Weird Tire Wear

[justlookin]

Seems weird to me anyway..
I put new Metz 880s on about 7,000 mi ago.. After I got back from 4,300 mi trip this summer (including CCR :) ) I noticed the center of the front tire had worn flat about 1" across. It was not there when I left UT.. My guess is the last 700 miles, from CO Springs to St Louis. which had a total of 2 turns I think, must have caused it.(just riding a straight line for sooo long)
They still seem fine, but:
1. Makes noise every time I lean in to a turn.
2. Seem a little worse on low speed maneuverability
3. At higher speed the bike seems to dive into turns (I think it's when I roll off the edge of the flat spot)
Any one else seen this?
On my previous tires (Metz 880s), I did not keep up the air pressure and they scalloped.. (front end shake etc.) This time I kept psi above 40 to 42 and watched it closely..

[katnapinn]

Seems weird to me anyway..
I put new Metz 880s on about 7,000 mi ago.. After I got back from 4,300 mi trip this summer (including CCR :) ) I noticed the center of the front tire had worn flat about 1" across. It was not there when I left UT.. My guess is the last 700 miles, from CO Springs to St Louis. which had a total of 2 turns I think, must have caused it.(just riding a straight line for sooo long)
They still seem fine, but:
1. Makes noise every time I lean in to a turn.
2. Seem a little worse on low speed maneuverability
3. At higher speed the bike seems to dive into turns (I think it's when I roll off the edge of the flat spot)
Any one else seen this?
On my previous tires (Metz 880s), I did not keep up the air pressure and they scalloped.. (front end shake etc.) This time I kept psi above 40 to 42 and watched it closely..
Hey Jeff how 'bout a picture please

[living_free]

Seems weird to me anyway..
I put new Metz 880s on about 7,000 mi ago.. After I got back from 4,300 mi trip this summer (including CCR :) ) I noticed the center of the front tire had worn flat about 1" across. It was not there when I left UT.. My guess is the last 700 miles, from CO Springs to St Louis. which had a total of 2 turns I think, must have caused it.(just riding a straight line for sooo long)
They still seem fine, but:
1. Makes noise every time I lean in to a turn.
2. Seem a little worse on low speed maneuverability
3. At higher speed the bike seems to dive into turns (I think it's when I roll off the edge of the flat spot)
Any one else seen this?
On my previous tires (Metz 880s), I did not keep up the air pressure and they scalloped.. (front end shake etc.) This time I kept psi above 40 to 42 and watched it closely..

This happened to me this summer doing a SS1000.

[tbarstow]

Seems weird to me anyway..
My guess is the last 700 miles, from CO Springs to St Louis. which had a total of 2 turns I think, must have caused it.(just riding a straight line for sooo long)

You just answered your own question. Try going east across Montana and North Dakota with the wind blowing from the north. The flat spot ends up off center.

[motorman587]

Tire pressure?? Too much will wear the middle. Rode to Alaska and back on the same set of tires. The front lasted a very long time and finally did the wearing on the right side.

[hallzee]

Metz are known for noise in the turns, after a couple thousand miles. I just turn up my music and go. IMO, they track better than "other brands" (left out brand name, to avoid hijacking this into a "hey, I'm defending my brand" thread). :rolleyes:

You will get flat spots when slabbing for a few hundred miles.

[gglove]

Jeff same thing happened to me a few weeks ago. I had about 10 thousand on my tires, new tires noise is gone! :)

Not sure but I think they were feathered.

[sydvicioustx]

Now I'm confused. I just came out to find my rear tire with wear showing through on about a 6" strip in the center. I only have about 6-7k miles on them if that. I read a post about 42 front and 48 rear psi. Followed that but it sounds like I had too much pressure.

Now I'm out a rear tire.....any suggestions??

[trainingwheelz]

Hey Syd,

Sounds/seems like under-inflation and lots of miles in a straight line with extra weight perhaps?

(if it was over-inflated, you'd likely see a thinner "strip" as you are calling it)

How often are you checking air pressure, and are you checking it cold?

[tbarstow]

Hey Syd,

Sounds/seems like under-inflation and lots of miles in a straight line with extra weight perhaps?

(if it was over-inflated, you'd likely see a thinner "strip" as you are calling it)

How often are you checking air pressure, and are you checking it cold?

Overinflation actually causes this, as it reduces your contact patch and increases the load on the contact pact. Higher load in center= faster wear in center.

If it was underinflated, you have a larger contact patch, so it would see a reduced load and wear slower.

The more you run your tires overinflated, the faster you burn out the center of your tires.

The next time you are checking the air pressure in your tires, try using 2 or 3 gages to see the difference between them.

[trainingwheelz]

Overinflation actually causes this, as it reduces your contact patch and increases the load on the contact pact. Higher load in center= faster wear in center.

If it was underinflated, you have a larger contact patch, so it would see a reduced load and wear slower.

The more you run your tires overinflated, the faster you burn out the center of your tires.

The next time you are checking the air pressure in your tires, try using 2 or 3 gages to see the difference between them.



Tim, I'd agree with you except he's describing a 6 INCH wear strip on the rear tire.

If it was 3, maybe 4 inches, and he was inflating to 55 psi cold and riding in 110F, then yeah, over-inflation for sure, but if he's got that much flat tread, I'll wager it's the same thing as happened to me when I wasn't being careful about checking tire pressure when ambient temps were changing significantly and then ran high speeds (averaging 90 mph) for a 700 mile trip which turned my rear Metzeler just about into a slick.