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I got my scanner working today and decided to scan some old racing images. Here's yours truly in the grey top and jeans at the 86 IOM TT during one of the pit stops in the Senior race Marco "Lucky" Lucchinelli in the pits at the Aussie round of the WSB 1989. He was team manager that year. The rider that same year was Raymond Roche

The left vs right turn dominance is amusingly interesting... lots of evidence of it everywhere. While I’d want to think the issue here is swingarm or something like that, the wear seems too far off center to be from some kind of misalignment. Could certainly be totally wrong, but I’d think the kind of misalignment one might have from a wonky swingarm or bearing would result in a wear line just slightly off center. Anything else you’d think would be noticeable when riding straight down the freeway. And I’d imagine that if the rear was that far out of whack, you might see something up on front tire as well, as the body-in-motion would need to compensate to keep things tracking straight? Maybe not... gotta think on that. Maybe since the front has the lateral pivot (steering head) that may not be true. But who knows.... none of the theories are easy pills to swallow. I guess just buy another tire, check alignment and basic swingarm “plumb & square”, then ride on!

Daytona 1988. Guzzi content at last. If you ever wondered what 5am practice was like at the TT, here you go. Lining up in the paddock for an early morning practice session. More work on the bike at the TT. Here the 750 engine is fitted for the Senior race and we have the cylinders off on the 600 engine. Got a fan club as well by the looks. Here's the bike after the Senior race. Axle the bikes owner in the brown top with the video camera. The guy in the blue sweater is John Williams who raced a GSXR750 proddy bike that year and in the yellow t-shirt is Richard Scott a Kiwi racer that came out to Australia in the early 80's and eventually went on to ride GP500's for Kenney Roberts the next year in 87. Needless to say he was a rather good rider. Here's an image of our rider Pete Muir on the right about go out for the Formula 2 race. The rider on the left is Steve Murray who I crewed for a couple of years before in 84. Steve had been racing at the IOM for years and was at this time 54 I believe and still doing 110 mph laps on a F2 bike. His son is in the background with his bike, a TZ250 Yamaha that used RD250 crankcases as was the requirement for F2 in that the engine needed to be derived from a road bike. A TZ250 with a kickstart shaft in reality. Terrific bloke Steve an ex coal miner before working in the motorcycle industry. He was describing working in a mine and told me "it was so dark you couldn't see your hand behind your back", still cracks me up . He even went to race in Daytona back in the early 750's if I remember correctly. Here one for you guys in the States, Fred Merkel, 1988 WSB Champion (the first year it was run from memory) at the WSB round 1989 Oran Park Australia. BP corner onto the straight. Scott Doohan, Micks brother. Same corner, same year, same(ish) bike. Ciao

What comes close to IOM, NOTHING. Remember having breakfast with the John Player Team every day, same hotel. We can handle some more memories Phil, thanks. Cheers tom.

We are all different,,, reading this is like reading Donald Duck, all good . I mean if the swingarm bearings are that bad, that would be Very noticeable riding,YES. The tire could have had the wrong rubber compound , put together. Anyway we are all going faster the older we get, watch out young lads. Campfire talk. I’m a lefty, but like rights turns, even from young, skiing, motocross, biking ++. Friday gents, IPA time, wild quess, 70days more hibernation. Cheers tom.

My fear of this , would be TRACTION . We were (1975) messin' around at Donnie Porter's house and he was on Les Houston's Yamaha MX125 playin" around in this large mud puddle . We were all sitting in this two car garage watching Mr Motocross putting on a clinic , when he decided to hit the mudhole a little faster than normal . he came out in a wheelie , 2nd gear WFO into the garage where his audience IS sitting . He came to a stop on top of Bobby Pearson's freshly plastered broken leg as it was propped on another chair . Porter had entered the shop so fast no one had a chance to flinch . You have no idea what loud and fast is until you get inside a small shop full of people ! We all too a head count , everyone was alive . No animals were hurt during the stunt so we all laughed it off , parked the bike and went down the road and smoked the peace pipe discussing the near death experience !

