My front tire a Pilot Road has about 8000 miles on it and is showing significant profiling/cupping in spite of the fact that the wear bars aren't exposed. I changed the rear tire at 7000 miles and was hoping to get keep my front for two rears. What causes profiling? I was advised to run 34 front an 36 rear which I monitor regularly.
Many things cause profiling/cupping:
1. air pressure
2. suspension
3. riding habits
4. tread pattern itself
5. position on vehicle
It is too late really, to try to recover a tire that has already started cupping, especially a front. But for the future, I would run an additional 2psi up front. Check your compression/rebound damping (if you have adjustments for them). Check your oil level in the forks, sounds like things may be a tad soft up front. But 8K is a huge amount of miles on a tire. I never get beyond 5k. But that's a diff story. [moto]
Riding your bike with the front wheel on the ground will cause cupping [evil]
Ducvet,
You should change your name to duccomic!
slash
Quote from: hypurone on September 08, 2008, 10:30:42 AM
Many things cause profiling/cupping:
1. air pressure
2. suspension
3. riding habits
4. tread pattern itself
5. position on vehicle
I agree with all of these, but in my case, I tend to believe it is purely the tire. The only tires I've had cup were a Michelin Macadam and a Bridgestone BT-020. I have gotten one Pirelli Diablo to cup, but this was due to a lower air pressure for a ride. I bumped the pressure back up and smoothed it back out, again. My wife and I usually only get an average of about 3000 miles to a set of tires.....and we've run through over 40 tires in the last three years.
Sorry could not help myself. 8)
8000 miles is good mileage for a front on these bikes. Michelin used to have a tire that cupped in 1000 miles thankfully those days are gone (but not forgotten).
Tires with less rain sipes tend to cup less but that is not the only thing that causes cupping. softer rubber compounds will cup faster than hard compounds add to that steering forces and weight of the vehicle and you have a recipe for a cupped tire. stiffer carcasses tend to cup at a slower rate but you pay for that with a rougher ride, on a goldwing you would not notice this much. Bid and heavy bikes will cup both front and back tires so you can see that weight (and overloading) can have a large effect.
keep an eye on your pressures (yours are in the ballpark) and enjoy what you have left.
FYI: I used to mix old and new tires, i know it is a money issue (or a yankee issue we hate to throw out tires that have tread on them).
Putting a new matched pair of tires on your bike is by far one of the best things you can do to the bike for handling, Often we do not know how bad things have gotten until we do so.
It will be like a new bike. If you are always running around with a 1/2-3/4 worn out tire you will never get to this point, performance will be limited by the worn tire.
cheers
Quote from: Desmo Demon on September 09, 2008, 06:22:41 AM
I agree with all of these, but in my case, I tend to believe it is purely the tire. The only tires I've had cup were a Michelin Macadam and a Bridgestone BT-020. I have gotten one Pirelli Diablo to cup, but this was due to a lower air pressure for a ride. I bumped the pressure back up and smoothed it back out, again. My wife and I usually only get an average of about 3000 miles to a set of tires.....and we've run through over 40 tires in the last three years.
Yeah, that's number 4. If the OP has the recurring problem on diff tires then 1 thru 3 come back into play...especially for the longer time/distance the front is on the bike.