Here is a photo of my rear tire wear off my Intruder 1500. Its shot now. It had a total of 7000 miles on it. Only half of that was with the car. Its worn more on the right side. Can anyone read if my setup is bad from the wear or is this typical??? The car runs good on nonwindy days pulls abit to the left at slow speeds 20mph. I feel like I have to much lean if anything but have not found a good way to measure that. I just put on a car tire so hoping to get more out of that. Advise appreicated.
Right side wear on the rear tire would usually indicate not enough leanout. If it is pushing to the left it could be from excess toe-in.
7,000 miles with this profile tire doesn't seem out of line for this bike.
Check the wear pattern on the sidecar tire for signs of excess toe-in. Rounded tread edges on the right side would indicate this condition.
Lonnie
Thanks Lonnie for taking the time to reply.
I will look at the sidecar tire but i don't remember it showing any odd wear patten. Not enough lean.. Wow how can I measure my lean accurately or what is the benchmark??? The bike when I ride seems like I have to slide my but over to the right side because on some roads if feels leaned out to much. It depends on the roads. 90% of our riding is on county roads here in MN. Even though they are slanted toward the ditch many have a hump in the middle of each lane so I straddle that hump usually.
The best way to measure leanout is with a magnetic angle guage (protractor) placed on the front rotor with the wheel straight ahead and the bike and sidecar weighted with the normal load carried.
Ballast in the car and the driver in place works well.
I usually work with around 1 degree positive leanout, but it may need more if you spend a lot of time driving on high crowned roads.
Lonnie
I would try reducing toe in.
As a past owner of an Intruder (1988 1400), I also had the same wear on my rear tire. I think I just had a little over 6,000 miles when I went thought the first rear tire, I was shocked. Dealer informed me that I should get used to it.
I know with my intruder, as I bet you do also, love the torque it makes, both accelerating and in breaking. Is it the stock factory tire? I was told by the dealer that the big intruders were eating tires rather quickly. I also had a warrantee on a defective rear brake caliper wiping out the inner rear rotor.
If I remember, its a 15" tire, I'd look into going on the dark side and look at High mileage car tires like some Goldwing and Valkerie Owners are doing. I’m also going with Car tires, but that’s a choice only you can make.
With my sidecar, if it's out of alignment, it seemed it affected my sidecar tire, not my rear tire. Since Intruders are shaft driven, I don’t know what rear wheel alignment options there are.
Is your lean-out/in alignment withing specs?
Good Luck,
Dave
Thanks Dave.
I did get a DS tire. Its rated for 60,000 miles I hope I get alot more than 7000 out of it. The bike pulls to the left on decelaration but not sure if that is normal. I like the way it rides at highway speeds though.
It's not pulling, it's being pushed by the sidecar, lightly engage the sidecar brake for a short time when decelerating and it won't do that.
If your fork are collapsing a bit when decelerating that can cause the car to push the bike left, you need at least 10wt fork oil, Pete at Side Effects says 25wt, I don't know where one would get 25wt fork oil but that's what they say to use.
IMHO: 25 weight fork oil seems a bit extreme to me. I've found that HD grade or racing grade B oil is sufficient for preventing most front end dive without the choppy ride that may accompany very high viscosity oils.
Lonnie
I agree Lonnie, fork oil ratings are a little weird, for me anyhow, Honda 10wt is their 8 which is what I have, 25 wt would basically give you a solid front end but that's what he said to use, what the real viscosity rating is is anybody's guess, guess it depends who makes it and how they rate it.
I'm running 15w in my Progressive springed fork. Almost too much damping, 25 would be 'way to much IMHO.
The Valk runs through rear tires in about 7,00 miles. My present Avon has a flattened radius now. I will be replacing it with a Goodyear triple tread car tire. I'm getting great mileage and traction with them on my Honda CRV.
Thanks for the replies....My bike still has the stock fork oil in it so you think changing it to honda 10wt would help that pulling to the left??
My brake is not hooked up on my SC.
Also anyone know what brake pads to buy for the disc brake caliper on my old friendship 3. They must have used some sort of bike brake set up or maybe a car caliper on them anyone know ??
Originally written by Kramer765 on 6/27/2007 5:07 PM
Its worn more on the right side.
My Honda GL1100-EML wears like that, and I've experimented with set up to try and reduce it. I ran 3 degrees outward lean for the last 10,000 miles, which is a lot of lean, and it took longer to develop the wear on the sidecar side, but its there again. I dismounted the tire and reversed it to even out the wear, which works. I'm running a 165-15 car tire on the drive wheel of the mule.
Next time I check the set up on the rig, I'm going back to less outward lean and more toe in.
I'm at the point that "that's just the way this rig wears rear tires".
