Tire Probelm (what causes this)

I have a 6th gen and had it GMD Computracked, the bike is actually very neutral with respect to weight on the front tire. In order to get supersport spec geometry numbers (biased towards the front wheel) some serious rear ride height adjustments must be made, as well as, serious adjustment to the height of the fork tubes. The VFR also has a very flat swingarm angle compared to supersport bikes. Have run both B'Stones and Pirelli Corsa III's, with no cupping and I run a very agressive front wheel biased setup.

 

Love his reply. we've (vfr owners) have known for years just how great the VFR is. it's always good to hear from new owners that come from another bike riding style see the light, pretty cool huh? whats ya know not all cruiser type are clueless

Yep, there ya have it, and Ron even knows what he's talking about :wink:

 

Went through two sets of tires on my 06. 25K km and 20 K km each time. Both cupped on the front. I have been unable to find anything wrong mechanically. I am on my thrid set, this time Michelin Road Pilot II but haven't ridden since Spetemebr so they are still new. I think this is just one of those things that we have to contend with. I found that even just before I changes the tires, this did not appear to have any detrimental effect on the safe handling of the bike. The driver may have... but the tires were fine.

 

Just about every front tire I have ever seen on any vehicle has had this wear, cars, trucks, and bikes. It's from the flex in the carcass catching each little edge and with 10k miles, that is roughly 10 million rotations.

The uneven wear is from the slight crown in the road. It has also been debated as longer turning radius (therefore greater distance travelled while turning) in left turns. Since you probably do most of your braking while straight up and down, the crown of the road causes the tire contact patch to be slightly offset.

If you feel the vibrations while braking you probably need a new tire. Try a different model tire. Unfortunately to maintain water shedding characteristics more grooves are used. You can get a lot of miles out of a sport tire though and the softer compound will resist the cupping and uneven wear better.

 

I had similar wear on car tires and tire people have told me I did something to throw them out of balance and should have them rebalanced each time they're rotated to maintain even wear. I don't know if they're b.s.ing me or not just to make a couple extra $$.

 

I think they are after your cash on that one. I ended up with slight cupping on my truck tires. I rotated them every time I got an oil change and that was done according to the computer which was every 14,000 km or so. No ballancing needed or done. But I could not feel anything at all and I will say, I am very in tune with the feel of a vehicle if I may say so. I got 110,000 km out of those tires and they weren't quite down to the wear bars when I decided to change them. Bike tires though are a different animal. I will bow to greater minds.

 

jsalty,

I strongly recommend changing the tire only as a first step. I think you will find everything returns to normal with a new tire and you won't have to do anything else. More reasons to do the tire only would be to really analyze the problem calls for changing one thing at a time.

My VFR is new, but I had this same problem with an '04 BMW K1200RS. The front tire cupping gave a sensation on the front end of a wobble. In any event, it felt to me as a wobble and not vibration. Changing the front tire made everything work normal again. There was nothing mechanically wrong with the bike.

I am including a picture of my BMW tire, I hope I am doing this right.

Ron

 

After having spent a little more time researching this subject, I came across a great paper concerning the cupping or scalloping of front tires. It would seem that my original input of a road crown being a potential contributor, is incorrect. I was wrong in posting this is as a possible contributor. I stand corrected.

This paper describes quite a few reasons for cetain types of tire wear and is actually very interesting. It might be a good thing to save in your favorites as a reference source, should this subject come up again.

http://www.rattlebars.com/valkfaq/tirewear/

 

NB,

You are truly an inspiration. I don't know if I have ever heard or seen anyone on VFRWorld admitt they were possibly wrong. Good for you. Open mindness is probably the most progressive quality a person could have. Now. What do you have to say about American Beer VS Canadian Beer:vader:. And oh BTW, we have the best hockey players too!

 

You can't compare american and canadian beer Randy. That's because one is beer (ours) and the other is dishwater, everyone knows that. :cheersaf:

 

I have had this problem on every bike I've owned since moving down to the Houston area. It appears to me, to be heat related, and brake use related. I'm not sure there is a way to stop it. On my SV1000S it did it with the stock Michelin pilot sports, but when I installed battlax's I didn't seem to have as much of a problem. However, I sold the bike not too long after that. In short, I think you just have to live with the problem. MY M109 did it really badly.
Cheers
John.

 

i have never had this problem with my vfr. although i have never had a tire last anywhere close to 10,000 miles usually about 2 or 3 is the max. i like the softer compounds right now i have a sportmax on the rear and a michelin pilot on the front wich is new. they all seem to wear equal but quickly. i ride kinda hard.

 

Seriously I had Avon Storms also I know this will sound like a stupid question! But how often do you check your air pressure, my experience with Avon tires is you have to do that alot! If left unchecked for more than 1.5 to 2 weeks at a time, what has happened to your tire will and has happened I believe! I now run MICHELIN PILOT ROAD 2 Dual compound rubber now and have been very happy with my decision!

Hope this helps...

 

just put new skins on her and all is well, guess the cupping is normal, I was initially concerned that i had a problem but come to find out it's just the way some tires are.

Checked against my buddies Sprints front and his is worse with about the same mileage on it.

I run this bike a minimum of 5 days per week, it my "car" that is why i went with the Avon Storm tires, if i went with a softer tire i would be changing tires every month and it would then be cheaper to run my gas powered F250 to and from work...

Thanks to everyone for helping me out.