Uneven tire ware?

Hello,

I just looked at my front tire and I am concerned.
The tire is worn more on the left side then the right.
The right side and center look good but the left tread is warn down about 1/4 or 3/8 more.
Have anyone seen this or know what is going on with it?

Thanks

 

To many tight left hand turns or tire pressure has been low for a long time.
Most likley you have a slightly bent fork tube. It is hard to tell just by looking at it. Even holding a straight edge to the tube it would be hard to see. The only way to tell is to dissamble the forks and roll the tube on a flat surface.
Worn steering head bearings can also cause uneven tire wear.

 

You're driving on the wrong side of the road. Celebrate the Queen's Jubilee by riding on the left for a while.

 

Dont know about your country, but here in Oz most roads have a camber to allow for water run off. So even if you spend a lot of time travelling mostly upright (as opposed to lots of corners ),you will have more wear on the uphill side of the road. The wear you have described seems fairly consistent with driving on the right side of the road.

cheers, Murray

 

That doesn't sound "normal." I've been riding street bikes for over 40 years and my front tires always wear out rather evenly.

Let's see some pics; there are many possibilities. Seeing what you're seeing will help.

 

Hmmm - I HAVE had tyres wear out more on one side, presumably because of the camber of the road. I would say that it was more noticeable on some tyre than others - or at least the extent of the phenomenon is variable.

Best to see a picture as bigfitz said.

 

I'm too lazy to find the URL again, but researching my tires I found a site that convinced me that the crown in the road isn't nearly enough to cause wear on one side--rather it is due to left hand turns (in the US) being longer than right, so there's more time spent leaning to the left.

 

This is vary interesting to ponder.
I do ride mostly on back country roads that have steep crowns. My tires age is unknown but was told that is was new when I got the bike 3 years ago.
I do know it needs to be replaced and I will do that soon. I was thinking about it last night while blasting down the road at 95.
But I also know the bike was in a trailer and it was in car accident the front was impacted hard enough to smash the fairing into the tank. This was before I got the bike. The fender is cocked to one side a bit and will not bend strait. It is cocked to the right of center in the front and left in the back. so if my fork is bent on the right backwards then that could be the problem.

How could I check the alignment of the front forks on the bike?

I will post a photo soon

 

Front end accidents don't usually leave the forks intact. Especially on non-inverted telescoping forks, since they are mounted on their weakest side. Definitely investigate that as others have said. Also, if you can't find a perfectly flat surface (plate glass works well), you can also roll the tubes against each other and look for "gaps" between them.

I low sided my Seca last year and found that the forks looked twisted. Confirmed with a straight edge with them still mounted. Was all ready to replace when I compared the two and they were perfectly straight. Turns out the top brace just "twisted"...really tightened, in the accident (the handlebars took a lot of damage and probably did the twisting) and loosening the pinch bolts and bouncing the suspension could have fixed it.

Tire have date code. Look for DOT and 4 numbers. If you see 3, it was made before 2000 and should be replaced anyway (after you figure out your fork situation) The first two numbers are the week and the last two are the year code.

 

Get off the NASCAR tracks and do some real road driving! Too much turning left! :lol: :lol:

On a more serious note, I have to agree with those before me in that no amount of regular upright riding on US roads would cause that much wear.

Comparatively, if it WERE due to the angle of the road the trend would be mirrored on your REAR tire.

 

Sounds like your forks are not parallel. You can do the expensive thing of getting a set of V-blocks and doing all the measuring, etc.....

OR........you can do it the cheap and easy way----and you'll be just as accurate.

Here's how I do it, and what the tools are:

1. all the appropriate stuff to loosen the triple clamp, and the forks.
2. 2 perfectly straight sticks about 3 ft long or so....the longer the better

Now,take one of the sticks and put it across the forks as high up the tubes as you can. Make sure it is right against the metal of the tube, and not up on a bump or anything. Now tie it snuggly to each fork tube, and keep it pretty parallel to the floor. Perfection does NOT matter here.

Now, take the second stick and tie it across the forks as low as close as you can to the axle, making sure that you don't have one side up on a bump or anything.Again, keep it pretty parallel to the floor but absolute perfection is not needed.

Step 3 (see how easy it's been, so far?)look straight down the forks from the center of the handlebars. Keeping your head and eyes at the center, look left and right. The stick MUST be dead parallel. If the bottom one does not line up DEAD ON with the top, the forks are not parallel. Loosen the clamps so that you can twist the forks til the stick stay dead parallel. tighten every thing back up, checking and checking and checking as you go.

If you need further assistance, ask..........

Dave F

 

First off, check the date code on the tire. Then you'll know how old it is.

Next, if your front forks are twisted, then of course the tire will wear weird.

The part about the fender is where you need to be concerned. Unbeknownst to most XJ owners, integrated into their front fender is a nice beefy stamped steel FORK BRACE. If your front fender (and that stiff hidden brace) has become bent or twisted, it will hold the forks out of alignment.

You need to take the front fender off; re-align the front end; and then see how or even if the fender lines up. You don't want to bolt up a twisted fender and have it pull the forks out of alignment again.

 

just flip the tire around and you'll be set for a bit longer, just like roller blades!

haha jk

basically, the DOT code is usually 4 digits. the first two are the week the tire was manufactured, and the second two are the year it was manufactued. Its usually stamped in. For example - 1211 would be the last week of march, 2011.

heres a link to further explainif you need it:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/ ... ?techid=11