Tire wear

[ricky racer]

I've noticed on my rear tire that the side left of center is wearing more than right of center. Does that indicate that I am possibly more comfortable cornering hard to the left more so than the right, or does it suggest a possible mechanical problem??

[onekiwi]

Road camber?

[Trex]

Do you dress left?

[shreddr]

the exhaust heats up the left side of the tire

[poldar12s]

Simply more left corners or more aggressive when you lean left. How about front tire, matching same wear?

[markjenn]

Riders generally corner harder to one side over another, although the difference isn't huge for most. Some say that many BMW's have alignment issues which cause the problem - the litmus test for a significant alignment issue is having to hold pronounced and steady bar pressure (or having to really move to one side or the other to ride hands off) to travel in a straight line in calm conditions on a road with no chamber and with no asymetric loading.

My take is that a few bikes/riders have issues here, but most "problems" are within the range of normal variation between bikes/riders.

- Mark

[dsl]

I always wear the left sides of my tires by a significant margin - CLICKY. While there are some inherent reasons for it, I consciously ride lefts significantly harder.

Inherent reasons:
- Left handers always have a greater radius resulting in more miles turning left
- Road crown (or "camber" as mentioned above) make rights somewhat banked

Conscious reasons (for many people these maybe subconscious):
- Right handers are always blinder and always tighter
- You are much, much more likely to encounter a cage crossing the double yellow on a right hander
- You are more likely to encounter sand/gravel in a right hander
- If you fcuk-up on a right hander, you risk sliding into oncoming traffic

(I ride a lot of tight technical twisties in the Northeast.... ie, heavily wooded and blind)

[bradzdotcom]

right handers aren't always blinder and tighter, but if you're talking about the same road, same corner, coming at it from both directions...then that's true. right handers are shorter.

left handers also give you the room to utilize the both brakes if necessary.
it's why almost all the start turns in motocross and supercross are always left handers.
statistically, it's safer.

so...on a defined stretch of your twisty road with lots of left-handed turns in one direction...which means tighter right handers on the way back...have you ever noticed the difference in mileage between the two directions?

[ricky racer]

You guys make good points. I don't feel so bad now.

[Guyf]

Originally Posted by ricky racer

I've noticed on my rear tire that the side left of center is wearing more than right of center. Does that indicate that I am possibly more comfortable cornering hard to the left more so than the right, or does it suggest a possible mechanical problem??

Same here, both front and rear. My Aprilia is wearing tires in the center.

[dsl]

right handers aren't always blinder and tighter, but if you're talking about the same road, same corner, coming at it from both directions...then that's true. right handers are shorter.

Yes, when I say "always" I'm comparing the same corner taken as a right hander vs left hander.

so...on a defined stretch of your twisty road with lots of left-handed turns in one direction...which means tighter right handers on the way back...have you ever noticed the difference in mileage between the two directions?

An easier way to illustrate the mileage difference is to imagine a perfect figure-eight track with a double yellow line. One loop taken as a left hander will be on the outside lane and the other loop taken as a right hander will be on the inside lane. A lane is typically 11-12 feet wide, so assuming you ride in the same lane position (eg, I typically try to ride the outside tire track on corners) the radius of the left hander will be (let's use) 12 feet longer than the right hander.

(Sorry to get nerdy here) Now the circumference of a cirle is defined as Pi*2*Radius so if the radius of the right hand loop is 120 feet, then the circumference (or mileage) of the left hand loop will be 10% greater - I consider that significant.

For perspective, the diameter of this loop is nearly the length of a football field. To be fair, the 12 foot radius difference between lefts and rights is pretty much fixed, so if you ride a lot of tight technical twisties, as I do, where the average corner's radius is a lot shorter than this football field example, then the mileage difference between lefts and rights will be greater than 10%. Conversely, if you ride a lot of high speed sweepers, where the average corner's radius may be a lot longer than this example, then the difference will be less than 10%.

[bradzdotcom]

yes, all of that is true, it's just that nobody ever notices.

i just wanted to give you an excuse to go out and ride, then compare mileage.

wifey-poo just started running marathons and has a sports watch that gives her mileage. she always registers a higher mileage than the course claims.

after hearing her gripe about it, i watched the lines she chooses through the corners while she runs.
helen keller could do better.
wifey-poo is swinging out SO wide in the turns, she's easily costing herself a couple of strides to make up for the extra distance.
unfortunately, right or left handers make no difference in this case. picking good lines seems to be beyond her.
i think i'll get her a service dog to run with. i'll train it to take the inside lines and the shortest route between corners.
it shall be called "apex".

[jduke]

Lol

[sheldonc]

Ricky, do you ride an R1100S? Mine, and others from what I've read here on this forum tend to want to go to the right. I'll usually load the heavier stuff in my left case just to counter some of that. I wonder if that has anything to do with the tire wear. Both of the S's that I've ridden pulled considerably to the right.

[sgoodwin]

Maybe the manufacturers make the left side from a softer compound just to fcuk with you! I know the ones I get are softer in the middle cause it always wears out first.

[poldar12s]

If you ever fell during canyon rides due to self-inflicted cause, was it right or left corner? Will be interesting if we do poll.

[EenyBear]

The "dress to the left" comment got me thinking. I think we all tend to lean a bit to the left or right to obtain the basic balance point on the bike. Basic physics I should think but I await correction.

All the other points made are excellent - especially about the left turn distances (where we drive on the right hand side of the road).

Something to think about over the morning tea.

[Kieran R1100S]

Originally Posted by Trex

Do you dress left?

What that means he is asking if he place his tackle, left or right of his zip.
In other words with tongue in cheek, the extra weight will make a difference!
Quite witty!