EVER WONDER WHY THE LEFT SIDE OF YOUR FRONT TIRE WEARS FASTER THAN THE RIGHT? I USED TO ALSO. I NOTICED THAT THE LEFT SIDE OF MY FRON TIRE ALWAYS USED TO WEAR MORE THAN THE RIGHT. ID THINK WHEEL ALIGNMENT AND SUSPENSION WERE OFF (WHICH CAN ALSO CAUSE THIS) BUT I KEEP MY BIKE IN GOOD SHAPE SO I LOOKED INTO IT.

THE CROWN IN THE ROAD DOES NOT PLAY A FACTOR, IF IT DOES, THEN ITS VERY LITTLE. BY CROWN I MEAN HOW THE ROAD IS SLOPED FROM THE MIDDLE TO THE SHOULDER. TYPICALLY DROPPING 1 INCH EVERY FOOT OR SO. WHEN YOU RIDE ON THE ROAD AND YOU GET INTO A LEFT BEND YOU ACTUALLY ARE GOING FASTER AROUND THAT BEND THAN IF YOU WERE TAKING A RIGHT. ON THE ROAD YOUR TIRE WILL TRAVEL FASTER AND A FARTHER DISTANCE BECAUSE YOU ARE TRAVELING THE OUTSIDE RADIUS OF THE TURN AS OPPOSED TO THE INSIDE OF A RIGHT TURN WHICH IS A SHORTER DISTANCE FOR THE WHEEL TO TRAVEL. SO IN ACTUALITY THE LEFT SIDE OF YOUR TIRE WILL HAVE MORE MILAGE THAN THE RIGHT. IN SOME CASES 2X MORE. IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ITS THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE TIRE CAUSE THEY DRIVE ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE ROAD. SO THERE IT IS FOLKS, ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS, ASIDE FROM LOW TIRE PRESSURE AND SUSPENSION/ALIGNMENT. JUST THOUGHT ID SHARE THAT LITTLE PIECE OF INFO. MAKES SENSE IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT

 

Wild

 

Most people feel more comfortable turning one direction than the other. Might that be a factor too?

 

not really...cause the distance from point a to point b on a road is greater on the outside lane than it is in the inside lane. and since we ride on the right side of the road here in the US all our left turns are taken on the outside lane and our rights are taken on the inside.

 

Unless you are on a freeway(divided highway)and the road is crowned and you run in the fast lane....

 

nope...you can't beat it bro. no matter what lane your in.
cause when your coming in the opposite direction on the same freeway the turn is still longer or shorter than the other side depending on which way your turning. there is no way around it.

 

If you are still not convinced that increased mileage is what causes one sided tire wear on the front tire of motorcycles, you'll have to come up with a theory that satisfies all of the evidentiary criteria. A) It will have to explain the fact that when riding upright, the tire's side wear bands do not contact the pavement (road crown, unbalanced/off center bike weight and even wheel misalignment won't work). B) It will have to reverse itself in countries where one rides on the left side of the road rather than the right (road crown still sounds plausible here but it was eliminated in "A" above).
In the case of right side driving countries like the USA, one does indeed ride farther on the left side of the tire than on the right side of the tire. At a simple single lane intersection that is common in most residential neighborhoods, negotiating a left turn will have you traveling TWICE the distance that you do making a right hand turn. That's at a simple single lane intersection. A double lane will have you making four times the distance. But even when you are confronted with nothing more than a left curving road, the radius of that left turner will be larger than if you were coming the other way on the same road making a right around that same curve. If you don't believe this, check out the How Stuff Works web site about your car's DIFFERENTIAL and why it's called a differential (your shaft driven two wheeled motorcycle does not have a differential, it has instead a "final drive" which drives only one wheel). Also note that Olympic runners start in different locations because the outside runners must run farther to the finish line. ((click for reason Click for pic)
Besides the fact that the left radius is larger which means you will probably go faster causing more stress on your tire than you would going the other way, there is more visibility when making lefts than rights which will add to your tendency to make the turn faster as well. Failure to negotiate a left turn will have you going off the the road onto the shoulder or into a ditch. Failure to negotiate a right turn will have you crossing into opposing traffic. Though neither scenario is appealing, there is a subliminal advantage to left turns (riding shoulders and ditches is better than crashing into trucks head on) and this will have you going a bit faster on lefties too.
The increased radius on left turns means more distance is traveled turning left than turning right on the average riding day. That is plane geometry and plainly undeniable. Because of the natural tendency to make left turns faster (admittedly this is subjective and open to debate, but is plausible for reasons given) there will be more stress placed on your tires as they travel that longer left distance. Increased left side tire wear is evident, though, on both the front and rear tires but because the front tire shows less evidence of flat band center wear (which disguises the side wear bands on the rear tire), side wear is more evident to the eye up front and leaves you to wonder, "Why does the left side† of my front tire wear out first?" Now you know.
† Of course, if you live in Singapore, you'll say, "Why does the RIGHT side of my front tire wear out first?" And now you know as well!

 

Great theory. But its based on the premise of unequal wear...which in 32 years of ridingI have not noticed.

 

im willing to bet that your tread wear indicators on the left side of your tire show first. or the tread depth is slightly shallower on the left side. with all due respect...I've been riding for 13 years and the past 6 years I put 2000 miles a month on my bikes ( I've had 5 in this time.) I live in hawaii so im riding year round, so I go through some tire changes. and I've noticed that since I need to change my fron tire soon they've all pretty much worn the same way. some worse than others. but I guess that differed bike to bike. I have a pretty windy 8 mile hill I gotta go up and down every day to get to the highway and after reading that article it all made sense.

 

I ve got seven bikes in the garage now and uneven tire wear is not an issue for any of them. Perhaps your barking up the wrong tree.
Like I said it is an interesting theory.
Are you experiencing uneven wear on the rear tire as well? You should be if your theory holds true...as it would experience similar loads once cornering was initiated.
Is anyone else experiencing this uneven wear?