Biggziff

Is this a recommended practice? I have Conti somethings on there and it seems that the rear tire has more wear than the front.

clausen

Not a good idea putting a worn tire in the front wear you need it steer and most of your braking power can be applied. If anything put the front on the rear and a new one on the front.

oboeguy

A worn tire on the front is asking for a bad crash. It is VERY hard to control a bike with a blown front tire (clinchers at least). Fortunately I've only had it happen at slow speeds! Anyhow, the "good" tire goes in front for me.

You should expect more wear on the rear tire, as it's the "drive" tire and also bears more weight. Check the bit on this at Sheldon Brown's site, of course, for more info.

hammond9705

When the rear tire looks worn, I put the front tire on the rear and the new tire on the front. The rear always wears faster.

Bob

Biggziff

ok dokey....thanks..

Thought I'd try these Michelin Pro Race 2 blue tires from Probikekit. They ok?

MICHAELM

I am not sure about the Conti somethings; but, I have ridden the Gatorskins and GP4000 and they are excellent. Haven't ridden Michelins lately; but, I am sure they are good as well from all of the comments. I do though like the 4000 better than the Gatorskins for whatever that is worth.

Biggziff

Heehhe..my current tires are GP3000's. Went out and looked at them. They're all the same to me.

botto 

i rotate my pro race tires. i hear what the others are saying, but i still do it. generally that gives me 2,000+ miles on a set.

ymmv

Chris Lamb

My back tire wears out twice as fast as my front so I've been buying three tires at once and replace the back one when it's shot.

Paniolo

x2 Ideally the new tire would go on front ... but I can never find the same deals on tires when I'm buying and usually end up with 3 new ones in a different brand so I just put the 3rd tire on the back.

waterrockets 

+1

I do it too, and have been for 15 years / ~130,000 miles. I've never had a front fail on me. Road and mountain bikes. I also rotate before the wear is obvious (every month or so). That keeps the two tires more similar to each other. I replace both at the same time unless I have some catastrophic cut from debris.

dougpals

I do this exact same thing. The important part is to do it before the rear tire shows too much wear.

DP

oilman_15106

+1 Rear tire usually wears 2x as fast as the front. When you buy new tires get 3 and your set for a while.

SimiCyclist

Great tires. Its all I've used for the past 2 years. And you can't beat Probikekit's prices.

oboeguy

So what's the goal for you who rotate tires? Some arbitrary notion of even wear? That sounds totally and completely pointless to me. Really, what's to be gained by even wear between front and back? Nothing other than satisfying some wacky notion, IMO. In contrast, what's the goal of "keeping the good one in front"? the minimization of a catastrophic front blow out, with given tires. I believe there's a non-zero benefit to this scheme. OTOH, I and others could be criticized for arbitrarily putting a new tire on the front only when the rear is worn... except that's not what I do. If the front tire is looking ugly, it's gone for good.

waterrockets 

<ignoring the snipped bad attitude in the rest of the post>

They last longer. Just like on a car. Plus I can buy tires in pairs, so I can get the same front and rear model without having to buy three tires and store one.

People who say a rear wears at 2x are making it up. It depends on rider weight, position, pressure, and conditions. Replacing the front after two rears is usually premature. With rotation, they both start to go around the same time.

Again, after 130,000 miles and probably 30 paris of tires (?) I think I would have seen a front failure if that was likely with front/rear rotation. It's never happened. I weigh 180 lbs, and ride on the shoulder of chip-seal roads (not gentle on tires). I also regularly descend at 50-55 mph through corners. No problems ever.

curiouskid55

I use a different tire on the back so rotating is not an option. Use a softer stickier tire on the front and a little harder tire on the back. The wheels do different jobs so do the tires.

Psimet2001 

I rotate as well. I replace tires long before most would so any wear that gets moved to the front is no worse than if I left a tire on the front until my normal replacement. On slow years I will replace once a year on my main rig regardless of wear.

Sorry, but I get a longer useable life out of the tires when I do. In close to 20 years of riding I have not had any experience that would lead me change this technique.

oboeguy

Bad attitude? Hardly. I think consternation might be a better word. I'm assuming wear is approximately linear in the sense that it doesn't wear faster or slower over its life for a given amount of wear, so they don't "last longer" by your technique. Your reasoning is again for some arbitrary thing, so you can buy tires in pairs, unless of course you know something I don't know about tire wear (I have an open mind). However, the post after yours makes some sense, as there are some tire sets which are made differently, IIRC, for front and back. To me, the only advantage of having the same front and rear tire is that I only need to have one spare tire on hand in case of an unrecoverable tire failure (e.g. a gash or sidewall tear).

waterrockets 

They last longer because people who just replace with the 2x rear rule are replacing too often.

rruff

Yes! Or my favorite is to put a light racing tire on the front and a more durable one on the back, and replace each whenever they wear out.

merlinextraligh

And how is it that you create more ability to withstand wear? A tire is going to wear a given amount for each mile ridden. Over time your miles per tire is going to be the same. and the number of tires you'll have to buy over the long haul won't change. It really does seem like a zero sum gain, with a frictional loss in the transaction. And even if you could make your tires last a little bit longer, what's the return on investment. Assume that you could increase your mileage 10% (IMO a questionable assumption), and that you currently replace tires twice a year. That means you're saving the price of a set of tires every 5 years. Rotating my tires on regular basis to save $100 every 5 years is not worth it to me.)

Gummee

Its really easy to tell who's read Sheldon Brown's stuff...

To those that put their faith in SB: when's the last time you had a front blowout? Rear? Which happens more frequently?

Inquiring minds wanna know.

M

SDRider

I started doing that as well. I only get about 1000 miles out of a rear tire.

oboeguy

At least we agree on something (i.e. that "2x wear" is arbitrary and probably way off the mark)!

Gummee, calling some of us Sheldon believers, so what? I'm almost certain that I used to do the very same thing before I read his site. What exactly is your point, anyway? To answer directly, I've never had a front blowout, thank goodness, but I have had flats on the front tire at manageable speeds. Heck I had to send back a new front wheel recently becuase the rim was too tight to put on the tire comfortably after a flat on the road. I'd say I get more rear flats overall.