My tire wore down on one side more than the other

Anyone have any idea why a tire would wear on one side more than another.....specifically, why is it not wearing in the center like all my tires have done in the past.

See photos.....

First photo taken when the tire had 3542.8 miles on it.

Second photo taken when the tire had 4803 miles on it.

Not that it makes any difference, but the rear pressure was always on 42 PSI and the tire is a Michelin PR2.

The crown of the road means that the bike is always going round a very slight left-hand curve, and will wear a bit quicker on the left. However, it's tiny and rarely noticeable.

That tire looks like it isn't straight in relation to the direction of travel, but I couldn't see the feathering you would get if a car tire were toe'ing in the wrong direction and in any event, the handling would be poor.

In your case it looks like you have been going fast, the wrong way round a traffic circle, for hours

If you have been riding normally, then something is badly awry with the wheel geometry. Or you had a tough day at the track on an clockwise circuit.

Others may well have much more definitive explanations.

I haven't run a motorcycle tire in so long I forget but I always experience more wear on the right side on both the car tire (on the rear) and the moto tire on the front. I think it is because I force the bike through the shorter radius right-handers with the same speed and that puts more stress on the tire? Who knows.

I would think that most On/Off ramps for the freeways are right handers.

I heard you were harassing some guys on the Twisty Blast route at EOM...

My Non-Technical explanation is that you attack the right-handers more aggressively than left-handers. I tend to do it. For me I think it's because I see more road to the outside of the right turns so I'm more comfortable going in hotter and adding a lot more throttle through the turn. My guess is you road a lot more twisty roads on this tire than on the past ones?

Either that or your right cheek is exponentially larger than your left...

Hey same here but I got a front and it's the other side. Maybe one side of our butt cheeks is heavier?

Iris said:

Click to expand...

Iris, I would have to say you are a right turn extremist.

Sorry, I had to say it.

Marty's observation of attacking the right hander more aggressively holds true for me, and given that you are a lot more aggressive than I am, you would see a bigger difference than I would.

So, maybe it's this:

If you run corners at the same speed regardless of direction, the right hand turns are always going to be sharper on average, which could explain the right side wear.

The normal thing for a less aggressive riders is to see the left side wear faster because you are in left hand turns for longer due to their increased radius and circumference, and because the lean angle will be less you will be prone to increase your speed in left handers.. But all that may go out the window in more aggressive riding .

The fact that you toasted your PR2's in < 5k miles running at 42 psi says you were riding pretty damn fast. Not that there is anything wrong with that in the least.

Put your purse in the left bag for a while.

I'm much faster in right handers

Only when you are dressing to the right, right Dougie?

Dude! Everyone knows you're supposed to alternate the side you carry the keg to even out the wear!

I think that the wear on this tire is so odd that it cannot be explained by riding style or road surface. There is either something wrong with the bike that is causing the tire to be out of alignment (not tracking directly behind the front), or something is wrong with the install of the tire such as an unseated bead, or there is a structural problem with the tire. Assuming you have a new tire on the bike the first thing I think you should do is to check that your wheels are aligned using a long straight edge.

Is there not a spacer that gets installed on the right hand side that perhaps got left out during the installation and the tire is leaning wrong (or a left hand spacer that is installed wrong) ?

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Fred W" data-cid="1181904" data-time="1412299442"><p>

Only when you are dressing to the right, right Dougie? </p></blockquote>

I'm not allowed to bring the tackle along when on bike trips.

I was thinking that there is an alignment issue as well. The funny thing is that my riding buddy (Jim) has the same tires put on at exactly the same time; his tire was wearing more on the left side.

I didn't notice any of this when we had the OEM tires.

True, we were riding pretty hard trying to follow some crazy guy around twisty roads, but that would mean that his tires should look the same way.

I've gone through many, many sets of tires in my life time and never did I see one wear on the side in lieu of in the center.

Look at the 'chicken strips' in pic #1 they are 5/8th on the left and 1/4 on the right. It is your riding. Look at your total mileage from the tires, it is your riding. You push hard, that is fine if you maintain your equipment.

I have the same issue. It is the route I ride. There are at least two nice right handers I do every day, really get to tip in. the corresponding left turns are only about half the angel and have a wider radius. Once the wear starts on one side, even if it were in the early part of its life the tire will, all other things being equal, continue to wear lopsided. It only gets noticed or noticeable, as the tread approaches zero. If I had worn my tires down to the crazy thin dangerous levels you had, mine would look like that too.

As it is I can get counseled if I run it past the wear bars and ordered to park it and tow it if I EVER went on post with a tire looking like that!

take it off and remount it backwards.

I don't think there is an issue. It's been yapped about for years here.

Road crown is always the end result.