How often do you get new tires?

[ASammy1]

Just curious how often you replace your slicks.

[Kvixen23]

I've had the same ones for over a year. I take my girl in for a tune-up every couple of months and hope that they'll let me know if I need new ones.......Sorry, wish I could help you.

[sundial]

When it either wears through or flats alot. I usually get about 2000 miles out of my tires. I put new tires on at the beginning of the season.

[HoosierGiant]

Replaced when visual inspection shows they need it. For me, that's every 4,000 miles -- and we ride on really cruddy chip n' seal roads. I'm really happy with the way they perform!!

[Geonz]

between 2 and 4 000 miles, depending on the tyres.

When they're kinda flat insted of round, that's the clue that they're getting worn...

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I replaced my last set at about 5,000 miles. But I should have probably done it at 4,000....they were pretty bald. :cool:

[RolliePollie]

When they're kinda flat insted of round, that's the clue that they're getting worn...

This is what I go by too. Not flat in that they're not holding air, but flat as in more rectangular...like when you look at the tire from the side, there's almost an edge across the top because the road has worn the rubber sort of flat and wide.

I'm at 5,000 miles on my current bike and only my second set of tires. I did some switching around, so my front probably has 2,700 miles on it and the back probably around 1,500. They are both still in really great shape (knock on wood).

[OakLeaf]

On a related topic... most tires are still the same front and rear, does anyone rotate them?

Otherwise the front tire will typically last twice as long as the rear, or longer. I usually get 1500-2000 out of a rear. I just replaced my front at 3700, there was LOTS of life left in it but I wanted to get a matching pair of a new brand.

[7rider]

On a related topic... most tires are still the same front and rear, does anyone rotate them?

Otherwise the front tire will typically last twice as long as the rear, or longer. I usually get 1500-2000 out of a rear. I just replaced my front at 3700, there was LOTS of life left in it but I wanted to get a matching pair of a new brand.

I rotate them - maybe at the beginning of the season or if the rear is looking especially tired, so I can milk some more miles out of them. At nearly $50 a pop, I want to get as many miles out of them as possible! :rolleyes: I'm particularly bad about replacing tires, falling into the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" category. If the slits in them start to look horrifying, I'll replace the tire. No idea how many miles on them...maybe 4K on them now? Might be time to start thinking of a new set. ;)

[alpinerabbit]

Back tire once a year - at about 3000 km - the front goes in the back - it stayed on last winter to be worn out on the trainer and got replaced in the springtime.

Changes in between if I see deep cuts.

[ASammy1]

Thanks everyone! Very helpful.

[PscyclePath]

Just curious how often you replace your slicks.

When they get pretty threadbare, and you start seeing the cording show through the rubber. Or when there's a cut or crack in the sidewall. Then Baby needs new shoes...

Tom

[kfergos]

Asammy - Thank you for asking this! I didn't even know I wondered, but reading the responses has been really informative.


This is what I go by too. Not flat in that they're not holding air, but flat as in more rectangular...like when you look at the tire from the side, there's almost an edge across the top because the road has worn the rubber sort of flat and wide.

Uh-oh, my rear one has looked like that for a while now... Maybe it's getting to be time. Then again, I haven't had any flats or issues with them so I might just wait a while longer. :D :p


I rotate them - maybe at the beginning of the season or if the rear is looking especially tired, so I can milk some more miles out of them.

Whoa, what a good idea! I would never have thought to do this. Crazy. I might just have to try switching the front & rear tires. I have Gatorskins and they're such a pain in the neck to get on and off, even after I've had to change a few flats with them, I usually avoid tire removal at all costs. But if I could squeeze another few months out of them... Hmmm...:rolleyes:

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

What I found was that when my tires had 5,000 miles on them, they didn't look so bad to me....until I bought a new set in preparation and compared the old and new tires side by side. Oh my gosh, it was scary how worn they actually were without my 'seeing' that!
The thing is, I'm a pretty safety conscious person, and what I really want to avoid is having a tire BLOW OUT while I'm going 30mph on a county highway here with no shoulder with a big truck passing me at that moment. My worst nightmare. :(

So now I have vowed to change tires a little more frequently. I never want to leave them til 5,000 miles again. The hell with saving $10 by getting a couple more months out of an aging tire.

