Unusual/uneven tyre wear - SV1000.

[Mark_h]

SV1000 with Michelin 2 compound tyres on. Front has done about 12,000 now. Still got good tread but .........

Rode some interesting roads over the weekend made slightly more interesting by rain and large ammounts of road surficing grit thrown about to save the council having to do a decent job.

Normally I'm OK with this, just take it careful and don't change anything quickly.

However I was riding in a style more like Bambi on the iced over lake scene. Was a nightmare. Felt like on black ice with diesel on top of it all the way (Bad on wet, v.v.v bad on wet gravel). Pulled over to make sure I didn't have a puncture and the scott-oiler had not gone mad but all seemed OK. Carried on slowly in my newly developed Bambi-on-ice style.

When I got to where I was going I noticed the front tyre had "gone a bit weird". Effectively it was squared off a bit for a band in the centre about inch and half wide, then the sides dropped away in a V-shape rather than the oval you normally get.

This could lead to the front effectively "tripping" over from flat to sloping quite dramatically with a period "on the edge" where I could well be riding on a strip abotu 10mm wide when just off vertical. I've had squared off tyres before but this is a lot harsher than anything I've expereinced before.

Rode back in the dry a couple of days later and although I had no confidence in the front-end It seemed to handle reasonably well.

I can accept that the softer side compounds would wear faster than the harder central compounds but this seems to have happeneed over night and left it horrible to ride.

I'm going to get a new front tyre but was wondering if anyone else has expereinced this problem with dual compound tyres. The rear wore out gracefully with very little squaring and certainly no cliff-like drop off on the edges.

Anyone got any similar experiences?

PS,

A272 from Loomies - Petersfield and the Bxxxx from South Harting down to Chichester best avoided for a couple of weeks unless you really really like gravel!

[Mr_Chin]

Yep Mark, I had exactly the same problem as you have described. It looked awful on mine too - more of a V-shape than squaring off. I went to Essential Rubber and had my front wheel changed on Saturday. I had a BT021 BTW, which I changed for the newer BT023. I work in London, and therefore I do more turning than straight motorway munching, which may have caused it. Either that, or the harder central compound was what it says on the tin - HARD indeed.

You're not the only one. HTH

Chin

[mister c]

Yup, same on my 650. The front tends to last longer than 2 rears, but I think it is down to dual compounds (could be wrong) It's harder in the centre than the sides, thus the sides wear at a faster rate causing the tyre to misshape :)

[Mark_h]

Got a new front tyre fitted today but then one of the front brake pads fell to pieces (*) when he took the calliper off and it was clear one of the others was a bit siezed as there was one pad with loads left and one down a fair bit. So now I need a calliper overhaul too. Was going to have a go at the front brakes soon anyway but now this has taken the decision as to when to do it out of my hands.

Guess this is going to be an expensive month. However at the end of it I should have a bike that both goes round corners and stops both of which are a good things.

(*) Friction pad broke in two down the middle and one half came away from the pad plate. Fitter recons this can happen if the steel plate starts to rust a bit and pushes the friction pad off. Never had it happen before. Recent track day may have contributed as I guess the brakes will have been working harder than normal.

[ian505050]

how long do your rear tyres last? i used an metzelder mz4 and it only lasted 2k! supposed to be a hard tyre i was told.

[Mark_h]

I got about 10k out of the rear. Then I got a puncture and decided to get a new one. It was hardly squared off at all and still performed perfectly. The front was spot on until about 200 miles ago then went down hill very fast. I think the track day may have accelerated it's demise. I got no more than about a 1000 miles more out of the front than the back.

It may just be that I corner harder than I accelerate these days but I always used to get 2 rears out of every front but this time round it's 1:1

If you ride the thou like a hooligan all the time, I imagine you could get through rears, chains, sprockets and tanks of fuel at an alarming rate.

[Berlin]

Either your milometer is broken or you are officially the softest person in tyres I've ever heard of!

:D

C

[Mark_h]

Either your milometer is broken or you are officially the softest person in tyres I've ever heard of!

:D

C

If you carry speed through rather than constantly having to recover from over braking, your tyres and chain get a much easier life. As I get more experience I tend to get places quicker but stuff lasts longer.

[Berlin]

If you carry the speed it wears out your front tyre quicker due to scrubbing. :smt120

[Mark_h]

That would explain it!

[Cymraeg_Atodeg]

I got 2CT's on my Thou' too, was fine back to Germany and back (1750 miles,) but, when I got back from the ride-out on the AR I notices that the left side (as you look at the tyre from the front) had "squared" or "V-ed" slightly, so, I increased the psi by 2psi to 38psi and now they are fine