Possible woes on the '07...

So I brought my '07 up to NC with me this weekend, and after narrowly avoiding piling up the truck and trailer I figured I'd give the bike a good once-over before I took it out...

Upon initial inspection I noticed 2 things buggin me pretty bad:

1st- Though we all expect our tires to take a thrashing, my front tire is considerably more worn than the rear. The center on the rear is just now at the replace indicator bars in the center. However, the front tire is extreemely worn on the outside shoulders. The wear is even on both sides of the tire, but I've NEVER seen a front tire this fucked. I do ride pretty hard- in the straights, and especially in the corners, but seeing a front wear past the rear seems a little off to me...

2nd- Upon initial startup I'm seeing smoke in my exhaust. It settles after a few moments, BUT, when I throttle it into vtec it gives a pretty good puff... It runs great, and only has about 13,500 miles on the bike now. I don't over rev the bike. I don't engine brake abusively, and I ALWAYS let it warm up for a min before I hit the road. I also know the original owner took great care of it and is an experienced rider who does his maintenance...

Anyone have any ideas?

 

I remember that one of the cycle mags had a long-term 6th gen test bike (06?), and they also had a lot of front tire wear. I suppose it really comes down to how you ride and the tire(s) you use. The original BT021 on my ex-07 lasted for 11K, but most of that was highway miles.

With regard to smoke, what color is it? And when you say "throttle it into VTEC", is that while you are riding and the engine is under load, or just revving it?

 

The wear pattern that you have explained on both of your tires is EXACTLY the same pattern I had on my bike. I bought my bike new and have taken the utmost care of it. My bike came with the Metzler tires. The front tire showed the exact same wear. Each side was wearing bald in between the center and the very sides. The rear tire had wear in the center, down the middle, and I could have gotten another year out of it, but I decided to replace them as a pair. I believe the pattern is because of the riding I do, I definitely put a lot of weight and pressure on the front end - especially entering corners at speed. I don't know if this is the cause, but knowing how I ride, it makes sense to me. As far as the smoke from the exhaust, the only time I've observed that is at startup or when it is colder out. I believe Lanny was the previous owner of your bike and from what I remember of him, he was a perfectionist and would in no way had abused that bike.

 

Yep- you nailed it on all counts!

When I corner this thing I show NO mercy. I flick it in hard, and usually accellerate out of the exit- I mean hell: riding all pussyish is no fun, RIGHT!? The wear on the front is EXACTLY as you've described. But to the extent is what concerns me- I mean, this thing is D.O.A.! I think the only difference is that Mine are the BT-016's.

As for the smoke:

Yep- it's cold out today.
Yep- it's reving in neutral- no load.
Yep- it lessened as it warmed up (kinda like the old small block Chev valve seal thing...)
And NO- it's NEVER smoked before.

And yep- I bought it from Landy Peace, who had this and a gorgeous CBR600 in full race form when I met him. He keeps his bikes in absolutely FLAWLESS condition, so it's definately not abuse related.

 

There you go. Problems solved! Like EVERY Honda I've ever owned, this bike is bulletproof.

 

Solved? I don't think so... I'm wondering if something's f'd up, if it's just needing a valve adjustment, or if mabey it was just sloshed oil burning off after friday nights little mishap

 

A little bit of light white smoke at start-up is to be expected this time of year Greasemonkey,it's cold and damp outside. That's usually a sign of the bike burning out the water that has condensed in the exhaust pipe. Depending upon how much water condensation is in the pipe that smoke should go away after about 15 to 20 minutes or so.

For what it's worth I fired up both my Ducati and my RC51 today (took the RC51 out riding) and both of them had light white smoke coming out the exhaust pipes. It was absolutely what I expected to see. Let them both warm up for awhile and gave each one a good rap on the throttle and was able to bring water droplets up to the exhaust pipe tips.

 

Stosh-

Smoke was blue/blk bro. Smoked like a f'n 3rd world tire fire...

 

At 13,500 miles, the valves should be just fine. What exactly was the mishap that you're talking about? I couldn't derive what that was from your initial post. Maybe this could shed some light on what you're seeing.

 

Blue/black smoke isn't good.

Coupla quick things you can check though,prop the gas tank up and check to see if the air filter is clogged. Remove the air filter and see if the crankcase breather is bringing up excess oil mist into the airbox. There would be a fairly good sized oil puddle at the back of the airbox if it was. And remove the spark plugs,look to see if any of them are wet or oil fouled.

Did the bike fall over and lay on it's side for any length of time? If it did it's possible that oil could creep in past the rings and cause that blue/black smoke.

 

Friday night. I-20 eastbound about marker 95 just out of Atlanta. Left lane (2 lanes). 70MPH. Heavy traffic. Driving my '04 Silverado with the bike in the trailer.

Flatbead in the right lane loses it's un-secured cargo (a square plastic 500gal waste chemical tank surrounded by an alloy protective cage) which is nailed by a tractor trailer combo following close behind. The tank is spun into the left lane, and though the 2 cars ahead of me were able to dodge it I hit it like a f'n pool ball... I figured better to wreck the front end than to pile up the trailer/bike and other cars around me trying to avoid it... I nailed it while I was braking hard (probably doing 60 when I hit it) and I continued to decel until I could pull into the median w/o tossing the trailer too bad. got over safely, but it was a BAD ride. No damage to the bike or trailer, but the front of the Chev is done.

 

Never laid over. Stayed tied down solid in the chock- but the trailer bounced around pretty hard.

 

I've never seen a rich condition cause smoke this heavy. Water is a different smell and color (& I know my coolant is in good order, so it would have smelled burnt ethyl/gly). After running it for an hour (about 50 miles) it still ran great, so if the plucs are fouled they're not too bad. It didn't pop, backfire, lag, or accellerate erratically. I left w/ 3 bars on the fuel gauge, and still had 3 when I got back, so it's not drinking the gas...

 

Ok- fired it up to trailer it this morning, and there was some dark grey under light reving. Nothing like yesterday though. I'm hopeful that it was just from getting bounced around while on the trailer friday night. Seems to run fine. Thinkin fresh oil and some new plugs are the order of the day...

 

the wear on the tires could come down to brand/model, presure run, style of riding, suspension settings/mait. Have you tried another brand/model/pressure or checked/adjusted your front suspension.