Uneven Tirewear, Suspension?

Dreamdemon

Dreamdemon

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Hi all,

first of all I read a lot in this very nice forum and really appreciate the useful information and the nice atmosphere. Now that I ran into some strange problem I registered finally to ask you for your expertise.

I have a 2006 Fz1 which had no crash, I bought the bike last October and put 6500 miles on it and noticed that the front tire is wearing much faster on its right side than on its left (orientation when sitting on the bike). I suspected the rear wheel alignment but a check revealed that it is correctly aligned. When I changed the front tire I checked that everything sits correct but there is nothing to adjust there (or did I miss something?).

Finally I checked that the front forks are correctly aligned and straight and both is the case. Now I am really puzzled. Could the suspension cause such a problem? The last front tire only lasted 4k miles (PP rear 4.7k) and the difference in tread depth was 0mm right and 3mm left. In my 16 years of motorcycling I never encountered such a problem, the bike seems to go a bit to the left as well and usually that has something to do with the wheel alignment or with fork alignment but both are ok on the bike. Any idea what else I can check?

All the best
-T
 
If the suspension is suspect then you can start by putting it back to the factory settings. I don't have the manual here with me but someone will chime in with those settings.

What air pressures are you running and how much do you approximately weigh with all your gear on?
 
I would start by loosening the front axle and all the triple clamp/fork fasteners ( support the bike don't let in slam down )
and then tighten to spec with a decent torque wrench.

Even a tiny amount of twist in the front end can lead to uneven tire wear.

Make sure any spacers, bearings, washers are installed correctly on the front wheel.


Many riders are more comfortable turning in one direction more than the other. That can effect tire wear if your leaning the bike over more to one side.
 
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The suspension I adjusted according to the usual measuring procedure (spring pre-load 4 rings visible right and left), one the stands and once with me on the bike. The setting of the setting of the pre-load and rebound are a bit depending on the riding I am doing but are both around 6 clicks from maximum hard. My weight is about 90 -92kg with gear.

I would rather expect that the forks do not act in the same way. There is no fork oil leak, both seals are dry and no wear is visible but maybe in the past an oil leak was not repaired correctly. By the way the bike has now 15.5 k miles so I think the fork oil should still be fine and again an uneven wear hints to some defect rather than usual aging problems.
 
So the forks are even in the tree? When you compress the front end down the travel on the forks is the same? Have you pulled the front end around while someone holds the bike to check for movement (check your manual for proper procedure)


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Hi, thanks a lot for all this input. Most things I checked, bearings seem fine no play, spacer are all their, after the Dealer could not diagnose the problem, I changed back to do everything myself. When I changed the front tire, I pushed the front down (wheel against a wall) so the forks settle correctly on the axle. Everything was tightened to specifications using a proper torque wrench.

What came to my mind: I only checked the rear wheel alignment with the swing-arm. The do it your self motor bike shop I use has a nice tool for this. Thus I am sure this alignment is correct. However, the front wheel might be somehow misaligned wrt to the swing-arm, not sure how this could happen if the forks are straight in their clamps but that's the next thing to check.
 
I have more wear on the right side of my Dunlop Q2. I think it's because I'm riding more aggressive and my line into right hand turns causes the accelerated wear.
 
It`s common for one side of a front tyre to wear quite a bit more than the other, most will to some extent,due to riding style, [too low] a tyre pressure,soft tyres, etc,saying that your`s does seem a bit extreme
 
Dreamdemon said:
What came to my mind: I only checked the rear wheel alignment with the swing-arm. The do it your self motor bike shop I use has a nice tool for this. Thus I am sure this alignment is correct. However, the front wheel might be somehow misaligned wrt to the swing-arm, not sure how this could happen if the forks are straight in their clamps but that's the next thing to check.
Click to expand...

