tire wear question

I have an 85 1100 Shadow that has peculiar (at least to me) wear on the front
tire. It is worn down to zero tread on side of the tire. The opposite side has
full tread. By one side I mean if you are sitting one the bike and looking
forward and then down at the tire the left side is worn down. Any thoughts? Its
like your car is when its out of alignment. TIA

 

Thanks...I'll check that out.

 

My front tire did this last year when I neglected to check the air pressure.
When I finally did I was 10+ PSI low.

 

No, it is NOT like your car when it's out of alignment. It's like your
car when you try to take corners without slowing down and the outside
edge of the tire wears because it's loaded heavier than the inside
edge.

It's a NORMAL wear pattern on a motorcycle's front tire, if you're
riding in a country where you have to keep right. You go around left
turns a lot faster, and you ride on crowned roads, so the tire wears
more on the left side.

You slow down to a crawl to go around right hand turns, so the right
side tread doesn't wear much.

The left side wear is exaggerated if the machine has a lot of rake and
trail.

If you habitually ride with underinflated tires, the left side wear
will exhibit scalloping in a regular pattern all the way around the
tread circumference.

Some tires with deep water channels will scallop much worse than others
because the tread blocks move around in relation to the road surface as
each tread block contacts the pavement.

 

Thanks for the info...makes sense to me.