Roadster Front Tire Wear

[IMFASTTOO]

And You Have No Fu#king Idea So Don't Bother Answer My Posts.
It was basicly the smaller Size and Front diameter of the Commander II that caused the Under Steer Issue, If you Read My post Properly

SO your not running a cartire on the rear and towing a trailer ?

 

[IMFASTTOO]

I have tried the Commander II and liked it in fact loved it, as while just carving the twisties it was by far the best ... but ..... found out it did not like the camper trailer weight the back the extra load on the front resulted with some scary front end under steering badly to the point it nearly put me in a ditch also wear was not real good so I will stick to the Elite 3 as it has the best allround performance allowing me to confidently push hard thru twisties and still get great controll while touring with the Camper on the back

SAY what tire do you run on the rear ? car tire I thought and a camper WOW scary front end understeer for sure and I would expect it to be a problem with that combination of tires and camper trailer etc

 

[Ishrub]

I just got a new Metzler 880 front and Exedra rear from a retired captain for a fantastic price but it looks like I will now be keeping the 880 for a possible sidecar fitment in future. Not unhappy though the total cost was far less than a new Exedra by itself. Still can't get over the mileage you lot get out of these tires. 22,000k is amazing. I used to get 2-3000k on Yokohama front sport tyres on my old mid 80's Yammie FZ750 and 4-5,000k max on rears.

 

[UberR3]

<<< Engineer here

Uneven or strange tire wear is NOT due to the tire itself, but rather the suspension or frame alignment problems. People love to blame the stock tires for wear or cupping problems but they neglect to look at the bike's suspension and frame alignment to make sure the bike is tracking true and straight. Even a small misalignment or suspension problem can magnify tire wear and create cupping.

Switching tire brands might help but that's because you're changing the tire profile which may or may not reduce the wear problem.

I highly recommend having your bike frame and suspension checked before you start making drastic changes to the tires. Otherwise, you'll be chasing wear issues for years and spending lots of $$$ on something you didn't need to.

 

[Claviger]

While I agree with you about the importance of finding the root cause, in this particular case, I don't think there is anything wrong with the motorcycle frame/suspension alignment. If you look around online at ME880s, its not just Rockets that have this issue frequently, its every make/model you can think of that report ME880s suck and cup quickly.

Leads me to point at the belt spacing inside the tire and the amount of deflection at various lean angles as likely the cause.

 

[UberR3]

While I agree with you about the importance of finding the root cause, in this particular case, I don't think there is anything wrong with the motorcycle frame/suspension alignment. If you look around online at ME880s, its not just Rockets that have this issue frequently, its every make/model you can think of that report ME880s suck and cup quickly.

Leads me to point at the belt spacing inside the tire and the amount of deflection at various lean angles as likely the cause.

How do you know there is nothing wrong with the suspension or frame? People are waaaay too quick to blame the black round thing on the wheels but forget about everything else those are attached to. Did you have the frame scanned? Did you inspect the suspension and take measurements to make sure springs, oil, seals, and other items that wear and break are within OEM specs? I doubt it. There are several companies that now offer to scan your entire bike and adjust your frame/suspension geometry to make **** sure everything is within factory specs. You'd be very surprised how much variance there is from bike to bike. My bike might come from the factory within 0.01" of factory tolerances but your bike might be 1/2" off. You don't know until you've measured and compared to factory specs. And keep in mind as a bike ages the frame, suspension, and other items will stretch and wear causing tolerances and alignment to gradually increase. New bikes are nice and tight, and generally straight, but as they age they will start to develop uneven tire wear and tracking problems. It's just the nature of machines.

I rarely believe what people post online simply because it is most often subjective rather than objective review of the cause. The ME880 tire a a very well designed, engineered, tested, and manufactured tire intended to be used on factory setup motorcycles. It's been around for many years and has proven to be a good tire regardless of what people say online. The Rocket 3 was engineered around the ME880 tire. That's just a fact, not an opinion. It's a "tuned" or engineered system. If something is out of tune or is not setup right the entire system becomes imbalanced. Hence, the tire wear issues.

My point is this.....look at the problem from a "whole bike system" perspective. Too often we get bogged down in the little details and issues but forget to understand a motorcycle, just like any other machine, is a system.

 

[TURBO200R4]

I think u should run the metz,s and tell us how many miles u get out of them.

 

[UberR3]

I think u should run the metz,s and tell us how many miles u get out of them.

I have the stock ME880 tires on my bike. Love them. Got about 5000 miles so far and still plenty of tread left. I don't expect to get past 10K miles on ANY set of motorcycle tires and that's perfectly OK with me. People who try to argue that motorcycle tires should last for 20K miles or more don't understand the physics of motorcycles or the engineering behind the tires. Bike tires, by there very nature, are not intended to last the same amount of miles as a car tire because they are two totally different things that encounter two totally different types of forces, heat, wear, etc.

To me, it seems really silly trying to irrationally extend your tire mileage way past what they are capable of just because you don't want to spend the money to buy replacements when they are needed. I simply plan ahead and set aside money to buy a new set of front/rear tires every year I ride regardless of wear. I treat the tires on a motorcycle as an engineered system that is part of the bike. Replace in sets and don't deviate too far from the factory specs.

 

[Ishrub]

I can hear the the 'Dark Side' calling you Skywalker.

 

[R3Tex]

I have the stock ME880 tires on my bike. Love them. Got about 5000 miles so far and still plenty of tread left. I don't expect to get past 10K miles on ANY set of motorcycle tires and that's perfectly OK with me. People who try to argue that motorcycle tires should last for 20K miles or more don't understand the physics of motorcycles or the engineering behind the tires. Bike tires, by there very nature, are not intended to last the same amount of miles as a car tire because they are two totally different things that encounter two totally different types of forces, heat, wear, etc.

To me, it seems really silly trying to irrationally extend your tire mileage way past what they are capable of just because you don't want to spend the money to buy replacements when they are needed. I simply plan ahead and set aside money to buy a new set of front/rear tires every year I ride regardless of wear. I treat the tires on a motorcycle as an engineered system that is part of the bike. Replace in sets and don't deviate too far from the factory specs.

I wish you well, but you are the exception not the rule. I routinely service 4 rockets from 05 to 13 standards and roadsters. Every single one of them cupped the front metzler at not much over 5000 miles, and some less. Changed over to avon cobras on the front and excedra max on the rear and no further problems for 10k or so when they run out of tread. If you want to run stock tires then by all means do so, but its hard to argue with field application of different brands in stock size. Not sure what kind of engineer you are, but in my engineering world suppositions and theory pale when compared to empirical data and I personnaly know enough captains that have had the same cupping issue to have compared the actual data. Triumph screwed the pooch when they put metzlers on the big girl. BTW...I ride somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000 to 40,000 miles a year in all kinds of weather and you couldn't run fast enough to give me a set of metzlers for free