Uneven wear on Marathon Supremes. Rear wheel

[Matt2matt2002]

Is it camber induced?

Front wheel is fine.

These are the rear
Sorry - shade hides the wear a bit.



Another angle



I think I'll swap front and rear.

Both tyres have done 5,138+ miles

[mickeg]

You must spend a lot of time cornering, not much time in a straight line.  <Insert chuckle here.>  Were a lot of those miles running low pressure with a heavy load on the back?

In general terms I prefer to have my newest tire on the front, not rear.  My theory is if I have a blowout, if it is was on the front there is a greater danger of a crash.  And earlier this year I had a front tire go low on me while riding, I did not realize that it was going low until I cornered and had a big surprise when the bike started to handle very odd.  Thus, I am more inclined to move a front tire to the rear when i discard a rear and put a new one on the front.

[Danneaux]

Is it camber induced?

Most likely, coupled with the greater radius of turns to one side and the greater weight born on the rear thanks to weight distribution carrying a touring load. See:
http://www.allaboutbikes.com/motorcycle-news/general-news/2744-the-mystery-of-left-side-tire-wear-explained
In countries where one drives/rides on the left -- as in Sri Lanka where you toured last --  the explanation would be reversed  and so would the side of the tire with greater wear.

Note: When I finished a lengthy tour in America's Great Basin where I carried a heavy load on one of my bikes with 700C wheels, my rear tire was worn "square"  (flat rather than rounded in the middle). This was due to riding uncrowned roads mostly upright, aggravated by very heavy cargo (20l of water over the rear wheel in addition to my other kit).

All the best,

Danl.

[rualexander]

Weird.
Pretty sure they aren't Supremes though.

[mickeg]

...When I finished a lengthy tour in America's Great Basin where I carried a heavy load on one of my bikes with 700C wheels, my rear tire was worn "square"  (flat rather than rounded in the middle). ...

That was my experience too, I had reasonably new 37mm wide 700c tires on my Pacific Coast trip, front tire showed almost no wear but the rear tire showed more.  I could virtually see from the wear pattern on teh rear how much of the tire was in contact with the road.  Also, when I am carrying a load, I take corners quite slow, so there is virtually no wear on the sides of the tires.

[Matt2matt2002]

Weird.
Pretty sure they aren't Supremes though.

Just testing!

Well spotted
Marathon Plus
47-559
26 x 1.75
HS348

I've done 5,200 miles on them - maybe 1,000 touring with 2 rear panniers. Mostly tarmac.

Not bad? Anyone else run these for longer?

[IronMac]

What the?!   

I posted this same issue a couple of years ago with Marathon Supremes (or was it Plus...can't remember!). I had excessive wear on the left side of my rear tire but the road is UK style so the camber slopes more on the right. Tyre only did a few thousand kilometers.

Forum members were mystified as was I.

[Danneaux]

Hi Mac!

I remember....
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=8955.0

I'm slowly developing another thesis...

When coasting -- no matter how short a distance -- do you habitually stop pedaling with the same foot at the bottom of the stroke?

If so, it might not cause a shift in weight (same weight each side no matter the leg position in the pedal stroke), but it could shift your balance more to one side and I'm wondering if this could be enough to cause more wear on one side...maybe enough to offset road crown.

Another factor might be positioning on the saddle. If one leg is a bit shorter or if one's pelvis is a little less than symmetrical, it could result in sitting more heavily on one side of the saddle.

If touring, are your pannier loads distributed evenly side to side?

Do you make a lot of right turns? In the UK (or elsewhere when riding on the left), right turns are longer than left turns and so can cause more wear over time.

Also, I recall your bike was a Rohloff-equipped Bike Friday? If this is the same bike, it is possible the rear triangle is not exactly in plane with the rest of the bike. I have an unserialed prototype Bike Friday New World Tourist (the factory is in my town) hanging in my garage rafters. The pivot for its rear swingarm (used not for suspension but for folding) is misaligned vertically to one side so the wheels are slightly out of plane with each other, a bit like "X" when viewed from the rear, but so subtly off as to be unnoticeable when just eyeballing. A number of BF models have the downtube deliberately offset to one side to also facilitate folding. There's a lot going on near the bottom bracket connections and everything is a little "different" than on a conventional bike, so it takes careful measurement on an alignment table or surfaced reference to spot any problems. In my own experience, I've found smaller diameter wheels tolerate greater dropout misalignment than larger ones without causing obvious handling problem because the tangent from axle to rim is smaller.

