Asymmetrical front tire wear

[Mighty Mouse]

As far as tire wear it could be where you ride. Most all freeways are slightly slanted usually from the fast lane to lane by lane up to the right shoulder. That could be 6 to 8 lanes in LA freeways. Some freeways have drainage in the center divider and some have rain flow drainage under the freeway but all roadways are slanted for runoff water. I guess the angle of the slant could vary from the amount of lanes. Most all surface streets in town and cities are also slight angled for water flow.

 

[Jagster]

 

[Journeyman]

This uneven wear on front tires has always been a bit of a mystery, never have I found a definitive reason for it. Eka, how does that stack up for those of us that ride on the left? It doesn't.

Couple of absolutes to bare in mind while considering this issue:
1) a tire spinning in mid air won't wear down the tread
2) tread only wears when a tire is spinning and in contact with a surface
3) load on the tire whilst in contact with a surface will affect wear, greater load = greater wear

The question is how do we spend much more time on the right (to cause accelerated wear on the right side of the tire) than the left?

For those of us that ride / drive on the Left, you can make the argument that our right turns at intersections are longer, 3 times longer actually than a left turn (because they are) and that our right hand corners on the open road allow better visibility throughout the turn than a left hand one does, hence we could assume because of the better visibility we tend to take the right hand corners faster - faster = more load and lean which = more wear on that side.

All this 'sounds' reasonable until you go to a country that rides / drives on the right lane, these countries should therefore have greater wear on the left, but they dont! They have the same wear on the right, so all the above (except the first 3 points) goes out the window.

I've also read that it's the road camber that does it, nope, the camber if the road is insufficient to cause this issue & why don't cars get it then? & why is it not opposite for right hand drive countries? Actually I'd like to hear from someone who lives in Germany and rides the Autobahn, do they also get the accelerated wear on the right?

Maybe it's voodoo built into the bikes by the manufacturer to drive us all crazy . . .

Great question- yet to be answered. I would have thought you guys had wear disproportionately on the left side. Your left turns are generally sharper, but for us it's the right turns. You're throwing off our theory