Tyre wear pattern??

[hobs]

Anybody have a theory why my tyre is wearing on one side only? Keep tyre pressure constant and ride fairly sedately and constantly. Quite considerable wear on the right side as minimum on the left side. Can't even guess how many Klm I have travelled on this tyre. It is a Pilot 4 Michelin tyre.

[Icor]

Anybody have a theory why my tyre is wearing on one side only? Keep tyre pressure constant and ride fairly sedately and constantly. Quite considerable wear on the right side as minimum on the left side. Can't even guess how many Klm I have travelled on this tyre. It is a Pilot 4 Michelin tyre.

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[Icor]

Anybody have a theory why my tyre is wearing on one side only? Keep tyre pressure constant and ride fairly sedately and constantly. Quite considerable wear on the right side as minimum on the left side. Can't even guess how many Klm I have travelled on this tyre. It is a Pilot 4 Michelin tyre.

Has to do with the chamber of our roads as far as I know.


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[Williamson]

Has to do with the chamber of our roads as far as I know.

We all ride on cambered roads, but we don't all get that sort of uneven tyre wear.

Worn of the right hand side, could mean that when you are riding on a straight road you are leaning the bike to the right to keep the bike in a straight line, this could be to compensate for a miss-alignment with the rear wheel which would cause the bike to lean left.

I'd be getting the rear wheel alignment checked.  If the front alignment was "out", I'd reclon you would have some pretty ungodly handing issues.

Speaking which, how does the bike lean / handle left and right corners and curves?

[hobs]

Thanks for the speedy replies. Thought about camber too, but wear difference quite severe to be only that Wheel does not have any movement such as bearing wear and was not aware of any wheel alignment adjustment allowance as the axil is bushed. Thought of maybe uneven storage in the panniers as I keep my tool box in the right side pannier and protective wet weather clothing in the left pannier. Wear seems a more recent event as in the past, when washing or maintaining the bike did not notice the uneven wear. Was fixing a tyre puncture this afternoon when noticing the uneven wear. Will keep a check on it. could have ridden on lower pressure I recent times due to the very slow leakage in the tyre.

[Yorkie]

How does it travel without holding the bars will give a good indication

[hobs]

Haven't tried that before Yorkie. Interesting conversation when speaking to Constable Plod that I was just testing my tyre wear. Have not noticed any difference in handling with the bike since I started riding it, other that developing better skills in riding. Corners equally right or left. Have ridden approx. 50,000klms since acquiring. Will keep a very close monitor on the tyre from now on.

[alans1100]

My first thought was a miss aligned final drive unit but if it was to far out then the axle bolt wouldn't go in.

Low air pressure on a hot day can cause the tyre to over heat and wear the softer side compounds more than normal.

[Brock]

Possibly, the front wheel may be miss aligned, causing a lean to the right to correct it.

There is a procedure for setting the front wheel before tightening the pinch bolts after removal and refit.

[StinkyPete]

There's been a lot of discussuion about tyre pressures and I settled on 42 and 44 and was getting over 20,000 from a set of Michelin PR's.
I also noticed the wear pattern that you have shown and discussed it with my mechanic and two different tyre suppliers/fitters.   It seems to be generally accepted that road camber is responsible for the extra wear on one side, and it will be exacerbated by low pressures.   It would certainly be worth checking wheel alignment, but I'd suggest being very fussy with checking pressures to minimise the problem.

If you don't want to wear out tyres, stay home......   

[Biggles]

I'm a "dyed in the wool" PR user and they seem to always wear out the middle of the rear first.  What I do see is very pronounced cupping on the rear, but I think that is caused by the mighty 1261cc biting into the bitumen.

