I Have a 2010 fat bob with Dunlap ( I know not a fan either but that's what it came with ) that has an odd scalloping issue on the front tire. I know that some scalloping is /can be normal but it's the way it's doing that concerns me

looking at the front of the tire the tread should look like this

HH
HH
HH
HH

with each H representing a "tread"

now it looks like this

HU
UH
HU
UH
HU

with H representing normal tread and U representing scalloped tread.
Has anyone else experienced this? Know what could cause it?

 

Pictures worth a thousand words. .

That being said the Dunlop's on our bikes are prone to scalloping if tire pressure isn't monitored.

 

The front dunlop on my 09 fatbob did the same thing. I think it is common for that tire to develop that alternating cupped wear pattern. I replaced mine at 10K but probably should have replaced it long before that. I went with a Michelin Commander II which shows virtually no wear after 2K miles.

 

not great but hopefully you can see what i mean

 

This bike has just shy of 10 K not sure if this is the original tire or not though

 

The Dunlop on my Fat Bob did the same thing, probably just the way that tire wears.

 

Same problem on my 2012, replaced both front and back at 12k. Front looked exactly like your picture and the rear was evenly worn

 

Pretty normal for 10K of front tire wear. I'm guessing vibrations sends the front end into a bunch of mini-hops or micro-bounces resulting in a rhythm of slight and heavy pavement contacts. The result is the cupping you see.

 

Look at the bead line and the edge of the rim. I bet the tire was mounted off center like mine. That will cause the tire to scallop and also cause low speed Dyna wobble.
Bob

 

All of those fatbob tractor tread front tires wear exactly like that. I have had a few sets on mine and they all did just that so no worries - your not the only one. That is a signyour getting close to needing a new one and it will start to become noticeable at higher speeds. Normally I get between 12 to 13 k miles out of the front and maybe 10 k for the rear.