Tire Wear

[gervmn]

I have 9000 miles on my VTX 1300 R and i noticed that the front tire is wearing badly on the left side, looks like I made 9000 miles of left turns. The center and right side have another 4000 or 5000 miles left on it. stoped at honda house in st cloud, they said it could be the tire or the windshield and said they could do nothing about it, they said that the next tire mite wear fine, and I got good wear out of the tire getting 9000 miles. noticed my wife front tire is doing the same thing just not as many miles. have any of you had this problem? or should i just get a new tire and see how that one wears? Also should I do just the front and do the back later, that tire looks fine yet. Vic

[VorTeX]

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I have the same thing going on with mine and the dealer said that it was due to the fact that as you ride, roads are crowned in the center and slope off on each side to the curb. As a result, the tire actually rides with the left side contacting the roadway more than the right because the road drops off to the right and the high side is on the left. This causes the tire to wear faster on the left. I noticed that my front end was starting to wobble a bit and I was told that this was due to the uneven tire wear. Made some sence to me and I was told that I needed new tires. I'll wait on the new ones but will watch it closer. By the way, I just turned 10,000 miles on my "C"

[NC Hammer]

That sounds pretty strange. I guess you should start making some RIGHT turns. LOL

There have been many, many complaints about the Dunlop tires re: wear and vibration. I don't see how the windshield would affect tire wear.

Sounds to me like a bad tire or a balance problem. Mabey inflation.....

What confuses me is that both your bikes are having the same issues.

How much pressure do you run in the tires?

Some of us differ and then some of us agree that the Dunlop reccommended tire pressure is a little low. We run 36-38 in the front and 38-40 in the rear.

I run 38 in front and 40 in rear with the shocks turned to #4. I like a firmer ride even though I only weigh 190.

You can replace just the front now, but keep an eye on the back. You should get at least 12K out of the rear.

http://www.vtxcafe.com/gallery/data/500/19Bike-7-18-04-1-800-med.jpg

[VorTeX]

I place no validity in the previous post, only that the dealer said it. As I thought about it I said to myself, Self this {could} be true, but who knows for sure. I am 240 lbs and carry 38 psi. I wonder if more pressure would help

[rebls]

Just keep switching from middle left to middle right lanes every so often and it should even itself out. I guess I could buy that argument if everyone rode in the right middle all of the time.

[TXVTX]

This topic has been discussed since the VTX was introduced. The slanted road thing sounds legit but isn't correct. If it were, your rear tire would wear the same . . . it doesn't. VTX'ers who own or have owned other brands of bikes say they have not had the problem on the other bikes. My riding buddies (two Harleys, two Yamahas, and a Victory) do not experience the left side wear. The wear has been reported by windshielded bikes as well as those without on both the Cs and the Retros. Others have blamed it on the extraordinary weight of the stock pipes causing a left counterbalance problem. However, and again, if that were it, the rear would show left side wear also. I believe the only diagnosis is in the bike . . . the most likely culprit being a mis-engineered front axle assembly.

Fortunately, my rear tire wears out before the front is too much of a problem. However, there is definitely some mileage lost because of this problem.

[Gaboy]

I had the exact same problem with the same miles. I made a comment that I must be making left hand turns only.
I also have a windshield.
I switched the tire and didn't replace with Dunlop, as I was told by another friend that rides a Gold Wing that the Dunlop tire wears very easy and the left side wear was a problem.

I haven't noticed the problem and I have about 2k miles on the new tires.


Hal

[ufutsnuget]

I replaced my front tire two times, 1st time was at around 8000 miles and the second at 15000 miles. Both were worn very bad on the left side. I replaced the back tire at 8000 miles with a metzler. Still looks to be in good shape. I wish I could get a metzler for the front.

[rebls]

Make of it what you will. Damn that Valk tire is worn!!!!!!!
http://www.rattlebars.com/valkfaq/tirewear/