Well..., not exaclty poor wear. I assume by badly worn, you are down to the wear bars.
FWIW, I usually get only a little more than 10,000 km out of a pair of Road Smart IVs, but I spend a fair amount of time on twisty roads, pushing the tires around.
Darrell probably spends a similar amount of time in the twisties, but has a much smoother right hand on throttle and brake than I do, and I recall his tires are in the 14,000 km range when he replaces them. (His results are posted elsewhere in the forum.)
Not clear what the mechanics are trying to say. All front tires with tread that crosses the tire will show some cupping as a matter of wear at end of life due to flex with braking. If you've ever ridden nobbies - you'll note the difference in wear on the front and rear of the nobs. Same sort of physics with the cross tread on road tires, but more subtle. My Metzler Roadtec 01 front tires were visibly cupped for the last 50% of its life, but the rubber was soft and handled just fine.
If, however, the front wheel cupping is uneven or asymmetric, I suppose there could be an alignment problem..., but you'd have picked up on this as the bike veered to the side every time you took your hands off the bars.
You might ask the mechanics to explain if they think the wear is abnormal and why. My guess from here is the wear is normal, end of tire-life issues.
I'm also going to guess that the rear is also near enough the wear bars that you might want to replace the set. Reminder of the old rule that 90% of flats occur in the last 10% of tire life. (I mean, I can't verify that from my experience, but that's what I hear.) One of the veteran riders I know, likes to look at remaining tread depth on a tire and comment, "That tire has $24.95 worth of tread left." (Meaning 10% of tire life remaining.) Kinda keeps early replacement of a tire in perspective.
Everyone's different and everyone has different needs for pliability and feedback from the tires as they push corner speeds. You might be more like MRVVRROOMM who could probably put car tires on his bike, give me a head start, and still beat me to lunch. In which case, MRVVRROOMM's 3Rs of "round, rubber, and rebate" might have you back on the harder compound (25,000 km) Elite-4s before the real snows blow in Alberta.... Have fun.
FWIW, I usually get only a little more than 10,000 km out of a pair of Road Smart IVs, but I spend a fair amount of time on twisty roads, pushing the tires around.
Darrell probably spends a similar amount of time in the twisties, but has a much smoother right hand on throttle and brake than I do, and I recall his tires are in the 14,000 km range when he replaces them. (His results are posted elsewhere in the forum.)
Not clear what the mechanics are trying to say. All front tires with tread that crosses the tire will show some cupping as a matter of wear at end of life due to flex with braking. If you've ever ridden nobbies - you'll note the difference in wear on the front and rear of the nobs. Same sort of physics with the cross tread on road tires, but more subtle. My Metzler Roadtec 01 front tires were visibly cupped for the last 50% of its life, but the rubber was soft and handled just fine.
If, however, the front wheel cupping is uneven or asymmetric, I suppose there could be an alignment problem..., but you'd have picked up on this as the bike veered to the side every time you took your hands off the bars.
You might ask the mechanics to explain if they think the wear is abnormal and why. My guess from here is the wear is normal, end of tire-life issues.
I'm also going to guess that the rear is also near enough the wear bars that you might want to replace the set. Reminder of the old rule that 90% of flats occur in the last 10% of tire life. (I mean, I can't verify that from my experience, but that's what I hear.) One of the veteran riders I know, likes to look at remaining tread depth on a tire and comment, "That tire has $24.95 worth of tread left." (Meaning 10% of tire life remaining.) Kinda keeps early replacement of a tire in perspective.
Everyone's different and everyone has different needs for pliability and feedback from the tires as they push corner speeds. You might be more like MRVVRROOMM who could probably put car tires on his bike, give me a head start, and still beat me to lunch. In which case, MRVVRROOMM's 3Rs of "round, rubber, and rebate" might have you back on the harder compound (25,000 km) Elite-4s before the real snows blow in Alberta.... Have fun.
"A good man always knows his limitations...."