Uneven Tire wear

[Fuzzy]

Front PR4 worn out at 12,000 miles but as can be seen in photo uneven wear size to side. At Riders Hill in Dahlonega, GA for new tire. Mechanic says he has seen this on several NCs. Didn't happen on first two fronts?


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[Beemerphile]

Definitely a strange asymmetrical wear pattern, but it is hard to argue with 12,000 mile tire life. My only issue with PR4's remains the incessant whining. I've never ridden a better rain tire. After my near accident yesterday, I can't fault them in emergency conditions either. I neither fell down nor hit anyone. Win, win.

 

[bamamate]

Coworker had that happen on his Ninja 600 only it was the right side of the tire and wore out in 5k. His next tire is wearing even. Sometimes you get defective tires that wear funny. Seen it on cars.

 

[itlives]

Maybe the mix of harder rubber for the middle and softer sides get off a bit in manufacturing.

 

[BerndM]

Quite some time ago, I clearly remember reading an eye opening article about exactly this tire wear issue.
Apparently after spending a lot of our taxpayer dollars , it was discovered that the general tire wear evidenced on motorcycles here in North America and most of Europe with the exception of the UK countries, was the simple result of which side of the road we ride on.
Here in the US, we ride on the right, which means that our roads are built with a camber to the right, causing our tires to have slightly more contact just to the left (nearer the center of the road) and consequently to wear more on that left side.
Obviously the opposite holds true for those countries riding on the left.
Maybe this addresses the OP's question, maybe not, but it is still a basic truth od motorcycle tire wear.

 

[2wheels4fun]

All the tires I wore out on my nc700x (20K miles), Goldwing (10K miles, car tire on back), ninja 250r (28K), front and rear tire the left side always wore out before the right. I do ride on a lot of two lane roads in the mountains of Western NC. Some people have mention that the right side wears out in countries they ride on the opposite side of the road. One person mention that it maybe that I am ride on a slight angle all the time but that person was on a forum and never saw me ride. Could be true but I don't know.

 

[Fuzzy]

To the best of my recollection I was riding on the same side of the road for my first two front tires. I also think my back tires stay on the same side of the road as the fronts.

 

[Beemerphile]

Here is an interesting discussion on the phenomena of left side tire wear that refutes (I think very well) the theory that it is a result of road crown...

Motorcycle Tire Wear

The sides cannot wear unless you are cornering. The outsides can only wear if you are cornering "with vigor". On every left turn you are traveling much more distance than you are on a right turn. So over time, your tires see many more miles leaning on the left side than the right side. Here is some math to support it. As an example, take a two lane road 16 ft. wide with a turn that has a 30 ft. radius at the centerline. It matters only to the math and not to the conclusion, but assume that you ride the inside tire track (2 feet in from the edge) of the lane in both directions. In the left hand turn you will travel in a 32 ft. radius. In the right hand turn, you will travel in a 24 ft. radius. Since the distance travelled in a 90 degree turn = 0.5 x pi x radius, the distance in a 90 degree left hand turn would be 50.26 feet. The distance in the same turn going the other direction would be 37.7 ft. Over time, this cumulative effect wears the left side more than the right.


Given that the PR4 has dual compound rubber, it may be that a spirited corner carver in Georgia might wear the sides out before the center. A Ft. Lauderdale resident like LM15 might wear the center out first because (bless his heart) all of his roads are straight. Once our corner carver wears the sides of his tires out first, it makes sense especially with dual compound rubber that the left side could be the thing that first signals "new tire needed". Had the tire been single compound, the tire might have worn out first in the center before the outside hit the limit.

 

[dduelin]

Here is an interesting discussion on the phenomena of left side tire wear that refutes (I think very well) the theory that it is a result of road crown...

Motorcycle Tire Wear

The sides cannot wear unless you are cornering. The outsides can only wear if you are cornering "with vigor". On every left turn you are traveling much more distance than you are on a right turn. So over time, your tires see many more miles leaning on the left side than the right side. Here is some math to support it. As an example, take a two lane road 16 ft. wide with a turn that has a 30 ft. radius at the centerline. It matters only to the math and not to the conclusion, but assume that you ride the inside tire track (2 feet in from the edge) of the lane in both directions. In the left hand turn you will travel in a 32 ft. radius. In the right hand turn, you will travel in a 24 ft. radius. Since the distance travelled in a 90 degree turn = 0.5 x pi x radius, the distance in a 90 degree left hand turn would be 50.26 feet. The distance in the same turn going the other direction would be 37.7 ft. Over time, this cumulative effect wears the left side more than the right.


Given that the PR4 has dual compound rubber, it may be that a spirited corner carver in Georgia might wear the sides out before the center. A Ft. Lauderdale resident like LM15 might wear the center out first because (bless his heart) all of his roads are straight. Once our corner carver wears the sides of his tires out first, it makes sense especially with dual compound rubber that the left side could be the thing that first signals "new tire needed". Had the tire been single compound, the tire might have worn out first in the center before the outside hit the limit.

