What did you do to your bike today?

[JustinNck1]

+1 on that. Sport Touring bikes, just chew tires. One of the trade offs of trying to be a f**king race bike and still have comfort 

[2talltim]

Yea I'm one of those guys that checks his pressures ALL THE TIME. Always ballooned up to 42psi. Yea I really don't care if I get 2000 or 6000 miles out of a tire anymore as long as it wears even.

[2talltim]

Ok then. So according to this I'm doing everything right. 

[Connie14]

28 minutes ago, 2talltim said:

Ok then. So according to this I'm doing everything right. 

I get nearly 10k out of a pair of PR4s, but I do commute on the freeway a lot.  Unfortunately,  my fronts are usually cupped, so I switch them at the same time as the rear. 

[JustinNck1]

I get cupping issues almost everytime. The new PR4s i used for the Fall Gap trip have lost their shape more than any other tire I have tried on the FJR. Rear tire is feathering bad.

[2talltim]

18 minutes ago, JustinNck1 said:

I get cupping issues almost everytime. The new PR4s i used for the Fall Gap trip have lost their shape more than any other tire I have tried on the FJR. Rear tire is feathering bad.

I had the same result from the pr4s also, going back to stones again.

[2talltim]

Sounds more and more like I'm going to end up just doing a fork oil change and not fuck with what I know works. Still waiting on traxxion dynamics to reply to my inquiry though.

[Al Z. Heimer]

15 minutes ago, Isaac's Papa said:

Very interesting. My tires don't cup. I'm going to inspect them often and keep an eye on tire wear. I just went into the garage and looked at both bikes. No sign of cupping from either. 

Prolly need more water wetter or some of that vanilla ice stuff. 

[motocat12]

 

[2talltim]

Another article that says it's what you want to see.

http://www.rattlebars.com/tirewear/index.html

Clip from the article...

CUPPING: 
Cupping, which is more accurately described as scalloping (see pictures, but we will use the more common term "cupping" here), is a natural wear pattern on motorcycle tires and it will always follow the tread pattern. It is not a sign that you have bad suspension parts. It merely shows that your tire is indeed gripping the road when you make turns (thank you for that Mr. Tire!). This cupping develops within the side wear bands of a leaned motorcycle. The extreme forces that come in to play when the bike is leaned in a turn are what produce the effect and when the wear becomes sufficient, one will experience vibration and noise when one banks into a turn. Upon examination of the pictures at left of our sample rear Avon, our dusted front VTX Dunlop D256, and the picture of our chalked Dunlop D206 one can see how the cupping follows the tread pattern. The leading edge of the tread does not flex much as it grips the road and the rubber is scuffed off the tire in that area causing a depression. As the tire rotates, the pressure moves to the trailing edge of the tread pattern where the tread flexes more causing less scuffing so less material is ground off the tire. The more complex the tread pattern, the more complex the cupping pattern will be. The softer the compound of the tire, the sooner this cupping will develop. Radial tires are more prone to cupping than are bias ply because the compound of radials is softer. As one can see, the simple tread pattern of the Avon pictured produces a simpler scallop pattern while the more complex VTX D256 Dunlop is somewhat involved, though still easily seen in our photo. Cupping on the Valkyrie Dunlop D206 is very hard to photograph because of the complex tread pattern. Low tire pressure will exacerbate this wear pattern and you will lose many serviceable miles by running low. Improper balance has nothing to do with cupping on a motorcycle tire. Improper balance will merely cause your bike to vibrate within certain specific speed ranges. 

 

 

[what]

productive day. she isn't 100% back together (996 clipons are too small for my current bars, need to get them milled out a bit), but she's close. 

[Tonik]

^ I hate you. That is such a nice setup.

[what]

23 minutes ago, Tonik said:

^ I hate you. That is such a nice setup.

It's a buddy's rally car shop. He's nice enough to let me use a bit of it to work on the track bike. 

[Tpoppa]

4 hours ago, Tonik said:

 

Tim's got a heavy bike, he is a bit heavy and it has lots of HP and he uses all of it. If he wants good grip he is going to eat tires. Just the way it is on that bike.

My bike is nearly as heavy with more HP, I believe.   I tend to ride it somewhat aggressively.  I can get 6k out of a set of tires with even wear.

