"pulled off the wheel (finally) and put it on a truing stand. Wheel is basically perfect. I think the tire is the issue ... there are foot long scars on the center of the tread where you can see the cord below. Would not be surprised if the tire was about to fall apart and was pulling the bike to one side."
Maybe OP could have mentioned this in his initial post. Would have been obvious to even a cursory in-person inspection, and would have saved the folks online all this trouble.
I think that asking for other people's help in the Mechanics forum should require some good faith effort by the OP to examine the bike and accurately describe the situation, ideally with pictures. This OP knows enough about bikes and about how this forum works (after starting dozens of threads in the last few months) that he shouldnt be playing "hide the ball" games with the rest of us.
I'm not playing hide and seek with you guys. The frame is fine as I've rode on the same frame with a different wheel for 100 miles since without an issue.
I have a pair of the same tires and I made a post several months ago about how one day the tire looked fine and the next day the outside rubber was missing in several places. It seems as if the tire disintegrates fairly rapidly once at a certain point in its life. I would have noticed a foot of cord poking out the tire during the several times I had the bike upside down while spinning the cranks to check wheel alignment, brake rub, etc and I would have informed you guys.
http://www.bikeforums.net/bicycle-me...till-okay.html
Fortunately I was only "gifted" a pair of these Kenda tires and I won't have to deal with them falling apart rapidly any longer. Good riddance!