VERY odd tire wear pattern.

Ok

I recently replaced my avon storm st rear.
I was examining my avon storm st front yesterday, and felt a little cupping on one side. I filed it under things to investigate at home.
Ok today in the sun here is what I have

Clutch side of the tire. No cupping all the way around.
Throttle side of the tire. Cupping about half the way around the tire then a perfectly smooth tire.

What the hell is up with that?

I found a new one for 112.99 plus shipping. I am ordering in tomorrow. This is weird though. I have never seen a tire wear on 1/4 of its surface. Anybody? Ideas? General consensus of WTF Over?

wrightme43 said:

Ok

I recently replaced my avon storm st rear.
I was examining my avon storm st front yesterday, and felt a little cupping on one side. I filed it under things to investigate at home.
Ok today in the sun here is what I have

Clutch side of the tire. No cupping all the way around.
Throttle side of the tire. Cupping about half the way around the tire then a perfectly smooth tire.

What the hell is up with that?

I found a new one for 112.99 plus shipping. I am ordering in tomorrow. This is weird though. I have never seen a tire wear on 1/4 of its surface. Anybody? Ideas? General consensus of WTF Over?

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Sounds like your tire was not tracking straight. I had this happen on an older bike that had a bent swingarm. Since I am thinking your swingarm is not molested, that the tire was simply not adjusted properly after a chain adjustment/tire replacement. After installing the new tire, triple check to make sure the bike is tracking properly. Could also just be a bad tire.

Its tracking straight. I checked it. I dont know if its defective, just wierd. The tire has almost 7000 miles on it now. No problems noticed untill now. Its really wierd.

That's really strange. I'm going to toss some ideas out there, but I'm guessing. I've never heard of a tire wearing like that before.

Make sure the wheel is balanced properly.

Check out the wheel bearings for any roughness or looseness.

Check that your forks are tightly clamped in both the upper and lower tripleclamps.

With the front wheel removed, check that both forks have the same stiffness to them.

Fred

Check that your forks are tightly clamped in both the upper and lower tripleclamps.

With the front wheel removed, check that both forks have the same stiffness to them

Ok tire is balanced, and bearing ok.

These are to be checked.

Sounds like a balance issue

wrightme43 said:

Its tracking straight. I checked it. I dont know if its defective, just wierd. The tire has almost 7000 miles on it now. No problems noticed untill now. Its really wierd.

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HI Steve,

Without a picture it’s difficult to visualise what you mean as often US/UK terms differ.
I had two problems with odd front tyre wear (not on FZ6).

The first was down to lack of basic maintenance of a pool bike when I was a courier. I know this will certainly not be the case with you. I only mention it to rule it out.
We failed to maintain my front brake callipers. Under heavy braking it used to pull and caused a strange scrubbing on the tyre.

The second was on my ER-5. I dropped it and twisted one of the forks stanchions. It also used to cause a very subtle weave at 70+mph. The wear was also more significant on softer compound tyres.

Nelly

Ok three photos of no problems.

And then craziness.

In my mind balance would effect a tire equally across the the tread pattern, not in 1/4 of the tire.

Its a very odd wear pattern. I have always been very obbsessive about tires. I examine the hell out of them, mine and everyone around me. I set up a program that saved thousands of dollars for a trucking company I worked for, moving quality steers thru to retread drives, thru to retread trailers. Instead of buying junk and then spending triple on lost time and tires being replaced on the side of the road.

Air pressure is meticulous with a quality gauge.

This is really very odd. Its just starting but I have never seen cupping get better.

wrightme43 said:

In my mind balance would effect a tire equally across the the tread pattern, not in 1/4 of the tire.

Its a very odd wear pattern. I have always been very obbsessive about tires. I examine the hell out of them, mine and everyone around me. I set up a program that saved thousands of dollars for a trucking company I worked for, moving quality steers thru to retread drives, thru to retread trailers. Instead of buying junk and then spending triple on lost time and tires being replaced on the side of the road.

Air pressure is meticulous with a quality gauge.

This is really very odd. Its just starting but I have never seen cupping get better.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the pictures Steve. It is odd. You havent been doing loads of miles or hard riding in a circle practicing getting your knee down have you?
Have you checked with avon to see if there have been any batch wear problems?
Are the tyres a much softer compound than your previous tyres? Could this be a normal scrub in pattern for this tyre? How many miles are on them? In the UK we have more right hand bends than left hand bends (roundabouts)?

Nelly

Nelly

I do give it hell in parking lots but always figure 8s so I dont get dizzy.

We do have more rights here.

If it was cupping all the way around on one side I would understand. Thats whats so wierd to me.

ok, the pictures give a better clarity. That looks like the rubber was never completely vulcanized. It almost seems like those are "soft spots" that never fully cured, and now you have worn the tire down to them. Getting a bad tire nowadays is pretty rare, but it does happen. As the rest of the tire looks fine, I doubt it was anything you or your bike did.

Nothing new to add, but didn't you have a defective front tire on your first set of storms?

shaggystyle said:

Nothing new to add, but didn't you have a defective front tire on your first set of storms?

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Yes Yes I did.

the rear only lasted 6xxx miles as well. I give the tires hell, but for what they are supposed to be, I would be better off with pilot roads or Z6 tires.

I really like Avon too. I will be ordering a new front since I just put the rear on there, but when they wear out, I may have to go to another brand.

I will contact Avon again. I still have the guys number and name. I want to let them know, and see what they say. I hate to give a bad review but as it stands today, I cant reccomend anyone buy this tire now.

That is based only on my experince since others on the web have had great service from them.




Something weird is going on with them though.

Could the wheel be bent?

That would explain the only a portion of the tire wearing oddly.

I guess at lateral run out test would tell.

wrightme43 said:

Could the wheel be bent?

That would explain the only a portion of the tire wearing oddly.

I guess at lateral run out test would tell.

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To wear like that the wheel would be very out of round. You could see it with a naked eye. I still think you got a bum tire.

Justin

My hubby ran Avon tires on his Valkyrie several years ago and after second front tire had to be replaced for cupping with less than 4000mi on it we quit buying the Avons. His tires also only cupped on one side we attributed it to the small 'valley' in the driving lanes as he usually rode alone or as lead when we went out. I also told him he sat crooked in his seat and always had appearance to me of a slight lean but he told me he was sitting straight and I shouldn't be checkin out his butt while riding!!!! lol..... He put another brand tire on and never had another problem with cupping.

MarineMom said:

My hubby ran Avon tires on his Valkyrie several years ago and after second front tire had to be replaced for cupping with less than 4000mi on it we quit buying the Avons. His tires also only cupped on one side we attributed it to the small 'valley' in the driving lanes as he usually rode alone or as lead when we went out. I also told him he sat crooked in his seat and always had appearance to me of a slight lean but he told me he was sitting straight and I shouldn't be checkin out his butt while riding!!!! lol..... He put another brand tire on and never had another problem with cupping.

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Well there you go. Thank you very much.

Welcome to the site as well. Glad your here.

Well there are other reports of this on the web. I guess no matter how good the super venoms were, these Storms just dont do the trick. If I hadnt just bought a new rear, I would swap to another brand, but I did, so I have to wear it out.

Ordering a new one. Maybe they have it fixed now? Who knows.

I will be linking this thread to the Tires that fit and reviews section. Along with any response I get from Avon.