 

[motocat12]

On 2/6/2017 at 5:03 PM, 2talltim said:

 

Now I have the front preload crank down as tight as she'll go and I know I still occasionally bottom out because I keep a zip tie on my Forks for reference.

What's the sag at? You can usually swap a spring spacer inside to reset the preload range.

[what]

8 hours ago, Tpoppa said:

My bike is nearly as heavy with more HP, I believe.   I tend to ride it somewhat aggressively.  I can get 6k out of a set of tires with even wear.

 

You are about 0.5 tims though as far as the bike is concerned. 

[Tonik]

8 hours ago, Tpoppa said:

My bike is nearly as heavy with more HP, I believe.   I tend to ride it somewhat aggressively.  I can get 6k out of a set of tires with even wear.

 

My bike weighs a bunch more than yours, and that's not counting donuts, moonshine and spare batteries for Triumphs in the saddlebags.  I too tend to ride somewhat aggressively.  I get 15K on a rear, 20 on a front.

[2talltim]

9 hours ago, Tpoppa said:

My bike is nearly as heavy with more HP, I believe.   I tend to ride it somewhat aggressively.  I can get 6k out of a set of tires with even wear.

 

Bike: about same HP, yours about 100 lbs lighter, and I would bet yours has better suspension than the connies almost 10 year old design.

 Me: at one time was 100 lbs heavier than you and I pack heavier for trips I'm sure and your riding style is so much different than mine.

So it's like comparing apples to onions almost 250 lb weight difference, modern vs antique suspension and Rossi vs evel knievel

 Kind of like Jim and his White Whale on tractor tyres vs ricky Carmichael on knobbies ;) 

[2talltim]

8 hours ago, motocat12 said:

What's the sag at? You can usually swap a spring spacer inside to reset the preload range.

I can't remember, I had it set it a couple years ago have it all written down at home somewhere.

[Tpoppa]

16 minutes ago, 2talltim said:

Bike: about same HP, yours about 100 lbs lighter, and I would bet yours has better suspension than the connies almost 10 year old design.

 Me: at one time was 100 lbs heavier than you and I pack heavier for trips I'm sure and your riding style is so much different than mine.

So it's like comparing apples to onions almost 250 lb weight difference, modern vs antique suspension and Rossi vs evel knievel

 Kind of like Jim and his White Whale on tractor tyres vs ricky Carmichael on knobbies ;) 

Mine is 7 years old and about 625 lbs as it is setup right now.

Riding technique is also going to affect how tires wear.  Last time I had tires cup was probably 20 sets of tires and about 10 motorcycles ago.

When you brake in relation to a corner, if you rely on engine braking, cornering technique, and throttle control are also going to play a role in how tires wear. 

 

 

[Tpoppa]

46 minutes ago, Tonik said:

My bike weighs a bunch more than yours, and that's not counting donuts, moonshine and spare batteries for Triumphs in the saddlebags.  I too tend to ride somewhat aggressively.  I get 15K on a rear, 20 on a front.

But your tires are made of chrome and leather, right?

[Tonik]

2 minutes ago, Tpoppa said:

But your tires are made of chrome and leather, right?

Yep.  Dual compound tires are the only way to roll.

[Tpoppa]

Just now, Isaac's Papa said:

I chuckled when I read "if their tires ain't cupped they ain't good riders". 

What?  Nope.

[Tpoppa]

I haven't read this whole thread, I assume when we say cupping we are mostly referring to front tires...

If you are braking, engine braking, coasting, or even just maintaining speed through corners you are adding load to your front tire, which will affect how the tire wears.

If you are slightly accelerating through corners like you should (see Twist of the Wrist 2), you are taking load off your front tire.  This has lots of other benefits also.   

[what]

39 minutes ago, Tpoppa said:

I haven't read this whole thread, I assume when we say cupping we are mostly referring to front tires...

If you are braking, engine braking, coasting, or even just maintaining speed through corners you are adding load to your front tire, which will affect how the tire wears.

If you are slightly accelerating through corners like you should (see Twist of the Wrist 2), you are taking load off your front tire.  This has lots of other benefits also.   

Makes me wonder what tire wear differences you'd see between someone who brakes before entry and someone who trail brakes. 

 

My front on the triumph (about 3000 miles on it) has even wear, the rear however is cupping a tiny bit. I have been running 36psi cold on PP3's front and rear. The cupping on the rear was from the fall gap trip (new rear mounted right before trip).