I think another factor in tire wear is how smooth the roads or paths are that you usually ride on, and how much debris you deal with on a daily basis.

[Blueberry]

I won't put the more worn rear tire on the front. I'll move the front to the rear, and put a new one on the front. A blow out on the front can be much more dangerous than one on the rear - it's just not worth the risk to me....

CA

[aicabsolut]

I don't rotate. I just replace the rear.
That's kind of where I am now.... but the new version of the tires i run don't look the same, so I'd have to have a mismatched pair. The rear one is looking pretty sad. They got through a full race season (starting in Feb, including trainer time--a real good way to kill a tire). I might just change both and keep the front one as a backup. That means I can finally ditch my current backup tires which have some bigger problems, like a cut I'd have to cover with a folded dollar bill.

The only time I've put a front tire on the back is when I had to loan a tire to a friend for a while, and I didn't want to give him the one that was nearly worn out, so I gave him an old front tire. The reason I don't rotate is because I wouldn't put the worn rear on the front, and putting a slightly worn front on the rear just means i'll be replacing the rear even sooner. Otherwise, I might get close to 2 rear tire lives out of the front.

[jobob]

Sheldon agrees with CA :)

This article might be useful:

Sheldon Brown on Rotating Tires (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-rotation.html)

Here's an excerpt:


It is common for a front tire to outlast a rear tire by as much as three to one. Rear tires have more weight on them, and also have to deal with drive forces.

[...]

Well-meaning cyclists, even some mechanics who don't know any better, sometimes try to deal with this by swapping tires, putting the less worn front tire on the back wheel, and moving the worn-but-usable rear tire to the front. The idea is to equalize the wear on the two tires, but this is a serious mistake, don't do it!

[...]

The reason for this is that the front tire is much more critical for safety than the rear, so you should have the more reliable tire on the front.

If you have a blowout, if it is on the rear tire, you have a very good chance of bringing the bike to a controlled stop. If your front tire blows, you can lose steering control, and a crash is a real possibility.

[maillotpois]

Yeah, I am too lazy to rotate in addition to the safety issues. I replace the rear at probably a 2 to one ratio to the front, and a rear lasts about 2000 miles for me.

Reminds me we need to get some new tires... :rolleyes: Always good to have plenty of matching spares on hand.

[coyote]

When you slam on the brakes, skid to a halt and find that the middle rubber strip is peeling off :o

I meant to do it sooner, its just so hard to let go of the bike for even a day.

[kfergos]

Speaking of Sheldon Brown, he actually weighs in on when to get new tires (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tires.html):


Tire Wear - When should you replace your tires?

Many cyclists waste money replacing perfectly functional tires simply because they're old, or may have discolored sidewalls. If you just want new tires because the old ones look grotty, it's your money, but if you are mainly concerned with safety/function, there are only two reasons for replacing old tires:

1. When the tread is worn so thin that you start getting a lot of flats from small pieces of glass and the like, or the fabric shows through the rubber.

2. When the tire's fabric has been damaged, so that the tire has a lumpy, irregular appearance somewhere, or the tube bulges through the tire.

Cracks in the tread are harmless. Small punctures in the tire such as are typically caused by nails, tacks, thorns or glas slivers are also harmless to the tire, since the tire doesn't need to be air-tight.

Gum-wall tires sometimes get unsightly blistering on the sidewalls from ozone damage. (This is frequently caused by storing the bike near a furnace--the powerful electric motors in typical furnaces can put a fair amount of ozone into the air.) This blistering is ugly, but doesn't actually compromise the safety/reliability of the tire in the least.

[ASammy1]

Lots of good info everyone!

[spindizzy]

I just replace the worn tire (it had lost it's roundness - like Geonz has said) and it is the back one I had to replace this year. I put a Contintental training tire on for the winter indoors. I just got 2 Hutchinson folding fusible from Pricepoint (http://www.pricepoint.com/) for $85. Considering all the shops around here wanted $75.00 for one tire, I feel very happy with that deal.