How often do you get new tires?

[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

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... 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

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:

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.