How old is too old for tires?

[ksquared]

If I understand the coding, my Bridgestones are 40th week of 2012. That getting kinda old? They look & feel ok. Any rules of thumb on this?

[EMS]

No answers....

There is probably not "a rule of thumb". It is not just the age of the tire, but mostly what the tire goes through during that time.
Critical are the number of heat cycles it is submitted to and the environment.
I have seen tires on cars that are 25 years old and perfectly fine, because they have not seen excessive temperature changes due to both operation and ambient.
Signs of caution to be observed are dry cracking and hardening. The latter you may only detect during riding.
You know, "they" say to buy a new helmet every 3-5 years, change your brake fluid and fork oil every year....
If you will ask someone who is a tire expert (e.g.: sells tires), he will probably tell you, you need a new set of tires...

[steve murdoch icoa #5322]

Just like an engine oil thread or brake fluid thread there will be many differing opinions.
Has the bike been sitting for a long time? Could they be flat -spotted? Has the air pressure been maintained?
Is this a Sunday afternoon scenic cruiser or a weekend back road warrior? Lots of things to consider.
If i had a never mounted tire stored in the basement away from the sunlight the 5 year limit could be stretched.

[desertrefugee]

That must be why I didn't exactly set the world on fire with my admittedly rather opinionated blurb about tires a while back. Nobody really wants to go there.

...but this is good opportunity to refer to it again. Does that mean I'm "doubling down" on my position?

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=11049

[wyly]

the tires that came on my new rims still had usable tread depth but rubber does get harder/stiffer with age and at 17yrs old it just wasn't worth the risk and I cut them off...

[cross]

No answers....

There is probably not "a rule of thumb". It is not just the age of the tire, but mostly what the tire goes through during that time.
Critical are the number of heat cycles it is submitted to and the environment.
I have seen tires on cars that are 25 years old and perfectly fine, because they have not seen excessive temperature changes due to both operation and ambient.
Signs of caution to be observed are dry cracking and hardening. The latter you may only detect during riding.
You know, "they" say to buy a new helmet every 3-5 years, change your brake fluid and fork oil every year....
If you will ask someone who is a tire expert (e.g.: sells tires), he will probably tell you, you need a new set of tires...

This is all very true. When i got my CBX 5 years ago, it had tires dated '99 and they were brand new dunlops. Bike was stored in the garage in Arizona at all times. Tires were not cracked at all but were very hard and tapping on them with my hand made them sound like hard plastic. I rode on them just a little bit through the neighborhood on test rides while i was sorting bike out. Once bike was ready i bought new tires as i didn't feel comfortable riding with them. My Ducati was the same, 7y/o tires but were just as hard because bike sat outside on the parking lot on a marine base in Yuma, Arizona. I changed them before i rode it on the hwy. This is just me not being confident with them. Few people i know would ride on them until they have threads showing.
If i had the bike that is mostly sitting and not getting much of any riding, i probably would not change them unless they are cracked

[rupsus]

I have 2007 tires on a bike which still rides fine, even in rain.
Another bike has tires from 2001, as I only use the bike during sunny days it's also fine but I don't like to drive with these tires in the rain and within 1 or 2 years I will change them.

My cbx has tyres with a 3 digit dot code (pre-2000) 128, this could be 98 or 88 but anyway way too old to have any reliability on a bike.

Tires can be sold as 'new' up to 5years after production date, so in that case 2012 isn't that bad anyway

[ksquared]

I appreciate all the response. I think my CBX tires are ok for now. When I got my CB400F, it had 20 year old tires. It handled kinda odd. No, I didn't go anywhere but around the block a few times.The best I can describe is it felt kind of heavy in turns. It took a bit of concentration to handle. After installing new Avons, that feeling went away. Big difference. Much more precise & predictable. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that tires can make/break a bike.

[ksquared]

Well I was going to ride to work this morning on my CBX but I checked the tire pressures first. Rear was ok but the front was around 8-10lbs. I had it at 28 two days ago. So I'm thinking I have a leak. Thing is the tire looked ok & was stiff to the squeeze test. So I let all of the air out and it didn't go very flat and still felt very firm with a hand squeeze. No, I didn't try to ride it that way. I've attached a picture of the tire with no air. Is this what I should expect? I'm thinking maybe it's new tire time. Thoughts?