As I read the threads here and compare to my own experience i am starting to notice a trend.  On my bike and many others it seems that the left cylinder ( and everything that goes with it, i.e. valves, etc.) seem to wear faster/more than the right ones. Maybe it is just me (or maybe im going crazy )


On my bike, i have only done one valve adjustment so far scince i purchased my bike so it could have been the lack of proper maintinence from the previous owners, but as i read more and more threads, there seems to be more people with exessive wear / low compression etc. on the left cylinder than the right. 

Idk, maybe i just have too much free time to think...

maybe.

I only have 6k and 1 year on my 95, that has unknown mileage but at least 22k, and I only had to replace the left shims, right were still in spec though. take that with a grain of salt.

I just keep mine leaned to the right a bit more.

so maybe im not crazy....anybody have an idea what could cause this?

i know this is not really  a big deal, im just more or less curious at this point

Most of the time the bike is parked leaning onto the left side (side stand, you know).  Centre stand is an exception to the rule.  Probably this has nothing to do with the wear though...

I've done valve checks twice now. Both times the left was out of spec, while the right was ok. Weird 

the blown engine that came with my recent gs500 went bad on the left side,...bad rod bearing

Quote from: cbrfxr67 on April 13, 2011, 11:55:17 AM
the blown engine that came with my recent gs500 went bad on the left side,...bad rod bearing

The most common form of GS500 engine failure.
99% of the time, the left rod bearing goes bye bye, damaging the crank beyond reasonable priced repair and breaking the rod and a lot of times the casing.

this should be stickied and added to

Quote from: ameen on August 06, 2010, 10:28:39 AM
As I read the threads here and compare to my own experience i am starting to notice a trend.  On my bike and many others it seems that the left cylinder ( and everything that goes with it, i.e. valves, etc.) seem to wear faster/more than the right ones. Maybe it is just me (or maybe im going crazy )


On my bike, i have only done one valve adjustment so far scince i purchased my bike so it could have been the lack of proper maintinence from the previous owners, but as i read more and more threads, there seems to be more people with exessive wear / low compression etc. on the left cylinder than the right. 

Idk, maybe i just have too much free time to think...

Yeah, I'd bet half of all engine problems are on the left side.  On my bike, my right cylinders wear faster.

Maybe it has something to do with the bike leaning to the left when it's on the sidestand?

Coriolis effect, similar to gyroscopic precession.  The earth rotates counter-clockwise when viewed from above the north pole.  The resultant forces make hurricanes and cyclonic weather patterns rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and opposite in the southern.  The same forces have effect in the engine, and your your oil circulates ever so slightly differently on the left and right sides of the engine.  Over a period of thousands of miles and many years the wear patterns tell the tale.

Check it out with our southern-hemisphere members. Their bikes wear out on the right side first.