| Author | Message | ||
     Sir_wadsalot |
My 1125 still has it's OE Corsa in front. It's at the end of it's usable life, and the left side has worn down way farther than the right. Is that normal on these things? | ||
| Ratbuell |
Depends. Do you make a lot of left turns? Ride on severely crowned roads (high in the middle / low on the shoulder)? Tire pressure? Forks adjusted properly? | ||
| 46champ |
I have found that almost every tire I have ever ran they have wore that way out here in Orygun it is caused by crone in the road. | ||
| Chameleon |
Same here in WA; also due to the highly crowned roads engineered for rain dispersal. Another factor is that you can typically carry higher speeds when turning left vs. right. I'm sure the opposite is true in countries with RHD, such as England, Australia, etc. (Message edited by Chameleon on June 19, 2013) | ||
| Sir_wadsalot |
I'm in Northern VA, it could be the road crown deal. Pressure and suspension are fine. Thanks. | ||
| Hybridmomentspass |
yep, crown in the road does it | ||
| Ratbuell |
Where in NoVa? I'm about an hour from Leesburg now, up in MD...grew up in McLean. | ||
| Sir_wadsalot |
I'm a little south of Manassas, but my job and fiance are in Herndon/Reston. Her parents are in Smithsburg MD and we're up there a few times a month. Some nice roads up there. Where are you? Always looking for riding partners... | ||
| Ratbuell |
Cascade. Literally just up the hill from smithsburg. | ||
| Sir_wadsalot |
Yep, we've been to that PenMar park before, I see a meet up in our future! I'll actually be in the area this weekend, but not on the bike. We're looking at wedding reception venues. | ||
| General_tso |
On right handed tracks the right side of the tires wear more than the left side. On left handed tracks the left side wears more than the right side.  | ||
| Cpd438 |
I'm a little surprised no one pointed out the obvious here. Most left hand turns are large radius and long, where right hand turns are small radius and short. So when we make left hand turns we have a tendency to go faster and cover more distance than we do on right turns. Hence more tire wear on the left side. Additionally, many riders are more comfortable making left turns because the left hand is only responsible for pushing, whereas the right hand has to both push the bar and control the throttle.... | ||
| Clutchreaper |
Why are left hand turns longer than than right handed? When you're at speed it's not going to make a difference. Wouldn't the distance be determined by the course or road you are on? Slow, short maneuvers maybe. But even those are done mostly down the center of the tire. To cause the wear described by the OP the tire would have to be at an angle, like when you're turning the same direction on a track, or road crown. | ||
| Cpd438 |
I should have been more clear. I was speaking of driving in town where there are intersections to go through... in America, where we drive on the right side of the road. Left hand turns at intersections are longer and have a wider radius than right hand turns. Should have clarified that in the original post. I mostly use my bike for commuting and every time I get Sonja new shoes I am through the rubber on the left side of the tires and have visible tread remaining on the right. | ||
| Clutchreaper |
I see your point on that now. I was thinking you meant just taking turns in general. My tire wear is almost even. Around here with the highways the roads are pretty flat. My rear tire is showing more wear on the far right but I'm pretty sure its from the back roads I take since the way I travel there are more right turns and I take them aggressively. Going home the route is a straighter one. | ||
| Stevenfrye |
Out here it's the wind u have to lean into all the time | ||
| Sir_wadsalot |
Got the new tire yesterday. Nice of the seller not to list it as an OEM tire. Oh well. It could be that the HD redneck who did the initial setup (lots of over tightening and a buggered oil drain plug) tweaked the forks or something when he put it together. We'll see how the new tire wears in. | ||
| Sir_wadsalot |
...aaaand I figured it out! Bike was still constantly pulling a little left with the new tire this weekend. I looked behind me and sure enough, my girl's leaning pretty far left to see around my head. She rides with me quite a bit, that's gotta be it. | ||
| Imblasted |
lol tell her to cut that sh!t out! you have to train them... I had mine doing very well on my blast and xb12s but now i think she is too comfortable on the 1125 | ||
