TKC-80 Front Tire Wear

I am on my 8th set of TKC-80's. on my BMW F-800GS My front tire wear seems funny - the two knobs on each side of the center knob always wears out first - leaving me with plenty of meat on the center knob. What causes this? The center knob looks like I still got a good 3000 miles left - but I hesitate to take off on a long trip with the two outside knobs worn down - they are not cupping - just normal wear. Any of you guys have simliar experience with the TKC80's? The rear tire wears normal - it's just the front tire wear that is weird.

TheCowboy

I get the same pattern on mine, -KLR 650-. I was hoping for a 2-1 (2 rears to 1 front) deal with the front, but there wasn't enough "two knob" tread to flip the tire.

what pressure(s) do you run routinely ? do you air way down ?


I've had sawblade wear on the front Karoo T on my V-strom(33psi), ran higher pressure(36psi), didn't happen so severely, ran even higher pressure(38psi) and it went way

I've seen that happen too... I think it is from running low pressure. I never really worried about it...

I have never aired down (on purpose anyway), pressure is around 32 psi. The same tire wear is the OP.

Heat induced gyroscopic centrifugal forces causing outside two or every other center knob to wear. Should happen every time. Better than chunking knobs. The energy has to dissipate somewhere. Meta-physics of the algorithmic cross sectional tread design. Its a rubber thing.

It means: you've been riding! No worries.

HF

And or......you need to pack lighter.

HF

I'll run 40 psi for a while (on pave) and see what happens. I run 45 psi on the rear and I get 6000 miles between changes - when I was running 25 in the rear I only got 1500 miles out of a rear tire... air pressure makes a huge difference. Of course riding on dirt/gravel requires an air pressure adjustment - we all know that.

TheCowboy

I just changed out a front TKC yesterday with about 16,000 km on it, mix of dirt and pavement, run at 32psi for the whole distance. Still had a fair bit of tread on it, surprisingly, but the every-second-knob wear had reduced them to wedges, from braking hard on pavement, I suppose. Trying a K60 now, just for fun.

I run mine at 40 psi. At 7k miles now and still rocking. :eek1

40 in the front? :huh

Does it go boioioing when you hit a rock?

I air down off road. Somewhere around 25psi.

+1

I've pulled 5-7,000 out of a rear TKC running 42 PSI in it. With that same rear I ran 38 PSI in the front TKC... it had lots of tread left even at 6,000 miles. Weird cupping going on though.

All of the TKC have cupped on the front. I typically run the tires in the low thirties most of the time, so pressure may not matter.

When I see it, I flip the tire on the rim and the wear evens. From that point on it usually does not come back.

I doubt a dealer will do that for you, for fear you will crash and burn and he will get sued.

This is a common thing with "tready" dirt bike tires.

Both my old 950 Adventure or XR650R both wore out the side treads first, and now my Caponord with TKC-80s.

When the tire rolls the center tread has a smaller surface area and just gets pushed into the tire. Where as the side treads as a team have a greater surface area and take the load of the weight.

If you air up the the tire too much then you will not have as much surface area contacting the ground, the tire will wander and it wont be good.

Have fun!

Ok...it was just a joke, of course. But I still think he needs to pack lighter. Heck, we all do for that matter. And get on the treadmill too.

HF

p.s. I believe in maximizing tire contact surface area at all times, within reason. Over inflating can definitely reduce contact area. Again, dependent upon your personal "treadmill rating" or lack thereof. Just sayin.

Be careful, don't willingly forefeit good traction.

I'm headed out on a 3000 mile trip at the end of this week and I don't want any issues so I just put a new TKC80 on the front and rear - I'll run 38psi in the front like the Griz - but I'll run 45 in the rear - I got almost 7000 miles out of the last one running 45psi - and it looked like she might go another 500 or so with no issues. My trip is almost all Pave - if I go offroad of course I'll adjust pressures...

You might ask "why TKC80's if most of your ride is on Pave?" Cause they look bitchin... that's why

TheCowboy

I've run 2 TKC-80s and both of them had the side by side middle blocks run down to nothing somewhere between 6-8000 miles. They have plenty of blocks everywhere else and I don't see any performance degredation so I just keep on going on them. The first set I wanted to get two rear TKC's out of the deal and now this time I have a Tourance on the rear so I'm pushing them both to 9-10k miles before I swap them out for something else (probably the K60's since everyone loves them so much it seems).

This isn't the best picture but if you look closely you can see the one on the bike has worn through the "pair" and the single block is still nice and tall.




I thought I'd take a couple more pictures since I'm on my next set of shoes and the front is also about at this same point as the one above. Hopefully these give a better view of what happens.

Hey inmates,

So the original front TKC 80, which came on my used 2010, is cupping at 3,000 miles. Noticeable front end steering vibration. In addition to uneven wear of outer knobs.

Keep riding them?? Should I grind knobs or try cutting the bubble? How will tire behave for rest of life? Should I keep riding them? Does the vibration get worse? Just not sure when to pull them off. Hate to scrap a tire with only 3K miles.

My first TKC 80. So, I don't know how the tire will behave.

Some photos of what few of the outer knobs look like:
IMG_5090 by Kam A, on Flickr

Almost looks like blister / bubble on forward side of knobs. The knobs get less wear on forward leading edge.
IMG_5093 by Kam A, on Flickr