A very good article on motorcycles tires and wheels

[Anonymous]

2 megs, 70 pages, written in 2003

http://www.gwocgb.co.uk/documents/tgw_mc-tyres.pdf

My buddy Bob looked this up after riding today. His ME55 is worn to the belts half way around his back tire so he's now looking into choosing a new tire after crossing the centre line by accident.

Cheers, Steve

[earlfor]

Re: A very good article on motorcycles tires and wheels

My reaction to that is either your buddy was born without a brain and is awaiting a donor, or he has a death wish. I cant imagine riding on a tire that has the belts showing. Its like playing roulette with 5 rounds in the cylinder. :-)

Earl

2 megs, 70 pages, written in 2003

http://www.gwocgb.co.uk/documents/tgw_mc-tyres.pdf

My buddy Bob looked this up after riding today. His ME55 is worn to the belts half way around his back tire so he's now looking into choosing a new tire after crossing the centre line by accident.

Cheers, Steve

[Bolder Biker]

Interesting find, Steve. Thanks for sharing.

BB

[Anonymous]

I'd say neither Earl. He just likes to ride. :P We were really surprised at how quickly the cords showed up after the tread wore off. :roll: It was within 400 km but as the ride organizer he felt obligated to come along. Once he slowed down to the legal speed limit the bike handled well but we had to do a lot of waiting since the rest of us were doing 100 in the 40 km turns and closer to 160 in the 80 zones.

Steve

[Hotblack]

I'll have to remember that. I normally wouldn't regard a bald tire as a liability on a totally dry road, but I guess cords are not far behind.

[Anonymous]

I rode behind him briefly and when a tire is worn this flat across the tire flexes instead of leaning over in a corner. As a result you ride on the worn out centre throughout the corner and slide.

[chuckycheese]

WOW

All I can say about that is..........WOW!

[redliner1973]

I take it he does alot of burnouts???!! :twisted:

[Hotblack]

Yikes! Looks like burnouts, but Steve's explanation makes sense. I guess that would accelerate wear -a bit-.

[Anonymous]

Bob's bike is a 1990 Ninja 500 and his commute includes one high speed corner over 35km. As you can see he rarely turns. I've talked him into a K491 or Metzeller 880 instead of another ME55.

Steve

[earlfor]

Steve, in all seriousness, if your friend makes a habit of riding on tires in that condition, you should say your goodbyes to him now while you still can. He will not be with us long.

Earl

[quote="srivett"]
I'd say neither Earl. He just likes to ride.

[KGB]

What a moron........

You've got to be kidding

he didn't "notice" the tread was that worn?
All that from straight line riding?

I don't know if I'd want him behind me when it blows, or in front so I could watch.
What a ______________...........dumbass or fill in with your own

[Billy Ricks]

Trust me, that kind of wear can show up between gas stops. Last fall on our Texas Hill Country ride I opted not to mount a new tire before leaving on what ends up being about a 1000 mile weekend for me. About halfway through the weekend I noticed just a trace of belt showing through. After about 100 more miles it was beginning to look like the tire Steve pictured. By the end of the day the belt was showing almost completely around the tire. Being out in the middle of nowhere there was little choice but to ride it out. Left the bike in San Antonio and rode the bus home. The next week I returned to pick the bike up and mount a new D208 radial when I got home. In hindsight I should have changed the tire before the ride. Just didn't want to put that 1000 miles on a new tire.

[Anonymous]

Same sort of story as Billy's. My friend went out for a 200 km ride the night before and when he got to the next ride there was about an inch of belt showing. The picture shows what the next 300 km did on a day where the temperature didn't go above 7C. We stopped every 60 km to check on his bike so we were fully aware of what was going on.

One key thing is to check the whole circumfrence of your tire for "baldness". My K591 on the rear shows 2 mm of tread everywhere except for one spot where it's 1 mm. Whether the tire was built out of round or if it's my riding that did it doesn't really matter but if you don't look closely you'll never notice the difference of 1 mm until it's too late. Yeah, the tire is worn out and I have to make a 1000 km trip next week so hopefully it doesn't rain or I'll be spending a lot of time in the coffee shops waiting for it to stop.

I'll tell Bob he's an idiot the next time I see him, he already said he was after sliding across the middle line but he might need to be told again.

Steve

[Anonymous]

Great article Steve,
I can't believe I just read the whole thing.

My good friend Bill, who owns Cycle Parts Discounters here in Maryland. Bill been selling and installing tires for over 20 years. I do consider him to be a expert on this subject.

Bill has told me in the past. That as a tire wears, when it gets near the end of it's service life. That the tread wear is accelearted. i.e. if you don't keep a close eye on your wear. It can get past you pretty quick.

I don't recall the reason for the accelerated wear.

Charlie