More Tire Questions

[Guest Bruce]

This information may be tucked away some where but I couldn't find it so please bear with me.

 

While cleaning my bike I noticed the front tire has alot more wear on the left side then the right. Is this due to the crown in the road or are more sinister forces at work here?

 

Also, as I need a new front ASAP and would prefer not to wait several weeks for a dealer to do it, how hard is it to change a tire yourself if you have lots of experience with off road tube tires? Is this a really bad idea?

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Bruce

[Murray]

Your're dealer takes serveral weeks to change a tyre?? Most do it while you wait athough you have to book it in first. The tyres on the V11 are pretty common across all modern sports bikes so should be readily avalible at almost any bike shop. Changine it yourself is a little tricky tubeless tyres tend to have very strong sidewalls and stiff beads. Without a bead braker if would be very difficult. Howeve you can break beads by placing the base of a jack on the sidewall and attempting to lift something heavy (like a car) with the jack. You have to be pretty careful not to bend things like brake disks and scratching the living day lights out of the rim. There are some teflon rim savers usally avalible at most off road shops than are designed to go between the rim and your tyre leavers highly recommended IMO. Personally it too much trouble and much easier to go down to my local shop, athough they don't charge me for fitting ethier but I'd probally pay for it given the chioce between doing it yourself and paying for it.

[Mike Stewart]

Bruce,

 

In the U.S. tires tend to were out quicker on the left side. Most riders (US) favor the left turns. One large reason is that you can see farther into the turn when going left, thus leaning more and applying more throttle (at least this is what I do).

 

Changing your own tire is higher on the difficulty list. I do my own but I have an advantage that I work at a Chevy dealer which has a tire machine that works on motorcycle wheels. I purchased a static wheel balancer and balance my own wheels also. Dirt bike tires are easy compared with the tubeless tires. To break the bead loose takes alot of effort while trying to prevent damage to the wheel.

So I suggest the dealer or any shop that sells tires.

 

Good luck ,

Mike

[Guest Bruce]

Thanks guys, that pretty much settles it on the DIY question, changing off road tires is not a 'fun' chore and there was a fair learning curve at that. Three weeks for an appointment is the norm around here right now.

 

As for the left turns I'm a firm believer in a 'late apex' riding style and tend to go easy on the lefts. The roads around here have a considerable crown ( maybe crown is a local expression, it means the center of the road is higher than the edge. It's done so water doesn't sit there in the winter ). So left handers tend to be off camber while rights essentially have a bank to them.

 

So going straight means you're riding a bit of an off camber all the time unless you're right on the strip. This may require a small amount of counter steering to go straight. Later I'll try it with my hands off the bars and see which way she goes.

[Ray]

I read an article on this very question in MCN a year or so ago, but I can't put my finger on it. I don't think the road crown was their answer - I think it was in the tech questions. Not much help I know. Weary brain cells...

[strider]

In Australia the right hand side wears quicker. We ride on the left hand side of the road. Same goes for England.

How you corner has bugger all to do with it otherwise the wear would progress far beyond the usual contact area when upright.

By the way, the road shape is what is known as 'Macadamised' after a guy named Macadam who invented it. I guess the Michelin Macadam tyres were also named after him. I've also heard the highest part referred to as the crown.

Some dealers here in country areas are pretty pathetic too and can take a while to get tyres in. I usually travel the 120 km to Brisbane to get my tyres replaced - a set of 020s for $AU400 - about $US280 - fitted, balanced and the slippery release agent scoured off.

Cheers