I changed over to a Metzler ME880 a while back, and that sucker will be lucky to give me 8K before PI need to change it. Got back from a quick 20 mile ride and took an IR picture of the 240. I'm a bit surprised at the results - cooler on the ridge and hot in 2 side bands. I'm guessing this has to do with construction of the belts. I've included a shot of the front OEM tire for comparison. I have a set of Dunlop Elite 3's as replacements (a 250 for the rear).

 

What tire pressure are you running? I was lucky to get 4k miles out of an 880, but I have weird tire circumstances...

 

I run between 30 and 35 lbs. in the rear tire.

 

I would be curious to see the same picture with the pressure at 38-40, or even the 42PSI that is spec.

 

I still have my stock tire on the front and a Dunlop Elite 3 250 on the rear, that replaced the stock one at 8250 miles. After reading what pressure some had, I started using 30 on the front and 35 in the rear. I'd like to take an IR picture too, now that I've seen this.

 

Nice pictures! That really tells the story of how MC tires actually wear under normal conditions.

I've been changing bike tires for over 12 years now, for my own bikes as well as dozens of others' bikes since. The brightest orange areas in your photos are nearly always the most worn areas of any tire that sees typical street/highway riding.

Just to the sides of the center on the rear, and a little center/left bias on the front. Crowned roads, riding on the right side of the road and round-profile tires that flex to a flat contact patch on every revolution are the combination in play.

Folks who ride on the track (or on windy public roads at the same pace) will typically have the sides worn down significantly more than normal.

Thanks for the visual!

Shane

 

I brought the pressure up to 40 lbs, and took a 16 mile ride around the local lake and here are the pictures with temp. Why the temps are off must be due to the measurement area being wider than the pattern.

 

Less contact area in the middle due to higher pressure. I plan on keeping my rear tire in the low 30s. Handles just fine and wears well.

 

I take it you mean't lower pressure. It looks like the bands got a bit closer together as the pressure went up, which is what I'd expect. At 50 lbs. they pretty much should merge together. Like you, I like to keep the pressure in the 30's, especially in Winter.

 

This looks like slightly under inflated, even at 40 from the heat pattern.

As for getting the actual temperatures, your machine is giving you an average temperature based on the settings in the machine. If it is set for say 6 degree angle of cone, everything inside that cone is measured and the average of that taken.

Interesting that it does look like the two warmer streaks are closer together at 40 psi as you would expect. But I would expect the temperature to be fully even at 40.

I use normal non imaging thermal guns all the time at work, and my guns all have an 8 degree cone, which makes it important to get up close to what you are measuring.