rear tyre squaring off?

[hcorf]

The rear (original) tyre on my 3 month old K5 (4000 miles) seems to be getting square in the middle. A friend of mine said it looked like i need to change it, but to be honest i would rather not as there is plenty of tread left on it, no cracks etc.

Does this happen much with sv's? is it a problem? does this show that i am riding the bike badly or something?

The bike seems to be riding fine, and i can see that the one or two inch strip in the middle of the tyre is quite a lot flatter than the rest.

Any advice on this would be appreciated, i will try to post a photo tomorrow (the light in the garage is broken) to show the problem more clearly.

Cheers,
Harry.

[kwak zzr]

this happens to all tyres if you spend most of the time upright and dont go round any corners :roll: it is perfectly fine and legal if theres loads of tread left but a new tyre without the flat spot will make you bike feel like its turning better. start hooning aroung on corners and wear the edges out. :lol:

[robz400]

I've now done 5500 miles on the standard dunlops and they've just squared off in the last 500 miles, but that was a trip to newquay and back which is dual carriageway 90% of the way.

I've never met anyone who has managed to wear a tyre to the limit evenly on the road alone.

Personally i wouldn't bother changing it until your on the wear limits, besides the more square it is the nicer the new one will feel. :)

[Saint Matt]

I agree with mr zzr, and also learn to slide lol, it'll be balanced in no time!


Or it will be written off and you won't care about squared off tyres.

[Blue_SV650S]

As has been said, it is a quite normal phenomenon on the road, nothing to worry about, to be fair 4k out of a tyre and it isn’t even on the limit is pretty good!!! If it is above the legal limit, then personally I’d keep it on. Tyres are expensive and why take it off unless you HAVE to?? The only detriment (again as has been said) is that the handling will suffer, that said, unless you are getting specific problems (weave etc) then it isn’t time to justify a new tyre is it?

Get yaself booked on the Lydden trackday 5th Aug … that’ll sort your problem out!! :lol:

[kwak zzr]

I agree with mr zzr, and also learn to slide lol, it'll be balanced in no time!


Or it will be written off and you won't care about squared off tyres.

at 50mph stick it in 2nd and let the clutch out whist approaching a corner! lovely! :D

[hcorf]

cheers for the help guys. dont know if i am quite ready for sliding but i am gonna take it out on some twisties today.

I guess it might have squared of recently becuase for the last two weeks i have been doing about 30 miles a day to work and back on dual carriageways and not much else. Bring on the weekend.

Harry.

[medwaysv]

another thing....have you checked your tyre preassure lately
in my experiance if its too high that can flatten the centre off

[northwind]

I've never met anyone who has managed to wear a tyre to the limit evenly on the road alone.


One of my favourite things about the Metzeler Roadtec is that the different compounds are very well balanced... Mine is a little less round than it started out, but not drastically- not square, more like the profile's changed but it's still round. I don't do much motorway bashing, mind.

[Richie]

another thing....have you checked your tyre preassure lately
in my experiance if its too high that can flatten the centre off

Agreed. my first set of Z6's I'd put the rear to 41psi and it only lasted 2000ish miles....but that was with alot of engine braking...through the gears. nough said. :wink:

[ethariel]

My original Dunlops were squared off at about 5000 ish too. Z6's fitted and the difference is huge.

[xrphil]

how do you know when a rear tyre is no longer legal?
I have a Diablo on mine which has worn to nothing on the tread next to the centre, but has loads on the rest of the tyre.
the 40mm strip in the centre with no tread, is starting to look a bit rough, so think I will just get a new one but whats the legal on this ?

[muffles]

didn't you do your theory test? :P

legal depth is 1mm around the middle 75% of the tyre band...

[northwind]

I believe it's 1mm over 75% of the width, not 1mm over the middle 75% specifically, around the whole circumference.

[xrphil]

didn't you do your theory test?

in a word - no![/quote]

[muffles]

I believe it's 1mm over 75% of the width, not 1mm over the middle 75% specifically, around the whole circumference.

interesting, my das people always quoted the middle 75% but i'm not sure if they're correct...

[andyaikido]

how do you know when a rear tyre is no longer legal?
I have a Diablo on mine which has worn to nothing on the tread next to the centre, but has loads on the rest of the tyre.
the 40mm strip in the centre with no tread, is starting to look a bit rough, so think I will just get a new one but whats the legal on this ?

Get it changed, mine wore through to the canvas before I could get changed. Had drive from Manchester to Wrexham on a very dodgy tyre. :shock:

[northwind]

Hang on...

(iij The depth of tread is not at least Imm throughout a continuous circumferential band measuring at least three quarters of the breadth of the tread, (see information column).

(Tyres which do not meet the three-quarters width rule when new must have a minimum of 1 mm tread over the whole of the original tread pattern.)

From the MOT regs.

[muffles]

heh, so i guess you can wear out your tyre on one edge legally :shock: be interesting to put that to a bib if they pull you over though!