Exactly. there are so many explanations for left side tire wear. I was wrong re: axle misalignment on V11... UNless the swing arm is bent (again not likely) but..'//and including theories of ... road crown (right side driving) applies but not that significant. if you drive on the right side of the road then left turns add more miles (true) but usually only front. left turns are more comfortable so you lean further and are more confident (applies to me) bias weight of the bike to the right will cause an unconscious rider lean to the left to balance. in the end I don't see any of the above accounting for the unusual wear that tire shows. not in the rear. never seen anything like it. ... has the bike been crashed? Some info is missing.

True Tom. I'll dig out some more images if they look interesting. Ciao

I feel weird then because this is the first I’ve read about it.

The "left side of the tire wearing out first topic" has been around as long as there have been motorcycle discussion groups. It's one of life's persistent mysteries.

These bikes are not powerful enough for accelerative traction loss. Even under hard braking, you should barely be using the rear tire. I use mine to settle the bike down, if I’m in a bit of a mess turn in wise. I’ve put mine thru some difficult situations fully comfortable with dumping it and I couldn’t really get it out of shape. She’s sharp and I’m still impressed all these years later at just how capable these bikes are. If I had to say something, it would be the inertia or weight of the bike. It’s a heavy bike and you really need to pick it up and throw it back down. A few more HP’s and I’m working on a significant weight reduction regime. I am fairly confident I can get her swinging with a lot more fluidity

Thanks docc!

Maybe he's got a wooden right leg? It looks like the wear pattern that some guys have at track days. The guys that are WOT down the straight and get in your way in the corners. So they coast through the corners and when its about 10 deg off fully upright they go wide open throttle and blast past you on their R1 or whatever just in time to get on the brakes so early for the next corner you have to be careful you don't run into the back of them. Thats how their tyres wear, just off the crown and next to no wear on the edges. Ciao

I've scrubbed many o' left-side front tire on my Sport. But never a rear like Tunus89 shows. I would have that axle and reardrive out for a good inspection, IIWM . . . Perhaps, even time to verify swingarm bearings. Otherwise, maybe he's just been doing smoky donuts, anti-clockwise!

Doesn't appear to be the case docc:) Interestingly most of the worlds race tracks are clockwise. Years ago Rob Mcelnea Gp and WSB rider came here for the Swan series in our summer. He went to Oran Park in Sydney where the first round was on an open practice day during the week. Nobody was around so he started doing some laps to familiarise himseld with the track. He was doing OK until someone arrived and pointed out to him that the track was actually run anti clockwise not the usual clockwise he just assumed. He said he thought it seemed a little dangerous,lol. BTW it was pretty dangerous by modern standards even racing in the correct direction. Ciao

I suspect it's psychologically determined. Most of the worlds population is right handed, often described as the dominant side. During a left had turn in a aircraft, or bike that puts the right side higher than the left, Right in the dominant position. In a car being right handed I feel more comfortable in right hand corners than left but on the bike or aeroplane its the opposite. Once again in a car in a r/h corner the left side squats and the right side rises to the dominant position. Just a theory. Ciao

Looking forward to @ferguzzi's reply. Here is the solution @Canonman posted for his Tenni project:

Love all the responses! We indeed do drive on the right hand side and because of that, possibly left hand corners are longer, more visible and therefore faster/more throttle causing more tire wear. Thinking of it now, I think my dual compound front tire also wore unevenly, with the pointy "egg" shape not being in the middle but a bit more on the right (so more wear left). Wheel alignment can't be it on a V11 I would have thought, but I will check whether they are in a straight line behind eachother. The inner fender also looking crooked is visual by the way, but the uneven wear definately is not camera angle but real. I can also admit to being somewhat of an ape on the clutch/throttle sometimes, causing a bit of sidestep on the rear end...