Extremely, that tire is going to blow at any moment. Probably the next time they hit a bump at high speed.
Not OP, but usually this is the result of people not having money. Tires are absurdly expensive
Can confirm that this was another reason for me not looking into it sooner haha! I was a poor student living on my own for the first time.
I was a dumb kid without a lot of driving experience and car knowledge at that time. Learnt a valuable lesson, luckily nothing worse than a flat tire.
Apparently my old Escort had a very misaligned steering-angle which wore the tire out aggressively over time. I remember the steering-wheel shaking heavily at higher speeds before the tire finally gave out.
Yes. Replace your rear tire immediately.
Also, have you considered riding somewhere that isn't straight? You've got no meat in the middle, but you've got nice, fat, juicy chicken strips on the sides.
The mark observed is from locking up the tire while braking.
Burnout marks would have it evenly worn and ragged margins, discoloration, chunks missing, blistering, or strips of tire missing along the circumference.
Do ABS bikes have a full off? Doesn't look like there is a spacer, so you are probably right.
KTM Dukes, which this bike is, have a supermoto mode you can enable which deactivates the rear ABS so you can back it in
I was thinking the same thing. Either this person didn't replace their tires in a couple of decades or does insane acceleration/turns/burnouts/stunts.
Nah, you'll get that wear pattern from normal riding, if you don't replace your tires the second you get to the wear bars. I ride a pretty fair amount on a sport bike, and about half of my commute is on interstates. When I was using Pirelli Angel STs, there were no bars that crossed the middle, so it was hard to tell how much tread you had left in the middle until one day you were down to the belt. That happened to me multiple times--Anget STs last about 5000 miles on a CBR600rr--but hasn't happened since I switched to using Dunlops.
If you're a registered organ donor don't even worry about it bro. It will provide extra grip
How is this not the most upvoted comment? I just do not understand!
On a more serious note, yes, this is extremely dangerous and the rear tire should be replaced before anyone rides this bike.
It's also the "magical slide with a smell of barbecue" button, but you don't know which it will be. Tis a surprise!!
Eh slap a little Gorilla Tape on there, it'll be fine.
On an unrelated note, have you considered taking out a life insurance policy on your friend there?
This post is obviously not meant serious.
To the right of the damaged section we can see a thread indicator, so there is maybe around 1 mm thread on the right shoulder. Therefore the centre part was below legal limits.
Before changing tyres, the owner of that bike decided to kill off the old tyre completely by doing a burnout. We can see the flat centre piece all around on the tyre, typical for a burnout.
When changing a motorcycle tire it helps to do a nice burnout before starting. It heats up the tire making it easier to pry off with tire irons.
Yes, but usually not so far that the metal is showing. I learned from this video years ago. Having done tire changes with and without the luxury of a burnout. It is noticeably easier after the burnout.
edit: forgot to link the video. https://youtu.be/dAKIuSjPXxA?t=40
Maybe marginally. It's pretty easy already to take an old tire off, especially on the machine.
Putting a new tire on is always the hard part imo. I usually let mine sit in the sun for an hour before mounting it.
Yeah, the owner rides a bike. I think that's like number 1 sign someone has a death wish.
Source: me. I have a death wish.
Incorrect, a chicken strip is the unused part of the tire closest to the wall. Meaning the rider has been too "chicken" to lean the bike over far enough to use the full tire.
Incredibly so. Not only is there basically no traction, the tire will be unbalanced and could vibrate causing loss of control, and it could also catastrophically fail at speed almost certainly causing loss of control.
