Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

Note that this wear is not in the centre of the tyre but rather off to one side.

Im curious how old the tyre is, looks like it was long past its sell by date. My guess is the tyre has ripped due to fatigue of the rubber, but I'm no expert.

Me neither Max.

Indeed the tyre was tired before the trip and should have been replaced accordingly before leaving on a 3500km round trip.

It turned out the poor owner ended up spending a fortune in Graaf Reinet where the tyre was replaced. Yes the tyre was quite expensive but the bike shop had to make up tools to remove the front wheel, this was expensive.

Your answer could be partially correct regarding the "old" tyre.

Lets see what the others suggest.

Would be interesting to hear Andy's view - could it be that the bike was loaded in such a way that it was not balanced - that the weight was not evenly distributed on both sides of the bike?

Also a possible cause David.

Not the case in this instance.

I think the person that gets the answer right will have got the info from a tyre expert, I did!

Now....there is this VERY long bend in the road between Clarens and Graaff  - Reinet. So i have heard....going on for km's and km's. So n laaaaaaang slap draai......

My R0.05:

The tyre was worn before embarking on the trip and probably way below pressure, thus the shoulders of the tyre were bearing the load, not the centre.

Add to that a strong side wind for a long distance, resulting in assymetrical wear.

Add a pillion and luggage and you will quite possibly get this result.

I would side with Max on this one plus how about Under inflation causing temperature build up.

I'm obviously not an expert so I'll resort to the great substitute for research, guesswork!

- How about a "wrong-way-round" tyre?

@Hans: The bend isn't that long, but there is this huge cross-wind on this very long straight 

I've seen this sort of wear on a front tyre where the one shock was "softer"" than the other. Could this be the case.?

Great participation guys and great guesses and suggestions, thank you.

One of our members phoned me with the correct answer but I will not divulge it until he makes his posting. This same situation has happened to him twice already.

One of the postings also has the correct cause but with added info that was not the cause in this instance.

Or did the tyre go Wrong way down ?

Fortunately the rider did not go Wrong way down as well!

Scary to see a front tyre in such a state !!!

I would say under-inflated/slow puncture and sustained speed caused heat build-up, then remaining bit of thin rubber tread flew off. 

Why on one side . . . don't know. Sidewind? one shock defective? I would like to know

The wear was caused by riding for a prolonged period (long distance) with an extremely strong side wind.

John Gillespie has had this happen to him on two occasions but the tyre in this thread is not one of his.

Tyre pressure was not part of this specific problem but I guess the overall poor condition of the tyre could have been a contributing factor.

Okay, here it is. A while back a riding buddy and I planned a karoo all tar trip.

I fitted a new set of Road Pilot 3 tyres for this trip as my old ones had too much mileage on it to my liking. The first day we travelled from Cape Town to Calvinia and slept over at a place called African Dawn. What a beautiful place. Highly recommendable.

The second day saw us travelling from Calvinia to Williston to Carnarvon to De Aar. Quite a longish fairly straight road. On arrival at De Aar I noticed this "mysery" one side of the front tyre wear (both bikes). I could not believe my eyes as it was a brand new tyre. But then it was a brand new tyre no more!!!!

That evening we had a "mystery odd tyre wear" discussion and we tried to fathom out what was different that day. We came to the following conclusion:

Leaving Calvinia that morning we had a storm strong side wind hitting us from the right. We had that wind for most of our ride to De Aar. With the wind bashing us from the side you lean into the wind and ride at quite an angle. The natural reaction for the bike is to turn right, but being on a straight road I had to slightly turn the steering to the left. That cause the tyre to "drag" on the tar, therefor the odd wear. The left side of the tyre had no wear and the right side about half of the tread gone. And that in +- 450 kms!!!

Tyre pressures were as recommended: 2.5 front and 2.9 back (cold).

Experienced the same on another trip going thru Botswana.

Very interesting!

How would one counter such damage when riding in strong side-wind?

I would say sit off-centre on the saddle towards the wind  so that the bike runs upright.

I also found that the ride is more comfortable if you swing your knee far out towards the side that the wind comes from. (downside is a very chilly inside leg if the wind is cold!)

Next time I do this leg-swing move I will check if it makes the bike run more upright or not in side wind.

A point that may be important is how the bike was laden -- with or without pillion and/or large topbox. Reason is that the centre of force of the wind load from the side will be further forward (no pillion etc) or further back (with pillion etc), depending on the side area projected towards the wind. That in turn will dictate how the rider/bike compensates to keep straight. Cleary in the case above it was the front tyre that did all the hard work.

Interesting to note that both incidents as described by John an Geoff were with R1200RT bikes. We used GS bikes on our R66 trip in the USA with extreme cross winds over extended distances and ended up with still all good tyres. We started off with only 11 miles on the new tyres and after 6500 km, it were still in a condition to do a return trip. I cannot remember the brand of tyres we were supplied with on the bikes which were rentals. The bikes we have received only had 11 miles on the clock and brand new. Must have been BMW fitted/approved tyres as these bikes came directly from the harbour to the delivery point.

Jacques BOTHA

0825150092

Nothing wrong with the tyre. Abnormal tyre wear was caused by abnormal external forces. This means that changing the angle of the bike will only change the the position of the wear area. You have to minimize thnd external force to reduce the amount of abnormal wear. To minimize wind force you have to slow down as at 0 kph you will have no wear. Your speed will determine the amount of abnormal wear as this will reduce  the force of the wind. 

Other factors that comes into play would be the design of the bike. So a road bike and a GS and a Adventure would all be different. The size of the rider and the size of his balls and the weight of his luggage will play an imported role but that is not for me to speculate on.

Mike Voges Supa Quick Parow

Also worth mentioning is that these days, premium tyre manufacturers produce dual compound tyres, which are harder in the centre, for better lifespan of tyre, and softer on the shoulders, for improved grip. In theory, this also helps maintain a more rounded profile throught the life of the tyre.

In light of the above, it's quite easily  understandable how this tyre ended up like this.

Can we have the make of the tyre and possibly the km's done. Might help for the next buy.

Since I bought my bike with about 15 000 kms on the clock,have I only fitted Michelin Pilot Road 3/4GT tyres. They are duel compound tyres. The bike has now done over 100 000 kms and only in those two instances have I experienced the odd tyre wear. Both instances happened with very very strong side winds.

I will keep on fitting them in future as they are giving me good service with good mileage. The tyre mentioned in my tread above was changed after 19500 kms.

Hi John, What sort of distance was covered to destroy the tire to this extent, 10,0, 50,0 100,0 Kms?

Hi Rene. The photo in Geoffs' thread is not my bike tyre. Dont know who it belong to and also do not know the mileage. Sorry I could not help.

Hi Rene.

Johns letter says that tyre did +- 450 kilomoters. I have seem this before and as i said there was nothing wrong with the tyre. Any tyre will under the same circumstances do the same.

What's the chance that there might be a factory defect in the tyres? Track tyres with softer rubber won't look like that after 450km done under wot on track? Or am I wrong?