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[joematango]

I have just 40 miles on my 2015 Zero S. Looked closely at the right side of the front tire (Pirelli Sport Demon) and found what I took to be cracks in the sidewall. Now I'm wondering if they're possibly slashes instead.
Right side of front tire only. Several together about 3.5" long, 3 longer single cracks, cuts, or slashes about 8" long.
(Of course I'm having the tire replaced tomorrow, but my Zero dealer is ~170 miles away, so I'm having it done locally.)
Any thoughts on what might've caused this damage?

[firepower]

Defiantly looks like slash or cut.

[Justin Andrews]

Yep, slash, definitely.
Hard to say, but given the varying angles, I'd say it wasn't from debris either.

[Richard230]

That damage looks like it was done by a sharp knife or box cutter.  At least whomever (or whatever) did that to your tire didn't do the same thing to your plastic fairing parts.  You should probably replace the tire when you can.  I wouldn't ride on it for too long. 

[joematango]

Thanks for all your responses.
Wow! That's kinda freaky. I've had the bike a week, park it inside at night, and the only time I've parked it anywhere in public for more than ten minutes was on a busy public street in the day time.
How common is this? (It's my first bike in nearly 40 years.) I'd think it would be faster to simply knock the bike over, or more cruel to key the plastic 'tank.'
The only reason I can think of to choose slashing the tire instead is to a) make it harder to spot the damage and therefore obscure where it happened or b) perhaps cause me to wreck the bike when the tire blew.

[Justin Andrews]

I have *never* had my tires slashed.
A friend of mine once had her vans tires done over though.

Very odd, either someone really hates EV's (never met one myself) or its kids being dickheads.

[Richard230]

In 53 years of motorcycle riding this is the first time I have seen a tire slashed like that.   

[joematango]

That's encouraging, Richard. Maybe it'll never happen to me again!

[Richard230]

That's encouraging, Richard. Maybe it'll never happen to me again!

Let's hope so.  But it sure would be nice to find out how it happened in the first place.   

My recommendation for parking a motorcycle on the street, where you are not sure about the local community, is to cover it with a cheap motorcycle cover and lock the cover with a small lock though the grommets (so it  won't blow away or be stolen easily).  Out of sight is usually out of mind. 

[joematango]

I parked today in the same parallel spot where I thought it might've happened, got a sidewalk table down the street and watched while I ate lunch, just in case it would be tried again. It was a long shot, but if it turned out to be a shopkeeper who wanted to encourage motorcyclists to park elsewhere, I thought it might be interesting to see how my armored gloves would perform when fist connected with jaw.