| Chameleon |
That's funny! I used to have to give my wife a gentle push with the back of my upper arm to get her to lean more in the turns. I went for an aggressive ride using my wife's 2010 Yamaha FZ6-R (which I've been riding a lot since my 1125R is in the shop) Saturday on Angeles Crest Highway and when I got home I noticed the front tire was worn down to the cords on the left side. They are the original Bridgestone Battlax BT021 Sport-touring tires with 13,331 miles. Here's a picture:  I've ordered a set of Metzeler Z8 Interact Sport-touring tires to replace them. | ||
| Tbowdre |
In the twisties you have more vision and can see through the turn better when going left and you should feel safer taking left corners on the street because if you low side you go off the road or hit a guard rail if you low side going right you end up crossing into traffic | ||
| Sir_wadsalot |
It's definatly from my wee lass leaning left. She's only 4'10 & a hundred pounds...she rides with me so much I don't even notice she's there....I wouldn't have caught it if I wasn't looking, you know? I rode a season with bent forks once, and rode it hard....her little bobblehead imbalance is nothing! (She actually rides really well, that's why I never noticed.)  | ||
| 46champ |
In america here where we drive on the left side of the road any left turn is going to be a larger radius turn than a right turn. When you are turning left at best you will be in the center of the road but when turning right most people will be near the inside edge of the road thus making the turn tighter. People will generally take left turns faster than right turns. I think it may have a small influence on tires wearing on the left side of center. I personally think crown in the road has a bigger influence mostly because you have to lean left a little bit to go straight. | ||
| Sir_wadsalot |
In america here where we drive on the left side of the road any left turn is going to be a larger radius turn than a right turn. Maaan, I'm a hillbilly from southern Virginia! Everyone says they corner faster on lefts, but I'm the other way around. The backroads I learned on are so narrow and dangerous, you have to stay right to the outside edge. The dump was on my road, lots of dump trucks running wide. You get within 18 inches of the center and splat. I have a video somewhere... and I always corner hard as hell on the right, it gives me more space to run wide to the center....if I run wide to the outside it's into the treeline....mangled. If I drift to the middle there's a chance there's not a car there, the trees are always there. That and I don't run wide. Ever. Cuz, you know....splat. Hanging off, precision riding. If I don't know the road, putterputterputter... better bored than dead. But I'm a dyslexic hillbilly, and that's probably bass ackwards. | ||
| 46champ |
Jason you are doing fine I didn't say people should ride the center line and hang over into the other lane. But they do! | ||
| Sir_wadsalot |
Oh I know what you meant, I had just never heard it put that way before. I always kinda' looked down on the stunters and drag racers, coming up where I did with the fantastic death roads and all, but now living in a more congested area, I can understand it. See where they come from, I guess. I was just contrasting your statement to my own riding style. All valid, and being here, where there are more lined roads and traffic, I guess that would be more the norm. But yeah, I see dummies hugging the line and running wide all the time. Wanna smack em! Now that you've got me thinking about it, Middleburg horse country has some fantastic back roads, but I'm having a bit of trouble adapting. It could be that my lines pushing toward the more frequent traffic is unnerving me. Probably just the heavier police presence though! Every time I get in the groove, I look down and I'm doing jailtime speed, and have to back out again. If I hit a curve at 60, on a 35mph road, by the time I roll throttle through it I'm at 80....in a 35. But I digress.... anyhow it gives me something to think about now that I'm riding in civilization.  | ||
| Chameleon |
I agree! Here's two good examples to share with friends as to why riders should not do the things you mention: | ||
| Sir_wadsalot |
OMG the guy on the SV....target fixate much? My favorite part is he tried to put his foot down to stop....it's too bad the pedo bikers didn't beat the crap out of him. |
