We ran through our first rear tire. The tire wore slightly uneven. It is wearing faster toward the hack. Most of the miles were with my 200lbs for weight in the hack. The tire is about 1/8" more worn on the hack side.
We ran the tire till the center line was just visible before getting it changed.
The hack has 5/8" toe in and the bike is leaned away from the hack 3 degrees, I believe. Not completely sure. I lost the paper I used to set it up and I have chronic CRS.
I would like to even out the wear. Am I right that I need to increase the lean out?
The tire was a $50 duro. It was a pleasant surprise. We normally run continentals on our solo bikes. The duro gave us no grief at all and showed no damage from our daily commutes down our dirt road.
I wouldn't hesitate to run another. I did buy a Elite 3 this time. Want to see how many miles we get from it. We got approx 5000 miles from the duro.
Thanks for the help,
Joe
Joe,
With a 3 degree lean-out total you must have set the leanout with the bike and sidecar unloaded. Another thing I can think of would be extremely worn shocks on the bike to give you more right side tire wear.
Unless all your dirt riding is going the same direction around a hill.
Get a magnetic angle gauge (cheap)from a building supply or hardware store. Place it on a front brake rotor, load the sidecar as usual, hop on the bike with the wheel forward and read the angle numbers on the guage. Lean-out should be around 1 degree or thereabouts.
With the right lean-out you may be able to reduce the toe-in a bit and get even more miles out of that rear tire.
You didn't mention the wear pattern of the sidecar tire. That may also tell a story.
Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars
Thanks for the reply.
I looked at the hack tire and it seems to be wearing evenly.
It is a 145rs 13 radial. We changed it at the same time as the rear because it is either 14 or 24 years old. It is wearing more in the center than on the edges.
We have only been running 20 # of air in the hack tire. Now that I measured it I think I might drop it 5 lbs. BTW the bike is a 1988 HD police special and the hack is a California friend ship one.
I will try setting the lean out hack up the way you suggest.
Makes perfect sense.
What is the best way to tune the toe in? Bike tracks good now, but getting the most life out of a tire is attractive. I suppose I could set the toe to 3/8's and see how it affects handling. Then bump it either up or down depending on the results. Now that I have changed to another brand of tire I will have nothing to use as a baseline. If the toe is too little will my wife be able to notice it in the handling or will it announce it's self by tire wear?
I am also puzzled about how much air to run in the rear tire? it is a 130/16 dunlop.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Joe
Run as little toe-in as possible for good tire life. As little as 1/4" if possible. 1/4" to 3/8" should be do-able with your setup.
If you have too little toe-in and lean-out the rig will head for the mailboxes. Too little toe-in will soon show on a new sidecar tire. The outside (right) of the tread will soon develop a sharp edge with a little feather of rubber and the inside edge of the tread will show signs of rounding off from being dragged sideways.
Your FLH/FLHT rear tire inflation is 36#.
Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars
Thank you you've been a great help.
I had a blow out today. At this point I am attributing it to the fact it was a Chinese tire on the sidecar {even thought it was only a month old}. I put a Bridgestone on to replace it. hopefully, I have no issues. Might have to adjust toe, not sure until I check.
What brand was it?
My Chinese is rusty!
all the writing was in Chinese. No clue.
Bet it says " for display only do not run on highway" in Chinese.