Pick yourself up one of these and use it to measure between the swingarm and axel blocks to be sure they are the same. :D $16 on Amazon... [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Neiko-01407A-Extra-Large-SAE-Metric-Conversion/dp/B000GSLKIW"]Amazon.com: Neiko 01407A Stanless Steel 6-Inch Digital Caliper with Extra-Large LCD Screen and Instant SAE-Metric Conversion: Home Improvement[/ame]

433301_lg.jpg
 
Hi, I have one of these, will do it at the axle and see what comes out.

Concerning riding style, I had already several motorbikes and something like 50k miles on all of them, never had such a pattern. If the the current front tire wears again such severely uneven I make some pictures. I somehow feel as well the bike goes not straight but to the left. Ok difficult to tell because of street conditions ect, but I tested it several times, will post after the measurements and see if I find something.
 
Ok its some time since I last posted here. Well, the problem is still there!
I tried all alignment procedures and everything is aligned verified by at least 3 different people, and I had it even at a suspension shop who checked everything as well and did not find any problem.
Now, I am really puzzled because the wear pattern was on the Micheline PP and PR3 and tire pressure is always between 34 and 36 psi so that it seems to be unrelated to the tires. The shop confirmed as well that there are no indications of a crash or that a part was changed. They told me that the suspension would be fine and that the problem might occur because of the not very stiff front fork of the Yamaha (only one compression and one rebound fork) but then the problem should be occurring much more often. Up to now I read only occasionally about this problem but never about a final solution.

What I can confirm is that the bike pulls to the left, this I tested very often on different roads and it always pulls to the left, I can see as well a line on the front tire indicating the highest pressure and it is off center to the right about 1/2" and the line on the back tire is 1/2" to the left off center. For me this shows a misalignment but measuring the distance between the swing arm pivot and the rear axle gives exactly the same value (to sub mm accuracy).
I do not know if the frame could be bent since it was manufactured but beside that I could only think of some spacers or other parts forgotten when the bike was first assembled.

This is really an annoying problem and it bothers me a lot in sporty left turns, because i always have to correct the line with the right hand and that is very tiring on long rides and takes the fun out of the ride.

Has anyone a similar problem or even solved it?
 
When I bought my bike the front tire was a horrible mess and was scary to ride due to the uneven wear on the front tire. I have replaced the tire and am watching the wear closely but dont see it happening again.

So pretty much I add nothing to the topic.
 
How much highway mileage do you do? How severe is the crown on the road and what lane do you drive in the most?

I was on some seriously crowned highways this weekend and I can tell you if I did those a LOT and stayed in the high speed lane my right sides of the tires would wear a lot faster.
 
This sounds suspiciously like frame damage/misalignment. I'd take it to a shop that has experience with crash repair/race bike alignment and make sure that they're lined up. They can be perfectly straight in the mounts, but if the mounts are off center to each other, you're f'd regardless.
 
There is always the possibility that the frame is just plain out of tolerance as it came from the factory. Perhaps the welding machine or jig was not feeling well that day, who knows, but sometimes the allowable tolerances just add up to a net position that throws it out of spec. I'm not sure you can do much to fix this sort of problem unless you take it to a shop that can accurately measure and adjust the frame as needed.
 
Do you have an after market slip on exhaust ? Apparantly this will make it pull to the left due to the weight difference . The road canber can also cause uneven tyre wear .
 
delbert said:
Do you have an after market slip on exhaust ? Apparantly this will make it pull to the left due to the weight difference . The road canber can also cause uneven tyre wear .
Click to expand...

His wear is on the right side as you sit on the bike which would seem to be the opposite side of expected wear due to lighter exhaust, or a crowned road (in the US).
 
Highly recommend taking it to a race shop to have the bike measured. This will tell the story. Also, any shaking or trembling when riding? You mentioned a pulling characteristic, but is the bike shaking on braking at all? Finally, are you in the US in San Fran or outside of US where you are riding on the other side of the road? Again, commuting / highway miles on one side of the crown?

Sounds directly like frame issue, would again suggest measuring the whole bike at a qualified race shop prior to adjusting suspension again. This is almost automatic prior to even beginning to set up a race bike and should be done to determine your frame alignment.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
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