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How many more miles on this tire?

4K views 20 replies 16 participants last post by  bigblockyeti 
#1 ·
How much life do you think I have left in this rear?
 

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#6 ·
I thought I'd get one more trip out of the stock Bridgestone on Easter weekend year before last, but I knew it would be tight. My tire had just a little more tread on it than yours.

I didn't make it... In an unfamiliar area, we found a tight corner that dropped away and unweighted the rear, with a little fresh light rain on it. Rear tire started to slide, then gripped. High-side.. slide down the road over the wrong side, into a gravel run-off area.

I got thrown up & landed behind the bike, my wife got thrown up & landed in front of it. It chased her down & ran up over her leg, and the crash bar neatly parted her thigh muscle into two pieces.

I mostly fixed the bike up myself, but left a few slightly scraped up parts on it just to remind me one important thing. My wife also has some scraped up parts to remind the both of us the same important thing...

Change the damn tire!
 
#12 ·
I USED to ride my tires down like that and more. That is until, I crashed my bike at night on a wet section of backroad, that was caused by wet mud on the road, but also mostly because my rear tire had no tread left on it. After swerving back and forth three times, steering lock to lock, I rode my bike into the ditch figuring if I was going to fall I'd do it "dirt bike" style on something softer. Then my bike bounced off a culvert, threw me off and the bike landed on me, snapped my left leg just above the ankle.

Since May of 98 I've had a titanium rod in my lower left leg, that would likely not be there if I had not worn down my rear tire to the point of having no tread.

Changing out the tire is inevitable, so what good comes from trying to squeak out another 500 to 1000 miles from a very marginal tire? It's worn flat in the middle. It makes the bike handle weird. If you get caught in the rain it could have dire results. A worn tire wears out faster as it thins. And a this tire carcass is much easier to puncture and suddenly fail. If you've ever experienced a sudden rear tire going flat at speed (like I have) you'd never do it again.

Make your choices, live (or worse) with the results.
 
#15 ·
Don't go just by tread. What if the tire is say 10 years old? Any motorcycle tire over 5 years old needs to be looked at very closely. (per Michelin) If it's approaching 10, change it no matter what.

Whenever I buy a used older bike, or car, I look at the DOT stamp to find the date code. Usually 10-12 numbers follow the letters DOT, the last 4 are the date of manufacture. If the last four numbers are say 2911, it was made in the 29th week of the year in 2011. 0101 would be first week of the year in 2001. The DOT stamp only has to be on one side, so if you can't find the letters DOT, look on the other side. Goes for auto tires too. I attached an example:

 
#20 ·
No cord showing... go for it... your tire.... your rules.......
 
#21 ·
Looks like you've used up over 98% of it, could be good for many more miles, might dump you in less than 2 miles. It depends tremendously on where and how you ride. The tire has very near the same coefficient of friction on a wet surface as would a new tire, right until you hydroplane. Many, many people have gone down with new tires over mud and gravel so that's a poor reason for replacement, the fact the tire is very worn is.
 
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