I noticed that while the chicken strips on my front tire are gone, my rear tire still has 1/4in strips on it. I attribute this to the previous owner of my bike lowering the front end from stock geometry (looks like quite a bit). Is this a correct assumption? I'm also nervous about the front end washing out on me so I want to raise the front to something closer to stock. Anyone know what the stock fork height is on a 2001 m600? That is, how much fork leg is showing above the triple?
fork height should not have any effect on front tire wear. chances are the rear tire has simply been replaced more recently than the front tire.
as for what the stock height is, I dont think there is a spec, at least I've never seen one. But I would assume it to be somewhere around 3mm-10mm of fork tube protruding from the top triple clamp.
Hey Joe - I can check my 900 shop manual when I get home for ya. I'm pretty sure there's numbers in there.
Wasn't looking at the track - but are your front and rear tires the same make/model? if not, that could explain the wear.
Tires are the same model Metzlers and were replaced at the same time, brand new. I read somewhere that the front strips are usually harder to wear down than the back, which is the opposite of what's hapening on my bike, hence the concern.
Yeah you'll see wider strips on the front usually. Been that way on all my bikes and any other I've taken note of. Some guys who can really snap their bikes down initially can get them worn even-ish from front to back or doing deep swoopy slaloms. But generally the back sees more lean than the front due to the geometry of counter streeting.
You get any instability - especially at high speed?
Did you check the tire pressures? Not sure if this can affect it unless you're really really off, but it's worth checking anyway.
Good notion. Too low a pressure would flatten out the tire profile and could change how it hits the road. How'd it look after the track day.
Should look like a 'sandy beach' if you had big tears that's an indicator
Look at the right most tire in this image. Left side of it is sandy beach (ish looks a little rough). Right side/outer edge is hot tears from under inflation.
(http://2wheeltuesday.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/tire-wear.jpg)
I was running 30 psi in both tires and I'm not a heavy dude. After the track, it looked mildly sandy on both rear and front, but I wasn't pushing it that hard.
Anyways, I found this discussion on another board that says riding style might also have something to do with it: http://www.1000rr.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-85380.html (http://www.1000rr.net/forums/archive/index.php/t-85380.html)
I quote:
"as far as chicken strips go.. heres what they tell you:
rear strips is how far the bike has been leaned over.
front strips is how fast the bike has gone leaned over.
in otherwords, someone who isnt afraid to turn tightly in a parkinglot will wear the rear out to the edge.. but the front will not be on the edge.
a racer who is at full lean angle at high speed will scrub the front all the way out to the edge.. but depending on the tightness of the corner the rear edge of the tire may not be worn.... also if its a low power bike that you dont throttle steer out of corners, it will not wear the back edges as much."
That last bit about a low power bike sounds like me. Thinking I can get a little more throttle-happy next time!
Moss has this to say:
Front tire 'chicken strips' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BQdpV8BmFA#)
BK
I was using more front tire than rear (on the street) and was concerned, so I posted up back in the days of the old board. Too long ago for many of you young whippersnappers, but many will remember good old Herb. He said it might be from chopping the throttle entering corners. I realized Herb was correct. I was in the habit of being too close to the rear of cars, particularly on on/off ramps. Often the car in front would brake mid apex. What do you do? Scrub off speed. How do you prevent this? Enter at a slower speed with greater distance behind the car in front of you. Now you can add throttle through the turn.
Ah Herm...
Hmmm interesting could be rider style for sure - introspection is needed. Thoughts on insufficient compression damping Howie? Maybe there's a little combo of chopping the throttle and not enough compression damping allowing the front to come down too far much of the time?
Insufficient damping sure wouldn't help matters, but not an issue in my case.
Just speculating on avenues for Joe to follow