My tire wore down on one side more than the other

[ts3doug]

If I had to guess I'd say you were following the faster rider and nailing the throttle coming out of the right handers to catch up. If the lead rider was smooth through the turn his tire would show less wear, but I'm usually wrong and I've had a cocktail or two.

 

[Bustanut joker]

Two ain't **** Doug.. I'm into my 2nd fifth and I'm still Illogical ....................

 

[escapefjrtist]

Damn, what kind of roads do y'all have back there?!? Gotta be some heavy throttling coming out of right handers to toast a PR2 that quickly...

--G

 

[wheatonFJR]

I'm not surprised by either the tire mileage or the wear. I noticed on my front tire that the right side was wearing more. I'm pretty sure that I am done wearing the bottoms of tires out first.

 

[900gc]

Damn, what kind of roads do y'all have back there?!? Gotta be some heavy throttling coming out of right handers to toast a PR2 that quickly...
--G

No joke! Paved with cheese graters!

My advice is to stop using the FJR as a stunt bike and doing all the doughnut burnouts to the right.

 

[Cav47]

Any possibility that it is a tire anomaly?? Tire makers make lots of tires and maybe that one was defective in some way and slipped past quality control. Maybe there was a softer compound put on that side of the tire. Or it got left in the autoclave when someone was looking at an Internet forum? Admittedly, I don't know how tires are exactly made.

Not saying I am right, but the tire could have been jacked up from the start.

 

[gotfz1]

Some premature wear on the left in countries that drive on the right is a matter of turn radius and distance traveled. The only time I've worn a tire prematurely on the right is on my track bike running Streets of Willow clockwise.

 

[mcatrophy]

Iris, you'll just have to stop riding side-saddle.

 

[Fred W]

On a serious note:

I don't think there is anything wrong with your bike or the tire, Iris. I have always worn out PR2 rears on the sides before the center, but not nearly as fast as 5000 miles. The reason for the side wear is that I usually shun the slab and take the back roads as much as possible. That hard center compound never has a chance to wear down unless you do a lot of miles in a straight line.

The PR2 rear that I put on new for our 2-up cross country ride, even though it was nicely scuffed to the edges in the Rockies, still wore into a square shape overall, and it was only 1/2 worn out after 6500 miles (and is still on the bike now). That is what happens when you ride in a straight line on the highway for the majority of those miles.

I would guess, from your tire wear rate and wear pattern, that on your week at EOM you stayed off the highways, and probably had some spirited twisty road corner exits under heavy throttle as well. Your new 2014 has traction control, which means you can goose it pretty good coming out of a corner with little fear of a back end slide out, but... the tire does actually have to slip somewhat in order to engage the Traction Control. Were you, by any chance, testing the limits of that new traction control feature?

Right hand corners are sharper on average because we drive on the right side of the road, so you would also be more apt to slip the tire and engage the TC on a right hander.

Another thing that I have noticed about our new third gens is that when in "Sport Mode" the throttle is considerably more abrupt than the old '05's were. The quicker throttle may induce more wheel slip than what you had experienced in the past on your '05.

The throttle is also considerably slower acting when in touring mode. I notice that a lot because it makes a throttle rocker almost useless since you have to turn the throttle grip so far at cruising speeds, but the touring mode does make it much easier to ride smoothly. Were you, perhaps, riding in Sport Mode most of the time, and maybe Jim was riding in Touring mode? Or maybe Jim is just easier on the throttle coming out of corners?

 

[1maxman]

Slowing down more going into then accelerating harder coming out of right hand corners causing tire spin?

 

[ZOOOMM AGAIN]

Fred, I've decided to leave it in sport mode most (all) of the time. Since we don't use the interstate roads like yourself, I prefer to stay in tune with the sport mode. The two loops that we rode on Friday and Saturday, during the EOM, were very twisty, but so were the roads getting to and returning from the EOM event. We also had Iris' front tire (an Angel GT) replaced at a BMW dealer in Greenville, NC because it was wobbling so much. Iris spoke to a manufacturer's Rep. about replacing it under a warranty and he suggested going to the nearest dealer for a new Angel GT, so we did. We're awaiting the findings from the manufacturer once they get it back for inspection.

