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Tire wear


blackhawkxx

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I'm changing the rear tire on my Goldwing and noticed the tire is wore a good bit more on the left side than on the right.  The only reason that I can come up with is the crown of the roads being higher in the center for rain run off.  What you all think?

1915875482_Wingtire2.thumb.jpg.5b5c67b329ba04cdfa06a715d91a8a77.jpg

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On 11/10/2018 at 8:10 AM, Furbird said:

It's the crown.  You're always leaned slightly towards the crown whether you realize it or not, hence the increased wear.  Just ride into oncoming traffic half the time and the tire will wear evenly 👀

In Kansas, we just try to ride with the wind hitting us from the right to even out the wear.  Worked like a charm coming back from Colorado.

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On 11/10/2018 at 10:50 AM, Furbird said:

Well, that explains why my brother won't let me be a passenger in his truck anymore...

 

twowheels.jpg

ROFL. Some of the crazy shit  those arabs do. How the fuck did they manage that anyway? Or are they in the process of crashing?

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Nope, the guy is just damn good.  Never fails to get it on two wheels.  You can see his trick, sandbags or something in the bed on one side.  Probably 100 PSI in those tires.  The guys in the SUV's going from left wheels to right wheels are impressive too.  Then they come by at higher speeds on two wheels (60mph or so?) 
 

 

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Quote

It's the crown.  You're always leaned slightly towards the crown whether you realize it or not, hence the increased wear.

 

Remembering back the couple years I was a service writer for a large jap bike dealership and my personal 100,000+ miles on my bikes, I can't recall a single rear tire that wore out the side wall before the center. With tires being made with harder compounds in the center for longer life and softer compounds on the side walls for better grip in the corners seems strange to me that road crowns would have much if any effect on uneven rear tire wear. Only place i see that drastic side wall wear pattern is on the racetrack where there are more left turns than right or visa versa. On the street I would not think road crowns would have much of an effect. 
I never considered myself a great service writer due to not a big supporter of dealership techs  and i have been known to be wrong more often than not. Anyone know of any accurate information as to the correlation of road crowns and rear tire wear? What about the front tire, does it have similar side wear patterns?
I go back to alignment issues myself.

 

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1 hour ago, John01XX said:

I go back to alignment issues myself

There is no adjustment for alignment on the bike and I never tried jumping concrete dividers or anything. 😉  The tires on the Wing doesn't seem to act like sport type bikes as I can get 14 k out a back tire but 8 k from the front.  As far as even wear, the front tire get loaded in a different way than the rear so wears different.  Here is another shot of the rear and the center is about gone also.

1109181940b.thumb.jpg.736799a2f966c411a3c4d423ef86e7b9.jpg

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It certainly could be just crown but just does not sound right to me. 
All bikes do have an adjustment for alignment. The little marks on the swing arm axle brackets (for lack of a better name) have to be equal on both sides. Chain adjuster marks! must be the same on both sides given that nothing is bent or broken. If not the same, not only will the tire wear off center but the chain and sprockets will wear out prematurely as well.
Last I looked at my BlackBird rear tire, it will be due for a change out fairly soon and the wear is straight down the middle of the Pilot Road 3. Almost to the wear bars in the center. Most all the mileage is on Interstate highways if that makes any difference.

 

Edited by John01XX
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My shaft drive Magma has duel swingarm and can be aligned slightly.

Im not sure about a wing.

 

I have seen lots of improvement aligning chain drive bikes, both in tire wear and handling.

I think it is Speedygeezer who was selling a gauge style alignment tool.  It worked good until i got bi-focals.

I cant get the string method to work on the XX with the wide lower covers.

And years ago, Graham , developed a laser based alignment tool. Targets on the front wheel, a laser on the rear.  It worked really good.

Unfortunately, i broke the target end, and have been too lazy to build another.

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I just looked again at my rear tire and it looks better than I expected.

I live on a short shellrock road so it shows wear clearly.

I am about a half mile from I-95 so spend a lot of time on the interstate.
I have almost 7000 miles on this Pilot Road 3 and have at least another 1000 easy.
853407231_PilotRoad3.JPG.a0682349ddce02029183512efd948a34.JPG

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That second picture is much clearer than the first.  That is well outside of an alignment issue being the cause.  That thing would crabwalk like crazy to have that much wear that far over from center.  I know around here we have several roads with pretty intense crowning because of the amount of rainfall we get.  Also, if you ride where you have heavy traffic, especially truck traffic, it will create literal ruts in the road from people driving in the same position in the lane over and over.  High heat also increases this effect.  We have all of that here.  My Firebird with the 315 rear tire width tracks like crazy on some of the roads because of the way the heavy trucks have compacted the asphalt.

Another thing to think of is left side lean time.  Hot pavement can do a number on tires, and every time you park your bike it's on the side stand.  Over and over, always left side.  That's going to overheat and potentially flat spot that part of the tire, however microscopic it may be, and over the course of the life of a tire that flat spot may end up being all over the entire circumference of the tire on that one side.

I never trust the marks on the rear adjuster.  I always measure it.  Interestingly enough, I had a friend of mine that said every time he did a wheelie his bike went left while in the air.  I told him to check his rear wheel alignment and not trust the adjuster marks.  It was off.  No more left turn wheelies.  So go do a wheelie.  If it pulls to one side, your adjustment is off.  Or just use a tape measure.  Less felonies.

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23 hours ago, John01XX said:

All bikes do have an adjustment for alignment.

Don't know how to post it but the link is for OEM parts for the swing arm.  As you can see, there is just a hole to put the axle in, no adjustment.

https://www.hondapartshouse.com/oemparts/a/hon/506c1096f870023420a2d806/swingarm 

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2 minutes ago, blackhawkxx said:

Don't know how to post it but the link is for OEM parts for the swing arm.  As you can see, there is just a hole to put the axle in, no adjustment.

https://www.hondapartshouse.com/oemparts/a/hon/506c1096f870023420a2d806/swingarm 


I stand corrected, I was thinking we were referencing a sport bike with a chain, sorry.
The older wings are a beast of their own! 

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