Front Tire Problem - Bridgestone Hoop

On this trip to South Texas, I kept hearing a high pitch winning sound at 70-75 MPH indicated with vibration coming from my scooters front-end. At first I thought the tire was going flat and asked Gary to look to see if it was as we rolled. He responded with "It looked OK" and we went on. The high pitch noise kept on to the point of where I needed to pull over to look. So the group pulled off the road. Bill and I looked the tire over and sure enough the tire was developing un-even wear with high and low diamond looking spots on the tire surface. We went on and I ignored the tire noise and viberation for the next 2 days.

Well yesterday I ordered a new Pirelli Diablo scooter tire from the local bike shop. I believe this new tire is going to make a BIG difference for me and the way the scooter feels.

Just for you information, this was the stock Honda tire and has 14,200 US miles on it and ran the Honda sugested tire pressure of 28-29 psi for that tire. I just wish I could have gotten more miles form it, but it just was not in my cards.

Pirelli Diablo here I come!!!!!

Original tire going 14.2k miles sounds pretty good, in fact way above average from what I've read. I've also got a set of Pirelli Diablos, but mine are waiting for next Spring.
What about the rear tire? Are you going to match it to the Diablo?

bigbird,

When the rear Hoop wears out, I'm going to the darkside with a Sumitomo tire.

DennisB wrote:

On this trip to South Texas, I kept hearing a high pitch winning sound at 70-75 MPH indicated with vibration coming from my scooters front-end. At first I thought the tire was going flat and asked Gary to look to see if it was as we rolled. He responded with "It looked OK" and we went on. The high pitch noise keep on to the point of where I needed to pull over to look. So the group pulled off the road. Bill and I looked the tire over and sure enough the tire was developing un-even wear with high and low diamond looking spots on the tire surface.

Denis tire was in great shape with PLENTY of tread left, except for the cursed diamond pattern

This happened to both of my front Bridgestone Hoop tires ( https://www.silverwing600.com/silver-wing-topics-f3/double-darkside-t1391.htm#11445 ).
The second tire was was even more pronounced than the first, I believe because I testing with a lower tire pressure.

The wear was so bad, that I could feel the effects in some turns so I replaced the tire. I will not use any more front Bridgestone Hoop tires ... they have a design defect!

"Denis tire was in great shape with PLENTY of tread left, except for the cursed diamond pattern."

It might have had plenty of tread....But it was not right and the vibation would cause screws and bolts to come loose that would lead to more problems down the road.

DennisB wrote:

It might have had plenty of tread....But it was not right and the vibation would cause screws and bolts to come loose that would lead to more problems down the road.

I am not disagreeing with replacing the tire. I am just saying there was no visible sign of wear or problem with the tire ... until I rubbed my hand along the tire tread, then I could feel the diamond pattern starting to rise on your tire.

Once the diamond pattern starts, a higher tire pressure may help prolong the tire ( just a guess no proof ) ... there is no way to complete resolve without replacing the tire.

Question for you Dennis.

Do or did you use tyre, sorry! tire sealant in your Bridgestone front?

The reason I ask, I always do and have never encountered the tyre condition you describe. I wonder if this phenomenon is particular to the Silverwing as I ran my last Burger on Hoops up to 18k+ miles per front tyre.

I will certainly look out now for the diamond pattern when I get above 10k miles.

Hi Doug,

No, the tire has always been run dry with no sealant ever used.

Hey Bill,

Your right, I could have run the tire for more miles. I just didn't like the noise and the vibration. I do like things nice and neat.

Sounds like normal cupping to me. Not unusual, in fact I've got a pretty well cupped rear tire on the rear of my SW with 7500 miles. Every rear tire I've had on my Goldwing has cupped, it's just what happens with weight and stress on the tire. Heavy bikes cup tires more rapidly than lighter ones and hard throttle and brake use accelerate cupping. Even smooth rubber tires will cup or more correctly 'scallop'. Take look at this link from Rattlebars on the subject of motorcycle tire wear, it's equally applicable to the SW which is actually a pretty heavy bike when you consider the small tire and 500lbs empty weight.

http://www.rattlebars.com/tirewear/index.html

exavid wrote:

Sounds like normal cupping to me.

