They can be related, but it's not an 'always correct' assumption. For example, Aaron Yates (who rides for the Michael Jordan Motorsports team) likes to ride 'on the front tire' of the bike, his front tire wear is usually pretty heavy from what commentators on TV have said. I too have a tendency to ride on the front tire, a couple months ago when I changed my tires the tire guy wouldn't even give me the front tire back as a 'take-off' because of how heavily I had abused it, he showed me how the entire tire was cracked all the way around the bead of the tire, he confirmed that was typical of somone who puts alot of corner load into the front of the bike. I got that way from growing up riding 3-Wheelers, if you didn't keep weight on the front tire in the turns it wanted to 'push' the front end alot of times and not turn.
In theory, if your suspension wasn't set correctly and you ride your bike biasing your weight unintentionally toward the front or the rear it could appear as though things were set correctly as far as tire wear goes. As you get faster you will also probably notice your tire wear may change, you may find you now have alot more front tire wear for example if you brake very deep into the turn and load the front end heavily. I always liked what Paul Thede (owner and originator of RaceTech Suspension) said when I took his 3 day long suspension seminar, he said "The best you've ridden, is the best you know". What he's saying is that there are probably far better suspension set-up's than you've ridden personally, but because you've never experienced them you don't know what a bike that's REALLY set-up feels like. He also said that the sign of a bike being set-up well is when you come back from a track session having no complaints about the handling of the bike while going as fast as you possibly can, the bike did anything you wanted it to do. Often times people don't realize they can't get past a hurdle while out on the track because their bike isn't allowing them to do something they want to do or isn't inspiring confidence in the bike being able to do it, so they mistakenly think it's something wrong with themself.
I would pay attention the next time your really pushing yourself out on your bike and ask yourself WHY are you not going faster? Is there something the bike is doing that isn't allowing you to turn for example, or does the steering feel vague or ? Knowing WHY your not going faster is a great tool in determining WHAT you need to do to take it to the next level.
Suspension/Tire Wear
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