Assuming that the wheel alignment is probably still
reasonably OK & close to what it was set at when it was done last (as it should be if done only 5,000 odd miles ago, and if the excessive wear is pretty equal on the outside edges of both wheels...) your front tire wear concerns beg a few questions:
1. Do you have adjustable pre-load front shocks?? If so, have you wound the pre-load UP/INCREASED it to raise the front of the Spyder/give you better ground clearance??
2. Or have you by any other means raised the ride height at the front??
If you've done either of these, there's a very good chance that you've messed with the '
nearly neutral' camber at static ride height, and instead, have
too much Positive Camber, ie. the top of the tires are angled
OUT too much, so you're spending too much time riding on the outer edges of the tires & so scrubbing the tread off those edges;
except that wear due to excessive positive camber usually presents as angled wear right across the tread face, heaviest on the outsides... generally, but not exclusively
Well, unless it's
really excessive anyway! :lecturef_smilie:
3. There again, maybe you've just got too much toe-out dialed in?? That tends to make any steering response pretty direct, but straight line stability not that great! Many Spyders aligned at the factory/by the dealer without your riding weight on them end up with excessive toe-out (& positive camber) once you sit on it, or as mentioned by others, especially if you're a bit on the heavy side.... :dontknow:
4. Or possibly it's just that you're riding it pretty hard, and cornering too hard & fast for the alignment & suspension set-up
that you've currently got?!? Do you ride it hard, brake late, &/or push thru any understeer & carry a lot of speed thru the corners?? :dontknow:
And an aside for any sceptics out there, you'd be surprised at how much changing the alignment of the rear tire can impact the handling & the '
thrust alignment' of these Spyder/Ryker reverse trikes! Even just a little change in rear wheel alignment might produce
all sorts of handling & steering oddities; but generally, as it doesn't specifically change the front alignment settings, any front tire wear issues resulting from that would/should be worse on the inside of one front tire, & the outside of the other... but again, not necessarily always!!
All up tho, these things we ride are extrordinary engineering creations, albeit with more than just a few areas that suffer from '
not quite ideal execution'! But hey, most owners can get these things sorted to their satisfaction; or if they can't do that, they can readily learn to ride quite happily with or within the confines & limitations of the platform, and once you do that, they can be a bleedin' fantastic & exciting ryde for what they are! :thumbup: And even with these '
less than ideal' areas, when ridden reasonably well by a competent ryder, they can pretty easily show a clean pair of heels/a '
rapidly disappearing into the distance ahead' single back tire to just about anything else thru the twisties & short straights; and there's not much on the road that can out brake them either! So don't whatever you do jump too hard on the picks when you've got a speeding 18 wheeler or anything else rapidly growing in your rearview mirrors! :yikes: And they're a pretty comfy touring machine too, as well as being ideal for pottering around town when you're not in a hurry to get anywhere.... altho I do think on-board air-con might be handy if our summertime temps keep getting hotter! :2thumbs:
