Road Cycling - How long do your tires last?

I have a Raleigh R600 w/ about 700 miles on it, and the Michelin Axial Kevlar 700 X 23c Tires that came with the bike. My front tire is fine, but the back one is pretty worn. I rode this bike on a kinetic trainer this winter, but not all that much, maybe 5 hours total. I've locked up the back tire 2-3 times.

Is there a basic rule as to when you change your tires?

Can you be a little more specific about "pretty worn"? How's the tread looking. As I said in another thread a few minutes ago. If I have a tyre that's bald, I generally replace it immediately.

Replace the bald ones for sure, I get 700 miles from the panaracer pasela, 3000 miles from the Continental ultra 2000 and 4000 to 5000 from the continental top touring 2000 (my favorite tire). In the past I got 1500 miles from a set of michelin axial sports.

i little trick is to rotate your tires to extend and even out the wear.

Well I change tires when they start to wear through the rubber. I can tell that when I have a flat. I feel the tire and if the middle is noticeably thinner then the sides, it is time to replace.

I practically never have to replace my front tire. The bigger the tire I put on the rear the longer it lasts. A real light tire will give me maybe 1000 miles and a big tire will give me about 2500 miles. Light riders generally get much more wear then heavy riders (I am heavy).

Originally posted by RiPHRaPH
i little trick is to rotate your tires to extend and even out the wear.

Bad idea, IMO. A rear blowout is much more likely to be controllable than a front blowout. Keep your best rubber on the front.

Better idea: When the rear wears out, move the relatively unworn front tire to the rear and mount a new tire on the front.

RichC

Right! Put that new rubber on the front. Move the old front tire to the rear.

This is the better way, as any cuts or scrapes to the front tire get moved to the rear, where a blowout is so much easier to deal with. Always keeps you best new rubber on the front.

Plus, this way your front tire never gets old. Otherwise, that front would most likely dry rot and crack before it would wear out.

Dave
who gets 3-5000 miles on the back tire, which previously had another 3-5000 miles put on it while it was up front.

Originally posted by Chris L
Can you be a little more specific about "pretty worn"? How's the tread looking. As I said in another thread a few minutes ago. If I have a tyre that's bald, I generally replace it immediately.

Oh, it's definitely bald. It was bald after riding it on the trainer for a couple hours.

Originally posted by Roadlearner
Is there a basic rule as to when you change your tires?

Rear Tires When:

a. A cut goes all the way through the casing.
b. The rim bead begins to look ragged.
c. The tread compound or sidewalls show signs of dry-rot / excessive cracking
d. The casing becomes deformed, i.e., develops an out of round shape, radially or longitudally.
e. The tire compound is worn to the core:

Regarding e, above, when you see a tread wear indicator or the casing showing through your tire it's worn out. The color varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and sometimes from model to model. In general, look for a strip of a dissimilar color right down the middle of your tread. I seem to recall that the casing under the Michelin Axial Pro (all black tire) is white. Please note, the less rubber there is between the road and the tire's core the more apt a small piece of debris is to cause a flat. Just because a tire still has some "life" left in it doesn't always mean it's wise to use it. At home on a trainer or for local rides, run them into the ground but keep a spare tire on hand and be prepared to fix a flat or two. If you have an important or long ride, play it safe and switch out the tire if it looks like it's getting close to being worn through.

Tread Patterns: If a tire had a tread pattern and that wears off it's no big deal. Road bike tires used on smooth surfaces have no need / derrive no benefit from tread. So, even if the tread is worn smooth the tire will have some additional life to give (see above).


Front Tires:
a. Move it to the back if it gets a nick in the tread compound that doesn't go all the way through the casing. Note: A drop of superglue will usually close up most nicks.
a. Move it to the back when the back tire wears out and put the new tire on the front.

Thanks livngood, I appreciate the info! :beer:

I have 4,700 miles on my Michelin axial pros, even the rear tyre refuses to die.

So sad they are no longer manufactured, what else will do this kind of mileage?

Conti GP's will go the distance too. I've gotten as much as 5,000 miles on the rear.

Dave

I would disagree with putting the new tire on the front (JUST MY OPINION). My reasoning is that the rear tire gets more flats than the front (this was proven in a pole here on this forum). If this is true, and my 30+ years of experience says that it is, then why would I want the worse tire for the rear? So I can fix more even more flats back there? When the rear gets about 1600 miles on it, I move it to the front and put a new one on the rear. By the time the rear gets 1600 again I move it to the front and toss the front that now would have about 3200 miles and almost done.

I have also flatted in both front and rear and can say that I found that neither gave me a cause for concern, as long as you don't panic and gradually slow down everything will be fine.

Also where I live the streets are rough and the most mileage I can get on a tire is 3200 miles on the front; but even in other cities I lived in I've never seen a tire last 5,000 miles and neither has any of my LBS's and especially from a light training tire such as Cont GP or Mich Axial pro's. The only tire I seen last 5,000 miles was the Conti Touring tire which is far wider and a lot more rubber.