Tire wear

Fred said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell as
there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike. How many miles
should a road bike tire last?

Since tread is immaterial to a 2 wheel vehicle on pavement. you can ride
it until the fabric tears or frays if you choose. It just has to contain
your tube; it will so long as the fabric is intact.

Run your thumb across the tire. Notice how it's flat-topped now? New
ones are rounded in cross section. Rider weight, road conditions, riding
style all affect wear - no magic number.
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Fred said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell as
there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike. How many miles
should a road bike tire last?

I sort of have the same policy towards tires that Jerry Seinfeld
described for underwear. He said that men wore underwear until it got
so thin that it disappeared into thin air. I usually use tires until
they become unusable. Once the casing starts showing, or if you
develop major cracks you may want to consider replacing it.

Andres

Quoted message said:

Fred said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell as
there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike. How many miles
should a road bike tire last?

I'm a regular rider, but only do a couple of thousand to 2,300 miles per
year on asphalt and concrete. If the frequency of flats increases and I
have a reasonably high number of miles, I will go ahead and change out
the tire even if it is not worn through in order to save myself time and
aggravation. If that's only 2,000 miles, I don't really care.

A Muzi said:

Fred said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell as
there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike. How many miles
should a road bike tire last?

Since tread is immaterial to a 2 wheel vehicle on pavement. you can ride
it until the fabric tears or frays if you choose. It just has to contain
your tube; it will so long as the fabric is intact.

Run your thumb across the tire. Notice how it's flat-topped now? New
ones are rounded in cross section. Rider weight, road conditions, riding
style all affect wear - no magic number.
--
Andrew Muziwww.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

I once rode a couple o' Wolber Invunerables until the back tire had
three places where the steel mesh was visible, shined by the concrete.
Nostalgia, like tires, ain't what it used to be.

tf

Quoted post said:

Fred said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell as
there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike.  How many miles
should a road bike tire last?

I sort of have the same policy towards tires that Jerry Seinfeld
described for underwear. He said that men wore underwear until it got
so thin that it disappeared  into thin air. I usually use tires until
they become unusable. Once the casing starts showing, or if you
develop major cracks you may want to consider replacing it.

Andres

inexpensive tires show age. The tire gets flabby, loose, floppy,
thhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiinnnnnnn.
it'll let go when your deep inside the Great Dismal Swamp on a warm
August afternoon.
NOT a WalMart next to the coke machine.
our expensive tires let go gradually unless you have no dough for
replacement or nashbar sold out of your brand THEN fersure you'll get
a brake pad thru the sidewall.
Expensive tires really take a beating EXCEPT riding on a bent untrue
rim. An expensive tire needs immediate rim attention.
Over the course of time, I should write that agin
OVER THE COURSE OF TIME, my avergag mileage % runs about 70% of
avergag tread depth. If your riding gets your tires past 80% then your
a girly rider or sublimely skilled.
I'm talkin touring tires. not mitty racers.
expensive tires should not crack if not left in the sun. right?
eventually some part of the tread will wear thru and that hole's edges
will peel back a bit. This is mechanic's error as all tread area shuld
wear evenly. REMEBER THAT.
GOOP spread over the thin spots and pushed into the carcass with
downforce as the putty knife is drawn over the spot for a first course
will lengthen the tire's life allowing the unworn tread areas time to
catch up.
BUT at the end of the road, the expensive tire will be floppy and
flabby. hang it on the wall.

On Fri, 8 Feb 2008 11:30:31 -0800 (PST), Fred <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell as
there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike. How many miles
should a road bike tire last?

Depends on the tire. Some tires seem to become more vulnerable to
flats -- I replaced one after the third flat within a month, and the
flats stopped for a long time after that. Others wear better -- I
pulled a chunk of wire out of a flat, and noticed there was a white
spot that wouldn't come out. Or rather it was coming out, as it was
the fiber left when the rubber went away. Time for a new tire!

Pat

Email address works as is.

Fred said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell as
there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike. How many miles
should a road bike tire last?

When you start getting more punctures than normal. Don't swap a rear
tyre to the front to get more wear from a pair; a worn rear tyre will be
noticeably flat in profile, which doesn't do handling any favours if you
then use it on the front. To get maximum wear, buy a new front tyre and
move the old one to the rear instead.

Quoted message said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell as
there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike. How many miles
should a road bike tire last?

Some newer road tires are finally coming with tread wear indicators.
Basically tiny little holes in the tire, that bottom out just shy of the
casing. The idea is that you ride the tire until the holes disappear. The
first tire I've tried with these are the Conti G4000S, but they haven't
gotten to the point where that hole is gone yet, so I can't tell you if
they're overly conservative or not.

In general, with a high-quality smooth-treat folding tire, the easiest way
to tell if it's worn out (besides inspecting carefully to see if there's any
casing material showing through spots in the tread, which you hope you don't
find just before a long ride with no spare tire available... raising my hand
on that one!) is to remove the tire and fold it in half, so you're looking
across the top of the tire. I'm probably not describing this very well. The
idea is that, on a new tire, you'll see a round "crown" that peaks in the
middle of the tire. As the rubber wears down, that crown will at first
flatten, and then become a depressed area. You will also be able to feel
that there's very little rubber in the area, and sometime it will have
become loose from the casing.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Quoted message said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell as
there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike. How many miles
should a road bike tire last?

Some newer road tires are finally coming with tread wear indicators.
Basically tiny little holes in the tire, that bottom out just shy of the
casing. The idea is that you ride the tire until the holes disappear. The
first tire I've tried with these are the Conti G4000S, but they haven't
gotten to the point where that hole is gone yet, so I can't tell you if
they're overly conservative or not.

I'd be very surprised to hear of any Continental tire tread wearing
completely out before the sidewall fails.

Robert

Quoted message said:

I'd be very surprised to hear of any Continental tire tread wearing
completely out before the sidewall fails.

The tread on the 4000S seems to wear so quickly that the sidewall has
no chance to fail first, unlike the traditional GP. I have one that
after about 3000 km shows very early signs of aspiring typically
sidewall failure at only one spot and the tread is gone completely if
you trust the indicators. (I trust my eyes and fingers even more and
I'll probably get whatever riding with that kind of tyre I do in April
(when the roads are still occasionally covered with all kinds of
winter maintenance residue) out of it and replace it after that.)

Quoted message said:

I'd be very surprised to hear of any Continental tire tread wearing
completely out before the sidewall fails.

Or they embed enough glass shards to make them useless, which is what
happened to my Ultra Hamsterskins.

Quoted message said:

A Muzi said:

Fred said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell as
there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike.  How many miles
should a road bike tire last?

Quoted message said:

Since tread is immaterial to a 2 wheel vehicle on pavement. you can ride
it until the fabric tears or frays if you choose. It just has to contain
your tube; it will so long as the fabric is intact.

Quoted message said:

Run your thumb across the tire. Notice how it's flat-topped now?   New
ones are rounded in cross section. Rider weight, road conditions, riding
style all affect wear - no magic number.
--
Andrew Muziwww.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

I once rode a couple o' Wolber Invunerables until the back tire had
three places where the steel mesh was visible, shined by the concrete.
Nostalgia, like tires, ain't what it used to be.

tf

That was a regular occurrence for me back in the day. That bike had
Mavic GEL 280 rims. Quite a mismatch, GEL 280's and Invulnerables!

Joseph

email hidden said:

Quoted message said:

On Feb 8, 12:39 pm, A Muzi <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Fred wrote:
> When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell as
> there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike. How many miles
> should a road bike tire last?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Since tread is immaterial to a 2 wheel vehicle on pavement. you can ride
it until the fabric tears or frays if you choose. It just has to contain
your tube; it will so long as the fabric is intact.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Run your thumb across the tire. Notice how it's flat-topped now? New
ones are rounded in cross section. Rider weight, road conditions, riding
style all affect wear - no magic number.
--
Andrew Muziwww.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Quoted message said:

I once rode a couple o' Wolber Invunerables until the back tire had
three places where the steel mesh was visible, shined by the concrete.
Nostalgia, like tires, ain't what it used to be.

Quoted message said:

tf

That was a regular occurrence for me back in the day. That bike had
Mavic GEL 280 rims. Quite a mismatch, GEL 280's and Invulnerables!

Joseph

I had a Galmozzi. It was either red labels or Martanos. Memory, like
tires, ain't what it used to be either...

tf

Harold Roth-gar said:

Quoted message said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell
as there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike. How many
miles should a road bike tire last?

Quoted message said:

When you start getting more punctures than normal. Don't swap a
rear tore to the front to get more wear from a pair; a worn rear
tyre will be noticeably flat in profile, which doesn't do handling
any favours if you then use it on the front. To get maximum wear,
buy a new front tyre and move the old one to the rear instead.

Having ridden most tires through to the cords, tubulars as well as
clinchers, I find no correlation between tread wear and handling or
puncture susceptibility. On tours of the Alps, fast descending as
treads ware, shown no perceptible effect. I and my riding pals
routinely ride tires to the cords and see neither of these effects.

Jobst Brandt

someone said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to
tell as there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike. How
many miles should a road bike tire last?

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Some newer road tires are finally coming with tread wear
indicators. Basically tiny little holes in the tire, that bottom
out just shy of the casing. The idea is that you ride the tire
until the holes disappear. The first tire I've tried with these
are the Conti G4000S, but they haven't gotten to the point where
that hole is gone yet, so I can't tell you if they're overly
conservative or not.