Best,

Dan.

[Dave Whittle Thorn Workshop]

I've seen this loads with Marathon Plus tyres, my suspicions have always been that the compound is softer on the edges or that the blue strip somehow effects tyre wear.

[jags]

worst tyre ever made crap on wet tarmac heavy man are they heavy  and more than likely that stupid anti puncture strip is off center so you end up with a unbalanced  tyre .
other than that sure there a great tyre (not)

[martinf]

worst tyre ever made crap on wet tarmac heavy man are they heavy  and more than likely that stupid anti puncture strip is off center so you end up with a unbalanced  tyre .
other than that sure there a great tyre (not)

I don't like Marathon Plus very much, but a (near) puncture-proof tyre has its uses.

I have Marathon Plus on one visitor bike. The other visitor bike currently has Duremes, a much nicer, more expensive but still fairly puncture resistant tyre. Puncture resistant tyres are a big plus, because I don't want visitors taking the wheel out and messing up the hub gear alignment. The bikes are only used on short rides, so the harsher ride and greater rolling resistance of Marathon Plus is less of an issue. So far, zero punctures in about 14 years of having visitor bikes.

I'd also consider Marathon Plus on the Brompton I use for commuting, where getting a puncture would be more of a hassle than on other bikes (probably missing a train and being late for work). But so far, ordinary Marathon have proved to have good enough puncture resistance and are nicer to ride. I do have the luck of not having too much broken glass or other road debris where I live.

[jags]

Martin honest to god i would sooner suffer punctures than  use those marathon plus tyres that's the truth 
when i bought them online i could not believe there weight when the postman delivered them , i only had about 15 miles on them when i punctured i sat on the grass laughing my head of,  this was my only blunder when i built up the sherpa ,when i sold the bike i gave the guy an extra new wheel dynamo plus the tyres i was glad to see the back of them.

i'm going to be buying conti gatorskins 28 for the new audax 
anto.

[StuntPilot]

A detect a touch of anti-Marathon Plus sentiment here! I jump to their defence!

My current set of Marathon Plus tyres have over 5000km of mid- to heavy loaded touring. No signs of uneven wear, no signs of the puncture strip causing any problems and no punctures so far. The tyres were swapped at just over 2300km as the back does wear a bit quicker than the front. They don't look very worn. Hopefully another 5000km left in them. I run the front at 50psi and the back at 55psi.

The Marathon Plus was the most common tyre I saw on fellow laden tourers this summer. No one mentioned any problems with the tyre. They are a heavier tyre but for loaded touring on mixed surfaces they are bullet proof. The extra weight of the tyre is tiny compared to the overall bike weight on tour. Yes, slower acceleration but once you are moving the extra rotating weight keeps you going!

I would indeed swap to a much lighter tyre for daily/commuting use.

[Matt2matt2002]

Many thanks for all the comments folks.

I'm still running the same set up as the pictures show. No changes or punctures.

I have been able to check my stats and can throw the following info into the pot. But must say from the start, I am no tire expert and can only report my own experience.

Both front and back were put onto my Raven in Feb 2015.
I immediately had a pinch flat - so that's down to me ( I did say I was no tire expert!)

I rode 3,019 miles on UK roads - 90% tarmac and then put on 2" Marathon XR's for my Pamir Highway trip ( no punctures despite finding out after 500+ miles I had put both on facing the wrong direction - I did say I'm no tire expert!!)

On my return to UK after 2 months - I replaced the 2" XRs ( 1491 miles on the XRs) with the Marathon Plus 1.75 ( I didn't note which tire had come off the front/rear - I did say......!) and have done 3745 miles since then on tarmac mostly.

So that's 6,700 miles and have been ridden for 32 months.
Weight? Yes indeed. But the 2" XRs were like bricks so I was pleased to return to the 1.75s

Uneven wear? No idea for sure but those ideas proposed could well be true.

Stuntpilot....
Funny you should mention the tire being common for tourers. In Tajikistan I bumped into a couple on a tanden ride from UK to Australia and they were drooling over my tires since they had not been able to buy them and thought they were discontinued.

[jags]

Matt stick a set of kojax slicks on that bike and feel the difference.
i have roughly 2000 miles on my conti hardshell in all kinds of surfaces  not one puncture .
compass make tyres for all kinda terrain and there light  fast tyres  expensive but i reckon u get what u pay for.
i'm no expert either (who is) but i can certainly feel the difference in a good tyre and a bad one.

happy Christmas

anto.