because of 'liability issues'; but we've also seen with at least some those dealers who've been publicly acknowledged for fitting alternative/better tires, very soon after they tend to lose their dealership, so there's at least a suspicion that BRP might be putting the hard word on them not to touch anything else, and backing that up with harsh penalties... :rolleyes:

So, that said, there's every likelihood that you're going to hafta go outside the dealer network to get any tire but a Kenda or one of their approved clones fitted. The fronts shouldn't be hard, as just about any place that can remove, fit, & balance tires should be able to do them, altho some do claim that they don't have the correct flanges for their balance machines to properly balance Can Am wheels with their small diameter hub holes. The rear is a bit harder, because unless you can remove/refit the wheel off the Spyder, it's a pretty drawn out & (seemingly) complex process for anyone not used to doing that/taking belts off without messing up rear tire alignment &/or belt tension, so either you'll need to do it yourself or find/pay someone for whatever time that takes to do the job... 😖

So if you can't do that remove/refit the rear wheel bit yourself, you could try any local motorcycle shops or maybe a smaller independent mechanic shop - often you can get them to do the remove/refit of the wheel job for a reasonable price, then you can take the wheel to just about any tire retailer and get them to fit the new tire - it's just a 'J' type car rim with the added complexity of the bigger hub & brake disc to contend with, but that's not impossible to work around, or even really hard! It's actually a pretty simple task to strip & refit the tire once the wheels off the Spyder, especially if they've got even just basic hydraulic gear. They might not be able to balance it because of the extra bits hanging off the rim, but if the tire is a reasonable quality tire, it's unlikely to need too much balancing if mounted correctly anyway; and the axle supports the hub on both sides too, so even if you don't get it balanced on a machine, there's not likely to be too much of a balance issue, certainly nothing some Balance Beads wouldn't fix. ;)

But finding Dealers to do the job, probably isn't all that likely!! And if you DO find a dealer &/or are a reader who might know of one who'll do it, PLEASE don't tell the world who they are on the public pages here, instead, only ever send/share that info via DM - or the next time you want that dealer to do something on your Spyder, maybe even to fit a new tire to the rear, there's a chance they'll no longer be a Spyder Dealer! It has happened & been reported here before! 🤬
 
I won't even relay the horror story of a dealer who DID install a set of "something else" on my ST. Suffice it to say, I have found an independent motorcycle shop that now does all my service, tires included. I think you are going have to go that route. If you can and if they know what they are doing, you will stay there.
 
Peter - good advice not to post on the forum the name of any dealer who might put on something other than a Kenda. Thank you for that. We certainly would not want them to get in trouble. Though at this point I seriously doubt there are any.

I guess I'm going to go with another Kanine for now. It seems to be wearing OK, almost down to 5/32 at 9400 miles. I hate to have to take it off at this point but with a 5000 trip coming up, and knowing that tire wear is not linear, and thinking that I've heard Alaskan and Canadian roads are not kind to tires, I don't want to push the limits.

Anybody near Portland, OR need a rear Vredestein Quatrac? I can probably save you a few dollars.
 
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