[PC]

I was experiencing erratic tyre wear until I became annal about tyre pressure
Since then I have only had one tyre not wear out in the middle first it wore out on the right hand side the same
The only explanation I had for that tyre was when it had about 5000ks on it I was on a ride with a mate with a very strong cross wind that we leant into for 2 hours . I only got 13000ks out of it and the right hand side of the tyre was gone  left hand side look to be hardly touch . The tyre filter said to me don't you like left hand corners

[Gadget]

My rear tyre used to wear like that, but I rode through two beautiful large round-a-bouts at the Airport twice a day, and most often was able to power through them, scraping the right peg.

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[hobs]

My rear tyre used to wear like that, but I rode through two beautiful large round-a-bouts at the Airport twice a day, and most often was able to power through them, scraping the right peg.

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Had a think about that Gadget, the number of right hand turns I do in the common places I ride, and I do a heck of a lot of right hand turns compared to leftys. You might have something there. One place I go every weekend has 11 right hand turns and only 3 left hand turns. Just going shopping is 10 right hand and 3 left turns.
So for you scientists out there who will say, If I go out one way and come back the same way the turns left and right must be the same, but I don't return the same way, (can't due to traffic flow) 

cheers,

Hobs

[johnnyYTED]

 
on the way to Ballarat I wore out STrangers new rear tyre only on the right side, due to a pillion sitting out side saddle. it was the 1'st time he had been on the back b4 and didn't like not having control. maybe pressure was low due to eXXtra weight with him I should have run 50psi   

[alans1100]

the number of right hand turns I do in the common places I ride, and I do a heck of a lot of right hand turns compared to leftys. You might have something there.

A link from an older post ( http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=3525.msg35769#msg35769 ) might be of interest to some http://www.rattlebars.com/tirewear/index.html

[Williamson]

on the way to Ballarat I wore out STrangers new rear tyre only on the right side, due to a pillion sitting out side saddle. it was the 1'st time he had been on the back b4 and didn't like not having control. maybe pressure was low due to eXXtra weight with him I should have run 50psi   

Now that doesn't make sense to me.  Some of my thoughts in (what I think to be) a logical order, for easy replies.

   1.  If you had a pillion sitting to one side (in this case the right), initial logic is that the m/c would lean right.

   2.  But that would mean the m/c would veer to the right, track into and across the oncoming traffic lane and eventually off the road, ie. if you didn't have a head-on in the meantime.

   3.  But that didn't happen because an experienced and/or skilled (or both) rider would consciously or unconsciously would shift their weight to compensate.

   4.  If the m/c wheel alignment is true, the m/c has gotta remain vertical when riding in a straight line.  Any lean to the side will have the m/c veering in that direction.

Well, that's my theory anyway.   For me, it's not a matter of whether I'm right or wrong, it's just the way I understand two wheels.  If I'm misunderstanding this, and my logic is illogical, it could indicate that my excellent riding skills are only inside my head.

[Biggles]

   3.  But that didn't happen because an experienced and/or skilled (or both) rider would consciously or unconsciously would shift their weight to compensate.

I suspect Johnny would have had to put his weight to the left to compensate, but the bike, as you suggest, would have remained effectively upright.
As to whether the non-lineal weight distribution caused the tyre to contact the road asymmetrically- well that appears to be a possible explanation for the odd wear.  Could the frame have had a slight twist in it from that load structure?

[tremarg]

I have the same issue with the same tyre and know what my issue is, as advised by my tyre man who knows my riding style. If it was road camber, throughout the world we would have a tyre for those how ride on the left and another tyre for those who ride on the right. Alignment issues would be noticeable in other ways, handling etc.
For me, for the first 5,000klms of the new PR4 I ran the front/rear at 42 psi as per the book. What is adding to this is my riding style and where you ride. I do more hills and twists than straight line riding. This is not friendly at the best of time to both tyres. I did post elsewhere the reasons behind increasing the cold pressure to 47 psi rear and 45 psi front but that is what I run now, marked improvement in rear tyre wear klms wise and RHS  tyre wear. I run TPMS and with these higher cold settings, run at a lower running pressures hence lower temps than at 42 psi cold. This means that the tyres at running cooler. But that did not explain the right/left difference. Again for me, I do not ride any more aggressively than what I can see ahead, a good general rule. But this results in taking turns to the right more aggressively than to the left because in general you can see further ahead doing a right turn than a left one, that is for us riding on the left side of the road. Just to make it a little worse, now add road camber into the equation and the right turn, in particular, under brakes becomes a high load situation for the front tyre. Add the high running temperature and things get worse. Tyre wear never corrects itself so I have lived with it till now. Will be replacing soon with another PR4. Also the bike handles fine.

