Haven't been on the page in quite a while, but I am hoping for a little guidance.
I am on my second set of tires (different brands) where I have completely worn through the left side of the tire tread before the rest. After the first set wore out in this manner, I stopped carrying anything in either side bag on a normal basis. I always used to carry a tool kit on the left side awe, but never since this set of tires has been on the bike. The first set was Continentals and this set was Pirellis. I do trust the mechanic that mounted both sets (same guy), but I am out of ideas.
I ride the bike 6 out of 7 days per week and put ~10,000 miles per year on the bike, so I really am not surprised by tires wearing out quickly, but the wear pattern has me baffled. Any ideas?
Weird tire wear...help!
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Weird tire wear...help!
Blue '02 R1150R
Member # 706
Member # 706
- grwrockster
- Lifer
- Posts: 227
- Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2010 2:20 pm
- Location: West Wales, United Kingdom
Re: Weird tire wear...help!
More wear on one side than the other is common - at least on the FRONT tyre (tire in American).
Various theories abound regarding road camber and so on. However, the best one and most likely (IMO) is that the side nearest the crown (centre - [center?]) of the road wears most simply because this side of the tyre has to travel a lot further than the other side of the tyre to make a turn. Why? Because if you ride on the right side of the road, then you are always on the outside of the curve when turning left, and on the inside of a curve turning right. So the left side of your (front esp.) tyre does a lot more miles than the right side.
Here in the Septic Pile that is the UK, our rubber wears out on the front tyre Right-Hand shoulder first. We of course ride on the left, so our tyres do more miles on right-hand curves.
grwxjr
Various theories abound regarding road camber and so on. However, the best one and most likely (IMO) is that the side nearest the crown (centre - [center?]) of the road wears most simply because this side of the tyre has to travel a lot further than the other side of the tyre to make a turn. Why? Because if you ride on the right side of the road, then you are always on the outside of the curve when turning left, and on the inside of a curve turning right. So the left side of your (front esp.) tyre does a lot more miles than the right side.
Here in the Septic Pile that is the UK, our rubber wears out on the front tyre Right-Hand shoulder first. We of course ride on the left, so our tyres do more miles on right-hand curves.
grwxjr
Re: Weird tire wear...help!
Pics of the tire wear severity and pattern would help.Jaguar5 wrote: I am on my second set of tires (different brands) where I have completely worn through the left side of the tire tread before the rest. After the first set wore out in this manner, I stopped carrying anything in either side bag on a normal basis. I always used to carry a tool kit on the left side awe, but never since this set of tires has been on the bike.
As mentioned, front tire wear is commonly impacted by road surface camber. My experience with Oregon, Washington, and California roads probably parallels yours: two lane rural highway often take a bigger bite out my tires' left side due to road profile and type of surface. The front tire for Telelever bikes is much more "expressive" about road surface effects than rear, in my experience with 5 such bikes so far.
Rockster#2, K1300S, S1000R (for sale)
Re: Weird tire wear...help!
Thanks for the replies!
I attempted to take pictures of the tire wear, but just couldn't get any that really did it justice.
I attempted to take pictures of the tire wear, but just couldn't get any that really did it justice.
Blue '02 R1150R
Member # 706
Member # 706