Cupping tires
#1
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: in a cave at the foothills
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Cupping tires
Are for rookies. Freaking period. Tired of people complaining about this or that brand of tire cupping. Just comes down to maintenance, straight out and nothing else unless a bike is totally FUBAR.
Flame suit is on and I have thick skin. Agree or disagree I don't care. Just venting after reading about tires being bad or prone to cupping. Rookies.....
Flame suit is on and I have thick skin. Agree or disagree I don't care. Just venting after reading about tires being bad or prone to cupping. Rookies.....
#3
#4
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Pine Flat Dam/South Bay Area, CA
Posts: 11,507
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#6
You wont see 'em on any bike I own. No sir, not ever. As a matter of fact I take a nail clipper and snip them off as soon as I get the bike home.
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SPRINGER (07-10-2019)
#7
Ok I will bite here...not a rookie, 100k on the same bike, I am pretty good about checking my pressures at every or every other ride and they stay very consistent... tried different pressure on different and same tires and I have found that different tires wear way differently than others, If they cup a bit it’s usually after the 50% of wear. I found also that when I spent more time in the mountains it was a mix of outcomes as well...
bottom line ,I drive mostly on bad chip n seal roads like a old man and I love to take off like a young guy throttle Happy...
When my tire is bad enough to get replaced, I do just that.
the little rumbling noise that the tires makes when past 50% wear is covered up by my music.
As long as it’s stillsafe, I usually ignore it for a while.
I hate chicken strips, it means I haven’t been to the mountains enough yet on that tire...
Angle grinders take the strips off pretty well if you want to look good around the squids.
bottom line ,I drive mostly on bad chip n seal roads like a old man and I love to take off like a young guy throttle Happy...
When my tire is bad enough to get replaced, I do just that.
the little rumbling noise that the tires makes when past 50% wear is covered up by my music.
As long as it’s stillsafe, I usually ignore it for a while.
I hate chicken strips, it means I haven’t been to the mountains enough yet on that tire...
Angle grinders take the strips off pretty well if you want to look good around the squids.
Last edited by Notgrownup; 07-10-2019 at 07:04 AM.
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#8
Are for rookies. Freaking period. Tired of people complaining about this or that brand of tire cupping. Just comes down to maintenance, straight out and nothing else unless a bike is totally FUBAR.
Flame suit is on and I have thick skin. Agree or disagree I don't care. Just venting after reading about tires being bad or prone to cupping. Rookies.....
Flame suit is on and I have thick skin. Agree or disagree I don't care. Just venting after reading about tires being bad or prone to cupping. Rookies.....
Other than checking air pressure what maintenance do you do? How does being a"rookie" cause a tire to cup? Explain it to me old wise one...
I had a Harley branded Dunlop quite a few years back that was recalled for cupping....the rotation arrow on the sidewall was backwards...
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QNman (07-10-2019)
#9
Tire wear explained:
http://www.rattlebars.com/tirewear/
http://www.rattlebars.com/tirewear/
Cupping, which is more accurately described as scalloping (see pictures, but we will use the more common term "cupping" here), is a natural wear pattern on motorcycle tires and it will always follow the tread pattern. It is not a sign that you have bad suspension parts. It merely shows that your tire is indeed gripping the road when you make turns (thank you for that Mr. Tire!). This cupping develops within the side wear bands of a leaned motorcycle. The extreme forces that come in to play when the bike is leaned in a turn are what produce the effect and when the wear becomes sufficient, one will experience vibration and noise when one banks into a turn. Upon examination of the pictures at left of our sample rear Avon, our dusted front VTX Dunlop D256, and the picture of our chalked Dunlop D206 one can see how the cupping follows the tread pattern. The leading edge of the tread does not flex much as it grips the road and the rubber is scuffed off the tire in that area causing a depression. As the tire rotates, the pressure moves to the trailing edge of the tread pattern where the tread flexes more causing less scuffing so less material is ground off the tire. The more complex the tread pattern, the more complex the cupping pattern will be. The softer the compound of the tire, the sooner this cupping will develop. Radial tires are more prone to cupping than are bias ply because the compound of radials is softer. As one can see, the simple tread pattern of the Avon pictured produces a simpler scallop pattern while the more complex VTX D256 Dunlop is somewhat involved, though still easily seen in our photo. Cupping on the Valkyrie Dunlop D206 is very hard to photograph because of the complex tread pattern. Low tire pressure will exacerbate this wear pattern and you will lose many serviceable miles by running low. Improper balance has nothing to do with cupping on a motorcycle tire. Improper balance will merely cause your bike to vibrate within certain specific speed ranges.
Thanks for the article!
#10
There's not too many curvy roads around here, I end up with chicken strips just riding to the mountains and canyons. The factory Dunlop on my 13 Classic was well maintained and was always within a pound of the recommended pressure and it had cupped pretty good. Both sets of Dunlop American Elite I had on after were maintained at 2 psi under max and only got slight cupping but they were pretty much worn out by that time. Not sure where I got this tip but it seems to work for me. I always run max tire pressure when loaded and touring. I notice Harley is recommending a higher tire pressure on the rear of my new 19 Limited than the 13 required, which is closer to the 2 psi under max someone recommended to me a few years ago.