Help me understand my tire wear!!

[Fenixgoon]

I am running the tires that came with my bike - Dunlop Sportmax RoadSmarts. They have 6900 miles on them

Decent tire, although I haven't tracked with it to find out what it can really do. Buuuut today I was checking out my tires and noticed things I didn't understand, so I beseech you all, FZ6R tire gods, to help me!

Stock tire picture of RoadSmart2 (similar tread pattern):Dunlop Roadsmart 2 Rear Tires - RevZilla

On my front tire, I noticed tiny cracks on the inside curves of the sipes sipes(?) that channel away water. There are no other cracks anywhere on the surface of the tire

My rear tire was obviously better worn, but the tread depth varies with position on the tire, so I dont know how much life it actually has left.

Here is a picture of my rear tire:http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/707/wp000036r.jpg

alternate link - MUST COPY + PASTE!

Not sure when my tires were actually manufactured - I know there is a code system for this. I just need to check what's on them.

 

[CrazyCawi]

need a better pic of YOUR tire...right now its broken

 

[JSP]

here you go...


This is his tire.

 

[JSP]

Looks like you are getting about due

 

[CrazyCawi]

Do you do alot of commuting? When your tire revolves it flattens out into a plane for a contact surface. Looks like you ran it with low pressure for a while as the contact area looks as wide as a Busa's rear tire.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Do you do alot of commuting? When your tire revolves it flattens out into a plane for a contact surface. Looks like you ran it with low pressure for a while as the contact area looks as wide as a Busa's rear tire.

pressure is ok. i do a lot of commuting - where i live it's mostly highways with only a handful of back roads (and to get to the back roads you need to hit the highways)

so i'm not terribly surprised by the flatness.

 

[CrazyCawi]

pressure is ok. i do a lot of commuting - where i live it's mostly highways with only a handful of back roads (and to get to the back roads you need to hit the highways)

so i'm not terribly surprised by the flatness.

yeah, thats why you have the goofy points of wear...the bike tire flattens out when on a straight line. so essentially when that area gets to flat it affects the tires contact patch and makes it considerably smaller hence a safety risk

 

[Fenixgoon]

yeah, thats why you have the goofy points of wear...the bike tire flattens out when on a straight line. so essentially when that area gets to flat it affects the tires contact patch and makes it considerably smaller hence a safety risk

ah gotcha. appreciate the tips! new tires will be on the way, and i may as well swap out the brake pads too (i think my fronts are getting a little low).

 

[DragonBlu]

The raised section that is flush I assume you know is the tread wear bar. When that is flush you need to replace. They will run a few more miles but it is not recommended. Do you have a good photo of the front one? Cracks are usually not a good thing on any tire. Looks like the wear is a little one sided. Be sure to check the rear alignment also.

 

[Chevyfazer]

+1 with the tire flattening out, completely normal. But to add to the wired wear that you might be noticing in the same grove but on different areas of the tire, for one every manufacturing process has flaws and tires are no exception. tire tread depths can very slightly from grove to grove, plus even the slightest bit the tire is off balance one side will wear slightly different from the other, and as the tire life gets toward the end this becomes more noticeable, even if you can't feel any vibrations from it being off balance.

 

[KeysRider3]

It also looks like the tire/wheel is out of alignment.

 

[6R Blackout]

My rear tire only has 5600 miles or so and it looks worse than that, I am well into the indicator between the grips. I dont do burn outs, I do do alot of straight highway miles and when I checked the pressure a few days ago it was about 3lbs low!

DO I NEED A NEW REAR TIRE ALREADY??

I thought I could get 8-10k miles out of them?? Maybe??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Casey (aka) Hunter77!

 

[RoadTrip]

I really pushed my last rear tire (BT-016), got 2500 miles! Tread was completely gone in the center, so I pushed it pretty far.

I was getting about 4000 out of a rear RoadSmart when I had the FZ6R, I think my high wear rate is due to I almost exclusively ride back farm roads that are like cheese graters (nasty chip seal).