Carbon canister shaved my tire 😡

[calrroadster]

I'm so mad about this.
Took out the restored R1150R today for a longer ride with a passenger + top bag. Bike completed the 40 mile roundtrip flawlessly, and held it's own on a windy bridge. Back home, parked it in the garage and did a quick 360 visual inspection. One thing stood out : On top of the paralever/shaft housing I saw a bunch of black rubber shavings, almost like what you see after erasing a whole page of pencil marks with an eraser. My first suspect was some rubber hose disintegrated, but when I looked further down saw that a uniform, shiny strip had developed on my tire. That's when I knew, it was rubbing against something. I didn't have to look much further to find rubber burn marks on the inside surface of the stupid carbon canister.
This is what I think happened: The flimsy mounting bracket must have bent inwards when the canister was pressed accidentally. This put it right in the path of my tire edge when the rear end was loaded and this rendered the tire profile edge smooth as a baby's bottom.

The advice I need here is: Is the tire still good to ride? It's Michelin Road 4 GT, and the shaved strip is barely 1/4 inch in width.
The advice I want to give: Remove the darn canister when you have a chance!
 

 

[szurszewski]

Personally, I wouldn't have any issue riding that tire. 

 

What I won't ever do though is run ANY tire that I was worried about - the couple/few hundred to replace a tire is well worth NOT being worried while I ride (because that takes a lot of the fun out of it, and why ride if it's not fun). So, should you change the tire? If you're worried about it, sure. If you don't know if you should be worried, you could ask either Michelin or tire pro - the chances are good though that they will tell you any sidewall damage is a no-go. 

[Joe Coastie]

Unless you're in a state that requires emissions inspections on a motorcycle,

I would lose the canister, purge valve and plumbing that goes with it.

Be sure to but good quality caps to cap off the nipples on the throttle bodies.

Beemer Boneyard has them.

[Skywagon]

I'm not a tire expert, but from the pictures, I would continue to use and monitor.  Since it's on the sidewall maybe test it with your fingers a little to see if it softer on that side than the other.  If you have a tire depth gauge, you might be able to compare the depth of that groove where it ends just above the Michelin logo.

 

I see a lot of sludge on your rim.  Unless that is just road grime, I would try to find the source.  

[taylor1]

I personally would keep using it as there appears to be a lot of life left and the small amount of damage does not seem to be in the gut of the sidewall., Though as others have mentioned, it wouldn't hurt to consult an expert only if for peace of mind.

[dirtrider]

12 hours ago, calrroadster said:

I'm so mad about this.
Took out the restored R1150R today for a longer ride with a passenger + top bag. Bike completed the 40 mile roundtrip flawlessly, and held it's own on a windy bridge. Back home, parked it in the garage and did a quick 360 visual inspection. One thing stood out : On top of the paralever/shaft housing I saw a bunch of black rubber shavings, almost like what you see after erasing a whole page of pencil marks with an eraser. My first suspect was some rubber hose disintegrated, but when I looked further down saw that a uniform, shiny strip had developed on my tire. That's when I knew, it was rubbing against something. I didn't have to look much further to find rubber burn marks on the inside surface of the stupid carbon canister.
This is what I think happened: The flimsy mounting bracket must have bent inwards when the canister was pressed accidentally. This put it right in the path of my tire edge when the rear end was loaded and this rendered the tire profile edge smooth as a baby's bottom.

The advice I need here is: Is the tire still good to ride? It's Michelin Road 4 GT, and the shaved strip is barely 1/4 inch in width.
The advice I want to give: Remove the darn canister when you have a chance!
 

 

Morning  calrroadster

 

Are you sure that was rubbing on the canister? That is the area on a tire where an oversized tire usually rubs the inside of the swing arm cutout. Have you looked to see if it was rubbing the tire cutout area in the swing arm?

[calrroadster]

10 hours ago, dirtrider said:

Morning  calrroadster

 

Are you sure that was rubbing on the canister? That is the area on a tire where an oversized tire usually rubs the inside of the swing arm cutout. Have you looked to see if it was rubbing the tire cutout area in the swing arm?

Hi DirtRider,
There are two things which lead me to believe it was the canister and not the swingarm
- The inside area of the swingarm cutout corresponding to the rubbed-out tire ring has been covered with road gunk for some time, and I checked today it still is covered with gunk. If any tire rubbing was involved, I would expect to see a small clean area at least.
- There is a clear rubber film on the canister(I added a photo, but might not be clear there. I can definitely feel it with my fingers), as if melted rubber was deposited and later cooled down.

[Miguel!]

I have  a friend that dropped his bike and it landed on the side case and rubbed against the tire. It looked sorta like yours tho his was warn pretty quickly. We didn't go very far till someone pointed out his side case was outta-whack and we discovered the worn tire. He replaced it immediately  because he's the type of guy that minimizes risks. 

Miguel

[Lowndes]

The structural "strength" of the tire is in the cord embedded in the carcass.  The cord is the component with the tensile strength, plus flexibility and higher modulus of elasticity than the rubber.  It's why the tire doesn't expand like a balloon when you inflate it.  If you haven't worn to or thru the cord it's still good.  I doubt you would be driving at any angles of lean that would put your worn strip in contact with the road and it looks like the the tread rubber (as opposed to the carcass/sidewall rubber) was the only thing affected.

 

Would you discard a tire that only shows slight wear on the tread??

 

If you are the least bit worried, PLEASE send it to me.  I'll run it.

[szurszewski]

15 hours ago, Miguel! said:

 because he's the type of guy that minimizes risks. 

 

Oh man - wait until he finds out about motorcycles....

[Redfoxx]

The 2004 RT i bought this summer the same tire as yours I could not see any wear to tire, but my canister had all the paint worn off just like yours. I am guessing it was not tire on the bike currently. My canister went by by wasnt going to risk it rubbing again.

[RT1150Ted]

I had exact same issue with my canister rubbing. Had a load of luggage and oil and the preload on rear shock was shot.

 

nowhere near that extent of wear on tire. But very happy to follow advice and remove canister.

 

When I was asking Ted Porter about rear shock, and the canister rubbing….. he mentioned a BMW maintenance bulletin about the position of the canister from manufacturer and it caused rubbing… and needed to be moved…or removed.

 

I removed the canister…. The bike felt lighter after that.. :)

 

 

 

I have a 2004 R1150RT

[RandallBT]

Me too. Same thing happened after they mounted my new Dunlops. Fortunately caught it before it did too much scraping. Yes, my rear shock is bad too.