I am not sure if this is cupping ( I will try to take a picture later ), cupping/scalloping is the removal of material. The diamond pattern just rises higher than the rest of tire on all four sides of the diamond ... like the glue/bonding under the diamond pattern broken down or is inconsistent then the rest of the tire.



You can visualize the diamond pattern by looking at the center grove. The start of the diamond pattern does not start at the center grove ... but offset from grove. The outside of the diamond does not follow any grove, but ends before the outside tire groves.

You can feel the raised diamond pattern by going in all directions on the tire side-to-side, forward and backward.

I agree with Bill. This not normal cupping. I have seen cupping on the tires of Gold wings. This is something else. This diamond shape, raised pattern, seems to rise out of the tires center line. The noise and vibration I get is not on curves, but on straight roads. Quite annoying!

Here is a drawing of the locations of the raised diamond pattern that goes around the tire.

DennisB wrote:

Here is a drawing of the locations of the raised diamond pattern that goes around the tire.

Nice job.

Thank you for the warnings. I just crossed 10k this week and I'll be on the lookout.

Hi All,

Just got the Pirelli Diablo installed and....WOW, WHAT DIFFERENCE!!!!! SMOOOOTH as silk and no dam tire BUZZZZZ. Yeah, A big difference!

I really LOVE my Pirelli Diablos, They are Smooooth like you said Dennis, and they grip so well in low or high speed curves, and they track down the interstate like a charm....

My bridge stone hoop has the same wear pattern and the same noise .It has about 6000 miles on it . I got 20000 out of the last front tire . I don't like the noise but I will run it at least until spring .

I'd love to know how you guys get 14k OR 20K miles on your front Hoops?
I'm looking at replacing my front tire pretty soon now, and it has about 12K on it, with, I might add, no problems at all, and yes I do use RideOn in it.

I've already got the Diablo waiting to replace it, just for comparison, not because I've been unhappy with the Hoop. But if you can tell me how to get so many miles out of ANY front tire, I'll do it.

Oh, and I routinely run a higher psi, like 30 or 31 up front. And just for information, I do run the Sumitomo on the rear.

My last tire wasn't a hoop .It was ICR or some thing like that it was original
tire .It also had the same wear pattern . i think it has some thing to do with balance .

Excell wrote:

My last tire wasn't a hoop .It was ICR or some thing like that it was original
tire .It also had the same wear pattern . i think it has some thing to do with balance .

More than likely all because of a single sided brake. In 1974 kept until - 2010) I had a Yamaha TX750 that had a single disc brake on the front that wore out front tires with similar wear patterns. It also destroyed the disc side fork seal with alarming regularity. I suspect it something that we will have to live with until the Honda people realize that two discs do not add all that much cost to an already overpriced bike.

matthew wrote:

I'd love to know how you guys get 14k OR 20K miles on your front Hoops? I'm looking at replacing my front tire pretty soon now, and it has about 12K on it, with, I might add, no problems at all, and yes I do use RideOn in it.

matthew wrote:

Oh, and I routinely run a higher psi, like 30 or 31 up front. And just for information, I do run the Sumitomo on the rear.

The Bridgestone Hoop has a maximum recommend PSI of 36.

For my first Bridgestone Hoop I used 36 PSI, when I noticed the diamond pattern early so I raised the PSI to 38-40 PSI. The increased pressure helped to reduce the effect of the diamond pattern. I was able to get 27,000 miles on the tire.

For my second Bridgestone Hoop I used 32 PSI and the diamond pattern was much worse and raised higher than my first Hoop.

I am now running a rear Michelin Gold Standard tire.

joncallihan wrote:

More than likely all because of a single sided brake.

The diamond pattern occurs on both sides of the center of the tire ... not just the brake side.

My theory is that is temperature based. When I ran higher PSI the tire did better ...when I ran lower PSI the tire did much worse.

During the trip that DennisB, Opalsboy and I took we had been traveling ~300 miles per day. I do not believe DennisB had any problems till the last day, when the temperatures were very warm along with the miles. I believe the diamond pattern was just starting for DennisB, because it was not visible till you felt the tire. On my tires the diamond pattern was visible without feeling the tire.

I will try more air ,when I am in Texas in march . That should help with the noise .

So Bill, are you suggesting that if I ran my tire at, say, 35psi, I might enjoy a lifespan of maybe 25K miles instead of 12 or 13K? Wouldn't that be great.

I'm certainly willing to try it. 27K miles. Unbelievable.