TJHOO

You probably think I'm nuts.

Road cyclist, but this is about my 10 yr old Bontrager Mtn bike. Have not had it out in years. Plan on taking it to the beach w/ family for vacation. Will be riding:
-on the road solo eg 15-20 miles daily
-with family (wife and 4 kids)
-literally on the beach/sand

Note am NOT using this currently for downhill, technical terrain.

Tread looks fine on these Tioga tires.
Sidewall does not feel hard (on the rims).

Just not familiar w/ how long MTN bike tires hold up. If I get back into Mtn biking on any sort of downhill, I'd imagine would want to get new set of tires for safety sake.

Thanks for your help,

born2bahick

I had a set of old kenda's that looked good, held air, and felt good when riding. once off the rim you could bend the surface of the tire and see just how many cracks were in the rubber, some of the knobs were ready to pull back off the casing and the threads were exposed underneath. all of this was not as visible when the tire was on the rim. So that would be my advise. Take the tires off the rim and examine them thoroughly, You should be able to make your decision then! good luck. Oh and Pictures of the bike please!

Help Im A Noob

i didnt even read your post, just your title.


yes

valbowski1980

Yeah man, some pics please. I've never seen a Bontrager bike but have heard nothing but great things about them.

I'm not a fan of replacing for the sake of replacing so if the tread is good, I'd say ride it.

mcoine

Yes please post a pic of your bontrager. The tires should be okay if they are not dry rotted and still have tread.

BoSoxYacht

Please don't ride that bike on the beach , sell it to me instead.

concernicus

if you picked up a road bike with 10 year old tires, would you replace those?

Michigander

YES, YES, AND YES. Do you really want the tire to blow out in the middle of a trip? If you didn't need the bike too much, and you're like me a cheapskate, I'd say go for it. But you said 15-20 road miles a day, so by all means replace them. Tires are cheap, and I keep good tires on all my bikes. I personaly don't want to be stranded 20 miles from camp or something, and bad tires are begging for such problems. I have seen it happen on the Michigander, and its an awefuly huge problem for something thats so easily preventable.

Maybe you should think about it this way, if a tire blows out in the middle of the trip, will a store nearby have a replacement? If not, will it matter?