Avon Venom tire wear questions?

[Old Miner]

Hi there.

Having noticed threads on the forum for both First and Second Gen. With regards to uneven front tyre wear. Something which I found on one front tyre myself recently.

 

I was surfing the interweb and came across the following article about the subject.

 

http://www.rattlebars.com/tirewear/index.html

 

It is a bit heavy going but I think there is information of use in there..........

 

All the best.

Neil. (Old Miner)

[eagleeye]

Neil,

 

Thanks for a very interesting article.

Steve

[V7Goose]

This is an interesting old thread, and I post this reply only to close the questions for someone who is looking at the whole thing and trying to analyze the problem.

 

I maintained from the beginning that this was grossly abnormal wear, but I could not tell why. I speculated that the most likely cause was fork or frame damage. But the actual cause is very evident in pictures 5 and 6 of the original post!

 

Picture 5 of 7 shows the left sidewall. In this picture, the tire looks under-inflated, but that could easily be an artifact of the camera. However, if you look closely at the part of the tire right against the rim, you will see nothing but smooth rubber; this shows the tire is NOT BEADED UP CORRECTLY ON THAT SIDE! In contrast, picture 6 of 7 shows the right sidewall, and here you can see the normal ridge on the tire that is specifically molded into almost all tires to allow you to see that the bead has fully seated and is evenly seated all the way around. Maybe that ridge is just hidden by the light in picture 5, but I don't think so.

 

So the bottom line is that the left side of the tire, at least at the point of that photo, was tucked further into the rim than the right side. This would dramatically change the curvature of that side of the tire, and thus have a big affect on the lean angle and wear points for left hand turns. It probably also affected the contact patch on even straight ahead riding. Wish I had noticed this back when the OP was looking for help, then he could have verified for us if it was a beading problem or just a trick of photography.

Goose

 

BTW - an improperly beaded tire is actually pretty common, maybe not all the way around, but at least at some point along the rim. Folks who have had me help them change tires have seen how much effort we sometimes have to use to finally get the whole bead seated correctly. I strongly urge EVERYONE to carefully inspect the bead ridge on every new tire they have mounted!

Edited November 10, 2011 by V7Goose

[hydraulicman]

I did not see anyone ask about front fork air pressure. I run "0" in my forks and can tell in about 2 miles if the pressure has built. What I notice is that the bike tries to pull one way or the other. If I stop and release the air pressue that has built up, the bike goes back to normal handling. My thought is if the air pressue is not the same, would it not cause the front wheel to tilt as in a turn?

[JerryK]

I've used Metzler 880'S and 4 sets of Avon Venoms and get the best ride,handling and wear from the Venom's.........16-17K on rear 18-22k on front with 43lbs. rear and 40lbs. front....Best tire I have ever owned.....JK

[Bobby G]

Easy fix - - if you really believe that the crown in the road is affecting tire wear, start alternating which lane you ride in by the hour, day, week or month. Get your front end checked out for possible mis-alignment or fork damage that might be so slight as to not be readily seen. And finally, put some really good tires on that puppy - - Metzler 880's! (Rut row, now I've done it - - let the ME880 bashing begin!) LOL!

 

[99silver]

Could it have had a sidecar attatched at one time before you purchased the bike ?