RT Tire Wear

[JByerly]

My co-worker has a 1999 rt and his front tire is wearing much more on the left side than the right, anything he can do about it, other than always turning right?

Thanks

Jerry

[chrisolson]

1) buy a new tire

2) run a minimum of 36 lbs of pressure in it - some may recommend higher

3) remove spacer from REAR wheel if not already done - helped reduce - not eliminate - PTTR, and I think helped front tire wear as well ... although many will disagree as to the effectiveness of this step !

 

After implementing all three, I did not have left side wear any more....just one personal experience.

[tomk99r11]

OH NO, a tire wear post!!!!!!!!!!!

[AndyT]

Air pressure and keeping it in the proper range 36 to 40 (I like 38 in the front) have greatly helped front tire wear and cupping on my bikes!

[texastopper]

hey chris, do you remove the rear spacer all together or move it to the other side??

[LGannon]

Remove spacer? what's that about?

[ShovelStrokeEd]

There is no other side. The spacer goes between the wheel hub and the drive. It was put there by BMW to insure that the clamping load is evenly distributed across the face of the wheel hub. It is pretty thin and doubtful that it would have much of an influence on either front tire wear or PTTR. Short pause while 30 or 40 folks chime in and mention that not only did it cure their PTTR, their skin is now clear and their teeth shiny white.

 

Things that CAN influence this are all related to chassis alignment. Rear or front wheel not vertical at the same time. Rear or front wheel aimed left or right of centerline of travel and no, your bars might not necessarily be twisted. There is a pretty good argument for road camber having some influence as well although our friends in the UK report wear still on the left side of the front tire.

[T__]

My co-worker has a 1999 rt and his front tire is wearing much more on the left side than the right, anything he can do about it, other than always turning right?

Thanks

Jerry

 

Jerry, L/H side front tire wear is a very common problem on most brands of street motorcycles ridden in the USA.. Lots of speculation on why it only happens to the L/H side (I have my own opinion).. Doesn't really matter why, just matters that it does happen..

Slowing down on left hand turns will help as well as using your whole lane width in left hand curves & sweepers ..

 

Keeping the tire pressure at recommended will also help but that alone won't stop the L/H tire wear.. If it were just a tire pressure problem it would wear both sides of the tire not just the L/H side..

 

If you really want to determine what is causing the L/H tire wear on your friends tire just chalk or paint the tire wear area then ride the bike.. First ONLY straight up in a straight line then with more & more lean to left on corners & curves.. It will become obvious when you start wearing the paint off at the worn area.. As a quick check just use a couple of people & lean the bike to the left until you have the tire worn area in complete contact with the ground,, that is pretty close to the lean angle that bike is at when it is wearing that front tire..

 

ALL my street bikes used to wear the L/H side much more than the R/H side but now that isn’t such a big problem anymore.. I try to offset the L/H wear by doing mostly R/H turns in parking lots,, being more aggressive in R/H curves,, & being a little less aggressive on L/H turns (L/H turns are a lot longer than R/H turns)..

 

Twisty

[BUSTED]

Under-inflation of the front tire pressure lends to uneven wear. The attached pic shows a D204 with 10,855 miles, a ME Z1 with 14,216 miles and a D205 with 16,842 miles. Wear is nearly same side to side. Running upper limit of suggested front pressures help.

[Ted]

My 2000 RT had 60K on the clock when I sold it - the bike seemed to love to drift to the right which caused me to input a bit of left hand lean to keep this from happening. I attributed uneven tire wear to that left turn input to correct the drift. Btw, although I would never compare my Road King to my previous bike (they both have 2 wheels, but, that's where all similarities stop), I now have 15 K on the back and front tires - no uneven wear and have another 3-4K of wear to go before I reach 2/32. My RT had an alignment problem that the dealer would never recognize - "They all do that".

[Husker Red]

I disagree with the PTTR arguement for left side wear. First - all sorts of brands of bikes experience this, not just BMW's. Second - the wear occurs at approximately a 20 degree lean angle. PTTR may happen on BMW's, but it certainly isn't a 20 degree lean to correct it.

 

There is an interesting article on rattlebars.com about tire wear. Rattlebars link

 

Here is a photo from that site. I like it because it clearly shows what area of the tire would be affected by a 20 degree lean or average road crown.

 

Photo of my VTX front tire:

[Ted]

Shouldn't this be a common wear pattern on all bikes if it's caused by the road's crown?

[Husker Red]

I may have been unclear in my post. I don't think left side wear is caused by road crown or PTTR. I think the wear pattern its too high on the sidewall to account for either of those.

 

I subscribe to the "longer faster left hand turns and shorter, slower right hand turns" theory myself. The lean angle in turns would account for position of the tread wear on the tires - approximately 20 degrees.