If I purchase a set of tires today and don't put them on a wheel until this time next year, will the tires deteriorate? If they sit in a garage in their original packaging, will they start to dry-rot, become brittle, or loose some of their suppleness?

I put my new but unused tires into a humidor to preserve freshness and suppleness-

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N1XAVFC...a-273305811979

This seems to give them a virtually unlimited lifespan. I have some great tires from the '60s that I'm just getting in to now.

Tires are highly stabilized. One year is no problem. But if you are still worried, put them in a vacuum food bag in the freezer. Oxygen, light and heat are the natural enemies of rubber. The vacuum sealed bag and darkness and low temperature of the freezer would preserve tires for many, many years.

I like to eat them within a week of picking them. Otherwise, can or pickle them.

Don't buy into that "Best if used by" date B.S. They are good way beyond that date. People throw away too many tires when they still perfectly good to eat.

Tires have a shelf life of well over 10 years if not exposed to ozone, UV or other factors that could accelerate aging.

The garage is fine, and to make it better, put them into a garbage bag to increase the protection from anything that might be in the air.

Wow.....Tough crowd!

I keep mine in Tupperware.

The Mrs. is not amused...

The only way to get TRULY fresh tires is to grow them in your garden. Sun ripened tires, warm off the vine...mmmmm

It depends.

1 year is not a problem, in proper conditions. Being in the garage, , , might be a problem, if it is not climate-controlled.

Many technical references online say that 5-7 years is the maximum shelf life of latex rubber products, with some higher-stress uses advising much shorter times. There is usually at least some latex used in most bicycle tires.

UV (sunlight) ozone (from brushed motors) and oxygen (hotter = faster) all damage rubber over time. Store them in a plastic bag, somewhere cool, in the dark, and store them where they will not be crushed.

Tires stored compressed will develop cracks; tires with any cracks exposing the casing threads are considered damaged and should be replaced. Many sites with info about car, motorcycle and RV tires tell you this.

Clothes dryers are notorious for creating Ozone.

It depends...
Keep any rubber away for electric motors etc. Ozone is given off by them and not good for rubber.

Machine made - vulcanized
Use sooner than later. One year is no issue anything I've seen. If stored in sun, Ozone then things do start to fall apart sooner than later, but one year is always fine under normal storage situations.

Hand-made - glued treads
IMO, 1 year is better than 1 month. I try to buy my better hand made tires a year in advance. This is mostly for glues to cure. During that time I try to have them keep their shape. So if the clincher has no creases or hard folds, that is fine. If they are creased, let they stretch out.

Good natured yanking of the chain. All in good fun. Welcome to BF!

(And good for you that you're concerned. Some aren't at all.)

OK, so I should get my fresh off-the-vine tires, put them in a zip-lock bag, then in Tupperware, then place that in a humidor, in my beer fridge in the garage and they should be good to go for the next decade as long as the fridge isn't near my dryer. Good to know!

In all seriousness, I was wondering if I purchased tires off-season while they are half off would they be good until I used them later in the year which got me wondering how long could they last unused. Sounds like there's nothing to be worried about.

It's all good. I've been around long enough on the interwebz to understand the way comments are intended.

Exactly right. I'd just add that you should make sure you're buying organic, gluten-free tires. That will enhance the shelf life further.

Back-in-the-day they used to age tubular tires to perfection. But honestly keep them out of the sun and they have a long shelf life. I have some GP4000s tires I hoarded at $28 each from PBK a few years ago that I am still using up and they are fine.

Hoarder.

How long do tires stay fresh?


Until somebody is annoyed enough to slap them, then they learn.

Are you planning to store them in you house, like stick them up in a closet or leave them in an out building in the heat and cold? I wouldn't expect any real deterioration for the first couple years in any but the most extreme conditions. I've had ATV and dirt bike tires hanging in the shop for 2 plus years that were as new when I did use them and they really get stressed when mounting.

Fun fact- Some historic racing car restorers keep the original tires on the car to be "period correct", but obviously after 40-50 years the rubber is a total mess and they're virtually undriveable.

If it wasn't clear based on the thread, this really isn't a concern if we're talking proper storage and bike tires that are less than 10 years old or thereabouts.

Cheers

Tubular tires have a few differences with clincher tires. One of them is that tubulars automatically take much longer to cure than clinchers do.

Whenever a tire is made there is solvents used in the rubber to liquify it. The solvents need to evaporate out for the rubber to achieve its full strength.

With a clincher tire, the solvents can dissipate out either direction (through the exterior [tread] side or through the interior side of the tire) and then they blow away. So clinchers can be manufactured very quickly, especially if volatile solvents are used that can be driven out quickly with heat.

With a tubular tire, the solvents that evaporate out to the inside end up trapped in the tire, until they can work their way out again, completely through the entire thickness of the tire. So a tubular would need at least 3 times as long to cure than a clincher the same thickness, and might need much longer.

Being tubulars also explains why they can be stored safely in piles like shown in that video: there is enough air trapped in each tire to make sure that it maintains its round cross-section. If you sucked all the air out of them and left them sit crushed flat for a few years, they'd all be cracked where the casings had been folded.

Anyone have Gatorskins delaminate? The mesh came off the sidewalls on a 5 year old tire mainly due to taking the front off & rubbing against the brake pads. I tried to cut off the mesh because it was rubbing, but it looked bad. I didn't want to take a chance, so I bought new tires.

One thing I haven't seem mentioned:
If I have a folding clincher that's all folded up and wrapped with a hard plastic tie, I prefer to remove the plastic zip-tie-like-band and maybe even unfold it before storing it on a shelf in the garage. Something about those hard ties biting into the rubber or just deforming it indefinitely makes me feel like it'd be a good idea to remove them for longer-term storage.