I concur with this conclusion.

 

[netizen]

Looks like you were riding leaning into a crosswind for a LONG time! I also had thought of possibly having the bike loaded with more weight on one side (in side cases maybe) but I'm not sure that would have this effect.

 

[SergeantChuck]

Apparently I do not carve corners hard enough to create this issue but my rear tire would argue that is not the case. I'm going to take a good look at my front tire when I leave work today. I want to see if there is a noticeable difference. Out of curiosity, what do you keep your tire pressure at?

To bad your front wore out so fast. My PR4 front is now sitting at 17,000 miles and looks better than yours. I must be making a lot of right hand turns to compensate.

 

[Beemerphile]

Apparently I do not carve corners hard enough to create this issue

Just crank it over until the tip of the handlebar is playing "Nearer my God to Thee" off the pavement and the tire is rolling up little rubber balls where the chicken strips used to be. Unless you crash, that should get rid of the problem of too much rubber on the sides of the tires.

Out of curiosity, what do you keep your tire pressure at?

Some people will say that the tire pressure is correct when you have a 10% difference cold to hot. That is probably true for best grip, but not best life. I think a good compromise is 5% rise (or 2 psi to make it easy) cold to hot. Less than that and you are probably not getting the tire up to a good working temperature. The factory guidance of 36/42 isn't a bad place to be if you don't want to do the trials.

 

[Fuzzy]

I run 36 psi in front and have some chicken strip left.

Actually LM15 from Florida has less chicken strip than me. I think he must have used sand paper on them.

 

[Gonepaddling]

I had the same thing happen to me with the stock tire. I can't remember if it was on the left or the right. I asked around but never got an answer that fit. I have about 13000 km's on my second set of tires (conti trail attack 2) and there is no evidence of the Sam thing happening with the front tire.

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[SergeantChuck]

I run 36 psi in front and have some chicken strip left.

Actually LM15 from Florida has less chicken strip than me. I think he must have used sand paper on them.

I wanted to take a photo of my front but forgot. Wanted to show you just as a comparison. My front is actually around 17,700ish. I have no chicken strips and ride the bike like a maniac (as much as you can) so my tires are not babied. I'll try to run outside at lunch and grab a photo. I'm actually curious to see the difference.

The other factor is most of my ride is straight but when I get to the corners I really lay her down. Those corners are few and far between so although I drag a footped here and there it only happens two times on a 30 minunte ride. The rest is straight up and down. You ride a lot more twisties than I do so we can't really compare.

I run 36 PSI too. It's too bad though. Your getting less from your front tire than I will get from my rear tire.

 

[Beemerphile]

Your getting less from your front tire than I will get from my rear tire.

The biggest source of wear on a front tire is often braking. Riding in a straight line doesn't scrub the tire much at all. Are you a heavy front braker, or do you rely a lot on the rears? You are getting extremely good mileage - especially for a maniac. I'm also puzzled by straight line riding in Arkansas. I'm going to Arkansas (and southern Missouri) the first week of October to ride some twisties.

 

[SergeantChuck]

The biggest source of wear on a front tire is often braking. Riding in a straight line doesn't scrub the tire much at all. Are you a heavy front braker, or do you rely a lot on the rears? You are getting extremely good mileage - especially for a maniac. I'm also puzzled by straight line riding in Arkansas. I'm going to Arkansas (and southern Missouri) the first week of October to ride some twisties.

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I mostly ride my bike during the week. I commute. The bike sits most weekends. I know, I'm backwards. I ride HWY 67 (avoid this at peak hours if you can) and I-40. Both are very straight for the most part. I take a back road home to avoid rush hour which is where the corners come in. The backroad has a couple very tight 90 degree turns. The 40MPH type if your pushing hard and dragging a peg.

Plenty of good twistie roads and I've road most of them within a two hours radius of Little Rock. It's like living next to Disney World. The people that live there don't frequent probably as much as those that live further away. I've rode most of the roads several times so not in a big hurry to do them again but if I feel like going for a ride they are right out my back door. That is the nice thing about the Little Rock area. It is a very large city but within 30 minutes or less your are in a heavily wooded area.

Reference the brakes. Don't use them much. Not many stops along my 30 minute commute to work.

 

[Beemerphile]

Reference the brakes. Don't use them much. Not many stops along my 30 minute commute to work.

I think light front braking and straight roads are the explanation of your unusual tire mileage. Tires wear mostly by scrubbing - which for the front is turns and braking.

 

[davidc83]

I get the same wear pattern on both the NC700 (continental motion tires) and my C50 Boulevard (Pirelli MT66s) on both the front tires-always have. I do commute via Interstate which has a high crown but I think it is the left turning. I never worry about it due to I don't ever try to scrape a knee or ride curves too hard (a man has to know his limitations ), I only do about 45mph thru the Dragon....