Michelin Pilot Road Tires Static Strip- Every hear of this????

[Nathan Margolis]

The other day I noticed a weird thin etching on R1100S rear tire that traveled all the way around rear tire and was not consistent. Tire has about 85% tread. Another rider at a fuel stop who noticed me looking at it said the tire will separate tread there and should get another tire soon.

 

Got home and did some internet research and saw that others experience the same thing. Got on the Michelin website, which is where I should have been at the first place. It is called a static stripe to discharge static electricity. In 40 years of riding, never heard of this.

 

Here is the link:

http://motorcycle.michelinman.com/advice/faq/About-the-design-and-composition-of-MICHELIN-tires

 

In another forum, it said that Michelin fills in with a thin strip of carbon.

 

Found this interesting.

[dirtrider]

Afternoon Nathan

 

Yes, lots of tires have a static dissipation (carbon) strip in them.

 

Rolling rubber on certain road surfaces in low humidity ambients can cause static build-up in the tire.

 

 

This can cause anything from a non-problem, to high static build-up voltage arcing across wheel bearings, to effecting some vehicle electronics.

 

 

[Tri750]

It can be pretty scary when you first see it.

It looks like a fine slice around the tire.

It's not been around all those years so don't feel uninformed. It's odd that not all the tires show the strip.

I believe that they intend the strip to wear at the same rate as the tire, and sometimes it doesn't, making it visable.

[Nathan Margolis]

Static electricity has been a issue on auto fuel stops from time to time, too. Not an everyday occurrence, but it has happened. But I guess if you have the side or center stand down, you would be grounded.

 

Nevertheless, found this topic to be interesting.

 

Thanks for the responses.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

Static electricity has been a issue on auto fuel stops from time to time, too. Not an everyday occurrence, but it has happened. But I guess if you have the side or center stand down, you would be grounded.

 

Two main causes of static-electricity-ignited fires at gas stations:

 

• filling an ungrounded gas can. Flowing gasoline can generate static electricity. If you've got the gas can sitting in the painted (or Rhino-Lined) bed of your pickup truck, or in the carpeted trunk of your car, it can build up a very large static charge that may finally arc through the paint/lining/carpet, or to the dispenser nozzle.
  
   
  
• getting back in your car during the fillup. When you get out again, you drag your butt across the seat, generating a static charge on your body. When you reach out and touch the (grounded) fuel dispenser nozzle, the spark ignites the fumes that have been pouring out of the gas tank during the fill.
  gets back in her car at 0:45, and when she gets out again, she sparks a lovely blaze when she reaches out to the dispenser nozzle at around 1:02.

The good news is that neither of these is likely to be a problem for our motorcycles, in part because the slight conductivity of the tires assures that the bike won't build up a static charge during fill-up, and also because the rider hangs onto the grounded dispenser nozzle during the entire fill process (and tends not to do anything that would generate a static charge anyway).

[BrianT]

Learned something new. I saw that on my last set of tires and just thought it was odd wear since I was pushing the envelope on the wear bars before replacing them. Thanks for posting this.

[CoarsegoldKid]

I've seen it, ignored it, and now know what it is. Thanks for posting.