Giving my tires a good shave

My Silver Wing tires have developed issues, after 10,500 miles, which were concerning me. The front tire had serious scalloping of the side tread areas and the rear had a flat center area with minor scalloping on the sides. I thought my only option was to fit new tires. Replacing both tires at a dealership would cost around $350.00. More than I wanted to spend at this time, but with winter coming on I needed to do something.

Someone on the Yahoo Silver Wing group mentioned that an old trick to true up a tire was to use a Stanley Sure Form tool to shave the high spots. My tires still had usable rubber, all I needed to do was round them to their original shape.

It is a little disconcerting to see a pile of high priced rubber shavings developing on the ground, but I think that I have increased the usable life of my tires. I believe that I can drive another 2,000 miles on this set. Here is what I did.

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This is the start of rounding the rear tire. I only removed a small amount to see how things would go. The dark shiny areas is where rubber has been removed. You can see how the center area is worn flat.

This is the tool I used. Cost about $6.00 at the local hardware store. I have the bike on the center stand and am running the engine about 2,000 rpms. If you don't have a throttle lock, you need someone to hold the throttle.

Here is what the tire looked like after I finished shaving it. As you can see, I did not completely cut down to all virgin rubber. I thought that I would ride it a few hundred miles and see what it looks like.

Nice and round again.

The front tire presented a different problem. I tried shaving it with help of my brother. He would hand spin the tire and I would try to shave it. This was only minimally successful. He pooped out too quick and could not spin it fast enough to cut with a nice lathe action. What I needed was some way to motorize the wheel spinning. I solved the problem by using my bench top sanding machine. It worked perfectly! You need to jack the front end up, so the tire can freewheel.

I used some rope to stabilize the front end and keep it centered.

Here is the setup in action. The sanding belt had good traction with the tire and the rpms were just right.

Again, I didn't completely round the tire.

This is what the tires looks like after 150 miles. Nice round shape. The ride is smooth and the cornering secure again.

Still about 4mm tread depth at center on the rear tire.