bianchi10

what is the durability/life expectancy of most road tires?



I am currently riding on a set of Folding Vitorria Diamante Pro's and I have yet to have a flat since putting them on 600+ miles ago. This is a new experience for me since when I had the michelin pro 3 race tires on, I had a flat on almost EVERY ride! So needless to say this is a nice change. I was looking at my tires today and noticed several small "nicks" in them and it felt like the contact part of my tire was getting fairly thin. If I can remember correctly I could have swarn reading about people riding on a set of tires for 3,000+ miles? no/yes? Looking at my tires, I'm not sure they would last that long. In fact I was beginning to wonder if I needed to make another order for a set just incase these decide to go out on me. I'm sure the road surface is a deciding factor. I live in Portland Oregon where most of the roads I ride on are fairly good with the occasional rough concrete. I do my best to avoid glass and stay as far away from the for side of the road where all the glass, dirt and "stuff" gets blown to.

10 Wheels

I had one tire last 6,000 miles.
Most of them get cuts and tears.
Had one ride where I came back with 9 cuts in the rear tire.

cyclist2000

I always keep a couple of replacements around especially if I find some on sale that way I don't need to pay a high price if I have one rupture or tear.

I think that I get about 3000 miles per tire.

bianchi10

Is it a bad idea to rotate the tires?

jonathanb715

It depends. I have Vittorio Open Corsas right now -- the rear is getting worn down now and I'm starting to get frequent flats after having it on since May. Doesn't sound long, but in the time I've done a half dozen centuries, a double century and couple of double metrics. My computer is on the blink, so I don't know exactly how many miles, but I'd guess I'm averaging ~200 miles per week. I probably got 2k miles on it (it's a 25c size). I'm not thrilled with the wear, so I'll probably go back to GP4000's again soon (about a third more mileage and cheaper tires to boot).

No one knows - but lots of opinions on this one. I don't - I go through about 2 rear tires for every front, and buy in sets of 3. Over the long run, the cost should be about the same with the two approaches. Sheldon Brown's take:

https://sheldonbrown.com/tire-rotation.html

JB

Wogster

Depends on the tire, some tires have softer rubber that is intended to stick to the road surface, but can give lousy tire wear. Softer rubber is common on racing tires where the increased traction and higher speed cornering is worth the cost of more frequent tire changes. Other tires us a harder rubber and can last forever, good examples here are tires intended for commuting and touring, where durability and tire life are the deciding factors. The tire you specified is a racing tire.

Vittoria do have other tires, like in the Randonneur series, they should last longer although I have not tried them, then again I don't know about spending $30 plus shipping on a tire. Although over the winter when I replace the wheels on the road bike, I am thinking of going to 700C and might just put some nicer rubber on it . The Kenda Krapola 27" tires on there now will be retired, by necessity. I don't know the mileage on those, they came with the bike.

The slick tires on my mountain bike have about 4500km (~ 2800 miles) on them and look like they did after a week of riding. One thing though, rear tires tend to wear faster then front tires, it's not uncommon to go through two rear tires in the time it takes to wear out a front tire. A lot of folks will semi-rotate the tires, they put a new tire on the front, the old front on the rear and discard the worn out rear,

chasm54

Don't rotate, but as the rear wears out, move front to rear and put a new one on the front. As wogsterca says, mileage depends on type of tyre. You won't get many miles out of a michelin pro race, for example, because they do what it says on the tin. They are race tyres, their priority is adhesion and low rolling resistance. For ordinary use on the roads, and for training, buy something designed to be tough.

I'm a fan of schwalbe tyres. If you want long life and puncture resistance on a road tyre, try their Durano Plus. But be aware that it is twice the weight of their top line racing tyre, the ultremo R-1. You can't have everything.

RU55EL

Wow! I can't pass this thread up!

I'm five weeks into cycling after hanging up the bicycles for 20 years. My bike has Matrix CD5K 700C x 20 tires that are twenty years old. I couldn't believe they were still servicable after being stored so long. I have however carefully inspected every inch of them inside and out and I replaced the original tubes even though they still held air.

Anyway, trivia aside, I have also always installed a new tire in the front and moved the older front tire to the rear. If given a choice I would rather have the rear tire fail than the front.

bautieri

Depends, I've never had a tire last until it was worn out. I'd either change them on a whim, or suffer a catastrophic failure that trashed the tire long before it was actually worn out. Deciding factors on tire wear include road surface, tire pressure, type of tire, and habbits of the user.

I'm hoping my new gatorskins will be the first tires I actually wear out.

FunkyStickman

I've got 950-ish miles on my MTB slicks, the rear started wearing down a bit and got chewed up (had a few tread slices I super-glued back together) so I swapped them, going to put another 1000 or so on them, or as long as they hold out. I have another set waiting for when they finally bite the dust.

bianchi10

I had nothing but trouble with the 3 sets of gatorskins I had. I only bought one set, the other 2 were warranty replacements because the side wall kept blowing out

CraigB

Ditto. Maybe if we rode more it would be different, but I doubt it. I would guess that as our mileage increased we'd have a corresponding increase in hazard failures as well.

