strange tire wear -- suspension settings

[FrancoisK]

The front and rear tires of my Mille R turned into a Tuono R wear out differently. After 2 days on the track, the front shows a normal shredded/bubbly pattern. But the rear shows only "wear". I have not seen such a front/rear difference riding my Falco in the past -- although on a different brand of tires.
Good grip, all in all, but not confidence inspiring is the best I could describe the feeling of the rear.
- Both tires are almost new Metzeler Sportec M1.
- Pressure was 31/30.
- Outside temp was hot, 100+ degrees
- Riding style is more "fluid" than "whack it"; level is "B" group... on a good day the slowest of the A group.
- I tried to increase rear preload to reduce squat under acceleration, up to the point where it just made the rear slide under power (that would be a bad thing for me...)
- Increasing rebound a touch made the bumps more bumpy, no other improvements.

Sure, I could get a different brand of tires, but why would it change the wear pattern?
What do you think? Is this a way of life riding straight handlebars (a first for me)? Rethink the suspensions settings?

[2ono]

Interestingly, I had the same wear pattern on a stock, non adjustable Honda Blackbird after 1 days track use, I was driving very hard and used all of the front tyre.

I was giving it the full gun out of the corners as well, yet nothing like the wear pattern on my Fireblade, heavy rear light front.

I put it down to overall weight.

Have to say that at no time did the Bird move. Go figure!

[tuono4]

Originally posted by FrancoisK
After 2 days on the track, the front shows a normal shredded/bubbly pattern. But the rear shows only "wear".

shredded/bubbly pattern is not 'normal'. Looks good as it shows you can ride hard but you should have quite smooth wear when the bike is set up well. Different track surfaces also affect tyres in different ways.
The bubbling is telling you the tyre is ripping itself apart as it is not warm enough. Perhaps try lowering front pressure a little and you should get more even wear so it looks like the rear.

[FrancoisK]

Thanks for the info.
In various forum discussions, there is a lot about tire pressure for various brands... but what about temperature? What is a target range for common brands? Is the measurement done right between the center threads?
Just curious...

[SDTuono]

Originally posted by FrancoisK
Thanks for the info.
In various forum discussions, there is a lot about tire pressure for various brands... but what about temperature? What is a target range for common brands? Is the measurement done right between the center threads?
Just curious...

My guess is you'll want to check tire temp in 3 places, left-center-right.

When I used to do the "roundy-round" stock car racing, we would check the tire temp in 3 or 5 places (depending on whether the tire was a stock street tire or a wide slick tire). With cars it will tell you what part of the tire is doing the most work and how the air pressure changes affect it.

For bikes, if you are on the track and you have more right turns than left turns, I would imagine that the right side will heat up more. Due to the size of the tires, I'm not sure how much they will cool down before you get off and check them though.

Any racers out there want to add to this? Now I'm curious and I may have to check mine just for grins and giggles

[Thunder fighter]

I am not an expert but I am not sure how usefull it will be checking on the sides of the tyre. I remember reading in an English magazine where they put sensors on a bike to read the temp while riding on the track and they were seeing the sides cool down by several degree's between corners.