Quoted message said:

I'd be very surprised to hear of any Continental tire tread wearing
completely out before the sidewall fails.

I have a collection of continental road tires with the tread worn
through to the casing cords.

Jobst Brandt

Quoted message said:

Harold Roth-gar said:

Quoted message said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell
as there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike. How many
miles should a road bike tire last?

Quoted message said:

When you start getting more punctures than normal. Don't swap a
rear tore to the front to get more wear from a pair; a worn rear
tyre will be noticeably flat in profile, which doesn't do handling
any favours if you then use it on the front. To get maximum wear,
buy a new front tyre and move the old one to the rear instead.

Having ridden most tires through to the cords, tubulars as well as
clinchers, I find no correlation between tread wear and handling or
puncture susceptibility. On tours of the Alps, fast descending as
treads ware, shown no perceptible effect. I and my riding pals
routinely ride tires to the cords and see neither of these effects.

and yet you correlate anodizing to rim cracking with no more evidence
than you've just presented here. why?

Quoted message said:

Harold Roth-gar said:

Quoted message said:

When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell
as there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike.  How many
miles should a road bike tire last?

When you start getting more punctures than normal.  Don't swap a
rear tore to the front to get more wear from a pair; a worn rear
tyre will be noticeably flat in profile, which doesn't do handling
any favours if you then use it on the front.  To get maximum wear,
buy a new front tyre and move the old one to the rear instead.

Having ridden most tires through to the cords, tubulars as well as
clinchers, I find no correlation between tread wear and handling or
puncture susceptibility.  On tours of the Alps, fast descending as
treads ware, shown no perceptible effect.  I and my riding pals
routinely ride tires to the cords and see neither of these effects.

Jobst Brandt

I agree with the handling issue, but I think there may be something to
the flat susceptibility. Particularly with tires that were on the
thick side to begin with.

Most of my flats are from flints of more or less the same size. With a
thicker tread, it is reasonable to assume less of them would
penetrate.

Joseph

jim beam said:

Quoted message said:

Harold Roth-gar said:

> When is it time to replace a road bike tire? I find it hard to tell
> as there are no treads like on a car or mountain bike. How many
> miles should a road bike tire last?

Quoted message said:

When you start getting more punctures than normal. Don't swap a
rear tore to the front to get more wear from a pair; a worn rear
tyre will be noticeably flat in profile, which doesn't do handling
any favours if you then use it on the front. To get maximum wear,
buy a new front tyre and move the old one to the rear instead.

Having ridden most tires through to the cords, tubulars as well as
clinchers, I find no correlation between tread wear and handling or
puncture susceptibility. On tours of the Alps, fast descending as
treads ware, shown no perceptible effect. I and my riding pals
routinely ride tires to the cords and see neither of these effects.

and yet you correlate anodizing to rim cracking with no more evidence
than you've just presented here. why?

Probably less evidence as Jobst is likely to have ridden through many
more sets of tyres than he has used MA-3 rims.

I have always found that tyres do start to puncture much more often when
they get older. This is long before you can see the cords.

The difference in thickness is negligible in terms of whether you're
going to start getting punctures from shorter objects than before. But
it seems to me that even a slightly thinner layer of rubber requires a
lower pressure to penetrate it. So as they wear you will get punctures
from less sharp stones and less strong thorns than before.

I've probably ridden a tenth the total number of miles Jobst has, but a
lot depends on where you ride. I doubt Fogel for example would notice
much difference between new and old tyres because the goatheads he
experiences will go through anything.

I get flats usually from little stones and sometimes thorns. A newish
tyre evidently repels 99% of such objects on the roads I ride on as I
get almost no punctures at all until I reach a certain wear level, then
I start to get them all the time. At that point I just get a new tyre.

Quoted message said:

Having ridden most tires through to the cords, tubulars as well as
clinchers, I find no correlation between tread wear and handling or
puncture susceptibility. On tours of the Alps, fast descending as
treads ware, shown no perceptible effect. I and my riding pals
routinely ride tires to the cords and see neither of these effects.

It depends what's causing the punctures. On the glass-strewn streets
where I have to ride, a thinner tread means correspondingly smaller
pieces can get through to the tube, and the average smashed alcopop
bottle produces a pretty wide size distribution of shards. I shouldn't
think glass, or even thorns, are a problem in the Alps.

Curiously, the least puncture-prone tyres I have are some NOS
Specialized Turbo S, which look to be around a decade old (I have
several boxes, bought for a song from eBay). They have no specific
puncture protection, but the rubber is so old and hard that it doesn't
seem to pick up and embed glass shards like a newly-made tyre would. In
fact, over several thousand miles the only flat was caused by (yup) a
broken bottle ripping an inch-long gash in the sidewall.

Maybe the lore about "aging tubulars" isn't entirely rubbish ;-)