On the one or two occasions that a bike of ours has remained unridden over several years, we've had sidewalls lose elasticity and become almost brittle, or even have threads pull lose from the casing, and those tires get replaced the minute we decide to ride those bikes again. But most of the time we've had road hazard-induced failure before any other "normal" wear issues.

chasm54

This isn't a great idea. Having a worn out repaired tyre on the front is risky, because a failure at the front is much more likely to crash you than a failure at the rear.

CraigB

This thread reminded me of my first racing bike, a 1984 Gitane Tour de France. It came with entry-level tubulars, like the cheapest Vittorias you could get. Those things would flat if you looked at them funny. It was exlplained to me at the time that really good tubulars are aged, and in that process the rubber becomes harder. Cheaper tires didn't go through that process and the softer rubber picked up more road debris that would, sooner rather than later, work its way into the tire to cause a puncture.

Whatever the actual reason, between that factor, and the cost of good tubulars, and the fact that I needed the rear wheel rebuilt anyway, I went with a completely new set of high-performance clincher wheels. Since then, the only tire issue I've ever had was a period about 10 years ago when I went through one kevlar-beaded folding clincher after another - under load the rear tire would "lag behind" the rotation of the wheel, so that after a short ride around the block the valve stem would be pulled at an angle through the hole in the rim. In short order it would develop a fissure there and lose air. I finally gave up on folding clinchers at that point and have stuck with wire beads ever since then.

Wogster

This is why it's recommended to wear out the rear, then put the front on the rear and a new tire on the front, a rear tire blowout at 30MPH means you lose traction and maybe trash the rim, you may not even go down, because you can still steer the bicycle to a stop. A front tire blowout at 30MPH will result in a crash, your front wheel stops, you go over the bars, if your lucky it's a couple of months in the hospital, if your not, it's 3 days at the local undertakers, or worse.

bautieri

Yeah, I've heard that gatorskins are sort of hit and miss. So far I've been lucky with mine.

FunkyStickman

If I thought it was in too bad shape to ride, I wouldn't ride on it. I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid. Besides, in all my years of cycling, I've never had a "blowout" to speak of where the tube just explodes. I don't run high-pressure tiny tires. When I get a flat, it just leaks until I feel them getting softer. Very, very little chance of me going down because of a flat tire on this bike.

mustang1

I have yet to wear out a set of gatorskins because I always get too impatient while changing a flat tire that I ruin the sidewall. The most I've ever got was 2500 miles before I destroyed them through no fault of their own.

Now I'm using specialized burroughs 32mm on my cx but only done 500 miles so far.

dscheidt

A tube encased in a more-or-less air tight tire can't explode. Explosion of a tube (with a nice bang) is caused by rapid air loss, and the tire is air tight enough to stop that. When a tire/tube combo "explodes", it's because the tube is no longer in the tire, or the tire has come completely apart. A tire that gets too hot can walk of the rim, which happens from time to time on long descents when the brakes are used poorly; improper installation of a tire can leave a bit of tube caught by the bead, so outside of the tire. Either is likely to result in a nice bang. Tires are also subject to casing failure, from mechanical damage (the cords that are the body of the tire get cut or broken), wearing out (the rubber that is on the outside of the cords, that you think is there to be tread, but is really there to protect the cords wears away, exposing the cords, and wearing them out), manufacturing defect, or impact damage. A tire that's worn out or damaged is much more susceptible to failing in this way; if it's in front, a crash is likely if it happens at speed.

EKW in DC

2,000+ miles on my Nashbar Street Wise 700x35 tires. The tread there is looks none the worse for wear. I expect I'll get at least another 2,000 miles out of them, which means I won't be looking at new tires until the winter, with the possible exception of a spare folding tire to carry on tour...

Mr. Beanz

In 2009, I got 5000 out of a Specialized Armadillo 700X25. Lots of climbing and riding on the road as well as trails. Not one flat! Funny thing is that clydes avoid the tires cause of their weight.

I use Sefs Seca tires from REI ($24), I get about 3000 miles. First tire never flatted. Second , no yet with aobut 2000 miles. Funny thing, I know some clydes that own't ride them because they too are too heavy...from what I've heard!

CliftonGK1

I had a bike with 26 x 1.75 Marathon Plus tires and I put 4500 miles on them before I gave the bike away. I don't know how many more miles are on it, but my buddy is still using those tires.

I typically got 3200 - 3500 miles from a 700 x 28 Gatorskin (rear).

I use 700 x 32 Pasela TG (folding bead) now, and I have 2700 miles on the rear. I'll assume I can get another 1000 miles from it, but I'll be replacing it before that so I have a new tire for my upcoming 600k. It might even get replaced before the 400k, depending on how it looks after the 300k that has 15 miles of washboard-y gravel service road.

bianchi10

I've thought seriously about making this my next tire. I have 3 out of my 5 cycling buddies who ride these and have never had a tire issue. For the price i he's they are hard to beat. I put them on my buddies bike and man thy have a stiff side wall! Was difficult to get it on his wheel.

Mr. Beanz

JINXED!!!!!....Just psoted this morning and guess what! FLAT!

OK, no more posting "no flat" comments.

Glass but after 2000+ miles, not bad for $24. I'v enever had fit issues with Deep V's. The stiff sidewall is one thing I like, The Conti's fall apart on the sidewall.

Daniel Frost

Last tyre 200km, tyre before that 6500km depends on road surface and other factors. 200km tyre didn't lek glass for some reason