[alans1100]

I have the same issue with the same tyre and know what my issue is, as advised by my tyre man who knows my riding style. If it was road camber, throughout the world we would have a tyre for those how ride on the left and another tyre for those who ride on the right. Alignment issues would be noticeable in other ways, handling etc.
For me, for the first 5,000klms of the new PR4 I ran the front/rear at 42 psi as per the book. What is adding to this is my riding style and where you ride. I do more hills and twists than straight line riding. This is not friendly at the best of time to both tyres. I did post elsewhere the reasons behind increasing the cold pressure to 47 psi rear and 45 psi front but that is what I run now, marked improvement in rear tyre wear klms wise and RHS  tyre wear. I run TPMS and with these higher cold settings, run at a lower running pressures hence lower temps than at 42 psi cold. This means that the tyres at running cooler. But that did not explain the right/left difference. Again for me, I do not ride any more aggressively than what I can see ahead, a good general rule. But this results in taking turns to the right more aggressively than to the left because in general you can see further ahead doing a right turn than a left one, that is for us riding on the left side of the road. Just to make it a little worse, now add road camber into the equation and the right turn, in particular, under brakes becomes a high load situation for the front tyre. Add the high running temperature and things get worse. Tyre wear never corrects itself so I have lived with it till now. Will be replacing soon with another PR4. Also the bike handles fine.

What you missed is that for us is that on any given corner or bend in the road is that a turn to the right is longer in distance than a turn to the left. Your centre tread pattern might have done 5000km but the left side would have travelled less while the right side would have travelled more.

[tremarg]

Understand that and agree, I did preface my comment by saying 'in my case' this is how and why mine has occurred. There are many other factors that play into this as well. We have heavy machines and  always feel as I did at one time that tyres should not do these things but they do and there are reasons for all situations. Just sharing my experience for the initial topic.

[alans1100]

Tyre wear for my 1100 in the early days of ownership was for me wearing the centre out while the sides still looked new due to much longer straights around Port Hedland and later Karratha.

Even when changing to dual compound tyres the wear factor for me and most other road bikes up there didn't change that much. Moving back to SA added a few more bends and shorter straights around where I live has caused the tyre wear to move more to the sides.

[Williamson]

What you missed is that for us is that on any given corner or bend in the road is that a turn to the right is longer in distance than a turn to the left. Your centre tread pattern might have done 5000km but the left side would have travelled less while the right side would have travelled more.

I'm not sure about that either.  In my view, you would have to ride many, many, many more RH corners than LH corners before there would any significant extra distance covered, and tyre wear evident due to that theory.

Less distance travelled - YES, but insignificant, eg. using a very rudimentary example of travelling in a very large circle, or in this case route.

If your circumnavigated Australia by road (via Highway 1) clockwise, you would travel approximately 14,500km - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_1_(Australia) (overall right corners and curves).  Based on the principles of the C = 2 pi r formula (where C = circumference, 2 = 2, pi = pie - but I couldn't find a symbol, and r = radius ) and if you travelled anti-clockwise you would travel approximately 14,981km (overall left corners and curves), ie. 19km less. 

This would not be the case if you travelled more right corners than left, eg. did a clockwise loop through the Snowy Mountains nine weekends out of ten, and only an anti-clockwise loop on the 10th weekend, and only if you really carved up the corners with peg scraping (or near peg scraping).

In urban areas, tyre wear would be different (in my situation) as I don't corner nearly as hard, and get on to the shoulder of the tyre.