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Tire wear question

2K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  Shaun Surveyboy Bootsma 
#1 ·
Hi all,

Bike is a 02 k1200rs. Just bought it a month and 1000 miles ago.

Front tire is worn and in need of replacement. It's a pilot road 3.

My question is about the wear pattern. I haven't seen this before. Of course I've always ridden a thumper or a 500cc street bike, so, this bike is a little different lol.

Is it a tire alignment issue? Just a simply worn out tire? I cant find anything that I would be rubbing on.

Date code on Tire is 1811. Im guessing its got in the relm of 5-6000 miles on it.

Thoughts?

Thanks.
 

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#2 ·
I have the same year, same model, same tires and the same wear on the front tire. This was discussed a while back, someone said it has to do with the off set of the rear wheel. My buddy's 2003 had the same tire wear - think it is part of the beast. What paint pattern is your bike - I have a red stripe with the blue/silver.
 
#6 ·
... someone said it has to do with the off set of the rear wheel. .. .
What off-set? I've put 80k on mine and I've never seen anything like that except maybe when traveling cross country and dealing with a persistent southerly or northerly wind. Or maybe the previous owner really liked left hand curves.

Whatever, this in not what I would call normal wear at all. Sean has a problem. Maybe the forks are tweaked. Could be bad tires, and if it were any tire other than Michelin, I might suspect it.
 
#5 ·
I have always assumed the reason there is typically more wear on the left is because of left hand turns at intersections in city riding.
If you think about it, when you make a right turn at an intersection you are going much slower because it is a much sharper turn.
With these bikes having such a high centre of gravity and therefore being somewhat of a handful to manage sharp turns at low speeds and particularly in parking lots a hard right turn is often executed more gingerly.
When you turn left you travel further before turning and build more speed and so you feel more confident laying it over a bit harder.

That's my take on it anyway.
 
#7 ·
Looks normal to me, especially if you ride backroads that are crowned. Riding in the right lane of a crowned road will wear the left side of the tire more than the right.

You've ridden that tire to a wear point way past my comfort level...especially for all weather travel.

New tires are cheap when compared to ER visits and busted up hardware.
 
#8 ·
Thanks all.

I had it at the shop doing some maintenance and getting a baseline of things, their theory was possible low tire pressures or just plain old tire and wearing oddly because of that..

its cold enough out now here that I'm done riding for a few months at least on a regular basis. new tires should be delivered next week and then I'll see how this set wears over next year.

I've got some stuff to learn to do on the bike. their bill was kinda rough lol
 
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