groundeffect Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 It's re-tiring time again!..no, can't aford to leave the work force- but I need new tires! Whilst inspecting my current Z6's, I noticed the date of manufacture was 2004-no big deal, as they were fitted 16000km ago in Aug. 05.(no chord showing yet..but the wear bars are Ahem,infringed upon) My question; What is the shelf life of a tire? I mean sitting on the shelf, are there age issues? Ozone shouldn't play a part. If there were no consequences of storage, then the production date becomes important only once fitted? Just curious. Dave Link to comment
GreggBates Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 I'm getting Pilot Road treads put on this Friday! My first ever non-Metzeler. Shelf life? Ask a Hardley-Davyson owner, one set on tires lasts them for many-many years! Hey! That's it! Ive just figured it all out! They spend that much money on a custom chopper, or $17K-20K on a stocker followed by thousands of bucks on chrome and billet and trick paint, and they are out of money for tires! Moral= They are economizing by making their tires last for the life of the bike!!! Gregg Link to comment
tomk99r11 Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 More than likely the tires last for years because they can't stand to ride the damn things very far at a time or very often. Besides it's more cool to make lots of noise and look like crap! Link to comment
BUSTED Posted July 4, 2006 Share Posted July 4, 2006 I've mounted new-old stock Z rated tires as old as 4 years and never had any problems with them. Link to comment
ChrisA Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 I'm getting Pilot Road treads put on this Friday! My first ever non-Metzeler. Shelf life? Ask a Hardley-Davyson owner, one set on tires lasts them for many-many years! Hey! That's it! Ive just figured it all out! They spend that much money on a custom chopper, or $17K-20K on a stocker followed by thousands of bucks on chrome and billet and trick paint, and they are out of money for tires! Moral= They are economizing by making their tires last for the life of the bike!!! Gregg I'm not sure how this turned into a Harley-bashing thread. However, I'll say I put two sets of Avons on my Dyna Wide Glide and got about 15k out of each set, the third set is still on there now that my wife rides the bike. I can see that the BMW tires, whatever the brand, are much softer compound since 6k seems like an acceptable amount of miles for a set of tires. Seems crazy to me for a 600lb bike to go through tires in 6k miles, but I'm new to this BMW thing anyway so I'm learning. BTW, Harley does not make a chopper. Link to comment
SteveB Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 As the saying goes, tires are your life. Since you have no idea how the tires may have been stored before they show up on your bike the freshness date is very important to you. The tires must be protected from direct sunlight and continuous changes of air. As ozone is particularly damaging, storerooms must not contain any devices that generate ozone like electric motors and fluorescent lights, solvents, fuels, lubricants, and chemicals should not be kept in tire storerooms or come into contact with tires. Tires can crack if stored under pressure such as in a stack. The newer the tire the less chance it has had to be abused in the storeroom. BTW, if the actual number stamped on you tire is 2004 that means it was manufactured during the 20th week of 2004. The tire you put on in August 2005 was 15 months old when “new” and now is about 25 months old. Good thing we are not talking about bread! Link to comment
Les is more Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Chris--Thanks for pulling the thread back from the hijack/Harley smack brink. The trade off in miles per tire is that extra bit of stickiness in the corners. When you ride in a way that puts the "sport" into sport touring, The stresses involved can shorten the tire life a bit. We often get 10,000 or so miles out of a set of Pilot Roads. We enjoy a spritely pace through the twisties when we reach our destination but the road there is often long and straight. The steady pace of the slab or a stick straight traverse across parts of the desert seem to be a bit kinder to the tires. Link to comment
ednap Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 Just had a new set of Pilot Road fitted to my RT today plus the annual road worthy check, compulsory 3rd party insurance and registration. I got 17,500 km from the front (10873 miles) and 13,500 km (8388 miles) from the rear. The rear still had some life left on it but with the road worthy check due I decided to change both. I am very happy with the feel of these tyres in wet or dry so that's why I elected to stay with them Link to comment
riderbob Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 I've recently read that the average shelf life for a tyre is five years. Beyond that they are potentially unsafe. Link to comment
GreggBates Posted July 6, 2006 Share Posted July 6, 2006 Hi Chris, never said H-D makes a chopper. Sorry bout the H-D rant, got lots of freinds and neighbors who own them, and several ride them. What part of South Jersey are you in? I have family in Deepwater, Pennsville, Salem, and thereabouts. My cousin's husband in Salem bought a real pretty 1200 sportster, had it for a while then sold it, never really rode it. (shame) Gregg P.S. I built about 2/3 of a shovelhead FLH before I sold it and bought my first Beemer. (got three times what I had in it though!) Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.