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I inserted this into another thread and it was pretty much ignored, so now that I've got some more info, I'll post it in its own thread.
Any of you see this on a Dunlop? Dealership took pics, but said it must have rubbed on the inside of the fender. I said those slices don't line up like it hit the inside of the fender. I was thinking its the dual compound rubber separating.
So today, the service manager called me and said that Harley is replacing my tire free of charge. Since I brought the wheel into them last time, I gotta remove the wheel myself, but they're gonna give me a new tire. That's great. However, what they wouldn't do is tell the service rider what they thought was wrong with the tire. Which gives me no confidence what so ever. So now, I gotta put this new tire back on and hope this doesn't happen again.
Well, I looked in the fender and it doesn't appear that the tire is rubbing anything...until I started measuring out the spaces between the slices and some of the wires, etc. under the fender. It appears that the two plastic wire loom clips that hold the tail light harness in place are just barely coming into contact with this tire when a bump or rough road causes us to bottom out. Since they are plastic, they move when the tire contacts them and causes the arced pattern.
So now, I have a problem with the wife and I riding two up. I have the stock air shocks from a 2014 RK. I assume there are better shocks. I know there are probably hundreds of threads on shocks. But most of these are going to boil down to personal preference.
So here's the question: Any of you solve a bottoming out problem with new shocks? If so, which shock worked?
I assume there is a cut end extending down from the wiring clip that is just touching the tire? That *might* do it. The cut is would be sharpish and stiff. Little odd that it only touches the latter half of each tread block.
A simple cure might be to trim the protruding portion of the clip. Might also be able to tighten the clip up.
Check sag at 2 up, probably need to increase your psi number for two up.
Can you "Smooth" the clip you speak of? (Long file, snips, etc.)
In another thread, I recently discussed my home made sag checker, and it indicated for my bike my psi for ideal sag worked out to be 15 psi solo, 40 psi riding 2 up.
I have also noticed with proper sag via correct psi, my legs and feet come down in the same position one up or two up, and my mirrors remain correctly adjusted riding solo or two up.
And, my passenger is very happy with it. We rode most of the day Monday, amazed at the difference.
Hope this helps, and saves your tire!
What kind of bike is this you are working on. And is the clips at the back of the fender. If so check the motor mounts. My motor was forward so my exhaust hit brake pedal, HD adjusted the motor mounts. So if is back to far maybe it can be adjusted.
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Tire Failure
