23-year-old Bike Tyres

93FireTrail

Dirt Disciple
Hi

I purchased my '93 Indian Fire Trail with original tyres .... I thought they looked a little cracked, and then I looked at them closely! :shock: Would you ride on them?! :LOL:
 

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nope, a case of gravel rash will not be far behind if you do
 
Ive ridden on newer tyres with deeper cracks roynd the knobs with no issues .

If the carcass is sound nothing bad will happen.
 
Re:

They don't look too bad at all for 23 year old tyres!
I've had some old original tyres in the past where the rubber on the sidewalls was crumbling and you could just about poke your finger through the tyre in places :shock: fine for taking a photo, but I didn't ride on them.
But those you have, I'd maybe use them for more sedate riding, but I'd be looking to replace them in the near future.
 
Re:

I'd go the middle road. That is, I would get a new tire on the front where a blow out could be dangerous, and keep using the rear.

If the tire fails, being the rear should not be too dramatic. And anyway given the little thread left, if you start using them regularly they won't last long. When one is worn, install the other one again in the rear.
 
Its only rubber embedded in a woven casing. As long as that is sound the rubber bits are complimentary :LOL:

tufty":2sy04vhr said:
I've ridden motorcycles at 100mph+ with worse tyres than that.
Burt Munro -205.67 mph on cracked tyres(apparently filled with hardened boot polish).
 
Re:

Thanks to everybody who replied! :cool:. I will do a few leisurely rides on the the old tyres (LOW speed), before replacing them with Conti road tyres!
 
My response was based on them being desirable retro tyres but if you are penny piching, dont since there is not much tread left, decent tyres can be picked up from £8
 
Re:

I had some NOS red Ritchey WCS tyres, laid down for 20+yrs, with bigger cracks than that but I wouldn't ride them. They could pick up 'sharps' or delaminate more easily etc so for show only not proper riding. I replace a car tyre if it's punctured and sell off the repaired tyre. A mate had a blowout at speed once on a repaired tyre, he's lucky to be still around.

100mph on cracked tyres :shock:
 
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