As it's been mentioned before, sometimes you get a bad tire. And let's face it, all the great riding roads in the South are mostly twisties. And the pavement on them is not always smooth asphalt, but rather a course aggregate type. This combination along with hard acceleration will make any tire wear prematurely.

My $0.02

 

[wheatonFJR]

Wow Jim, If I had known that you had gone all the way to Greenville, NC, I would have just suggested the shop here in SC.

 

[ZOOOMM AGAIN]

My bad Mark. Greenville, SC

 

[Rider]

I might have read a couple responses wrong. This tread is about tire wear on the right side, one culprit mentioned is crowned roads. In the US, I do not see a correlation since, wouldn't that wear the left side?

 

[RadioHowie]

It MUST be correct.....it's right there on an internet forum!

 

[art miller]

Iris, The PR2 is worn out at 4800 miles? Did your 2014ES not have Bridgestone's when you purchased the bike? Did you put any miles on them? I cannot envision trashing a PR2 in less than 5000 miles. Do you go into turns hot and break or do you down shift? Are you riding in sport mode?

I have 9000 miles on my original Bridgestone's and have ridden the bike from CA to CO and back in the late spring 3500 miles with many twisties. Several weeks ago another trip through the PNW 2800 miles with many twisties again. My rear tire is still not down to the wear bar and the sides have good remaining tread. I am obviously not as aggressive a rider as you. On prior GenII bikes I got 12-15K on PR's.

What race team do you ride for?????

 

[wheatonFJR]

I typically get 5-7k out of PR2s so 5 k does not amaze me one bit considering the roads and riding style.

 

[Twigg]

I might have read a couple responses wrong. This tread is about tire wear on the right side, one culprit mentioned is crowned roads. In the US, I do not see a correlation since, wouldn't that wear the left side?

You may have read my reply both right and wrong. I certainly stated that uneven tire wear can be ascribed to the crown of the road, but in this case that could only have been the culprit in a few countries ... indeed, in this case the crown (the effect is small) would actually have mitigated the uneven wear

 

[Fred W]

I typically get 5-7k out of PR2s so 5 k does not amaze me one bit considering the roads and riding style.

Wait, what is this now?

Here you have led us to believe, over all these years, that you are a responsible and conservative rider. And most of your past history is riding in the flat and boring mid-west roads of "Ill-Noise". But now you reveal that you have only averaged 5k out of Michelin Pilot Road 2's, the perennial gold standard of (non Car Tire

) longevity?

Admit it, Mark... You are just another Hoon. You've been following that Petey guy or Jim 'n Iris too much. Gassin' it outta the corners and power steering into them.

I am shocked.

 

[Iris]

Yes we were riding quite spirited. I try to ride smooth ( like a dance). I do not speed in the straightaways and then dive into the turns and I do not give it too much throttle out of the turn. I find that sort of riding style erratic and don't care for it. I float into the turn, and then float out of the turn (that's what I try to do).

I do the turns with about as much speed as I use in the straightaways. That being said, the turns are sometimes taken a bit hot, but the whole thing is smooth (or at least that's what I aim for).

It's a different story on a road like the Dragon......there are no straight sections.

My concern isn't so much why I am using so much tire, my concern is why it's not wearing on both sides evenly.

I am ordering new tires and we'll see what happens with those.

As Jim mentioned I had a bum Pirelli in the front that was driving me crazy since the day I had it mounted. I rechecked the balance, rechecked the steering head and finally had the tire replaced. It was just a bum tire. Maybe that front tire caused my back tire to wear irregularly.

Maybe it's just the amount of right hand turns.

There are some really good things I've read in the posts above. They have all given me food for thought.