Road tyres

Boosterseat

Hi all - can anyone advise me on when is a good time to replace road tyres? 1,000km up on these now and don't recall whether there were decent threads on them when i got them or not, but they are looking a little worn down now. Maybe there is a rough standard number of kms that would be a good gauge for this.

blorg

It really depends on the tyre and to an extent luck but I would expect to get more than 1,000km out of most tyres. The longest I have managed was 20,000km but more typically probably 3-5,000km. Racier tyres will need replacing more often than commuter type tyres like Gatorskins.

Some tyres (e.g. Continental) have wear indicators- little holes in the rubber; when you can't see them any more it is time to replace. Many road tyres have no or only a cosmetic tread so that is not always a good indicator.

If you are not seeing any problems or getting a string of punctures they could well be fine.

What tyres are they?

Boosterseat

Type of tyre - honestly...no idea.

No puncture problems, I was cleaning the bike yesterday and just noticed the threads worn down, but no visible problems. I think you may have a point that the threads are more cosmetic than anything else, but like a car am just conscious that if the thread is gone do I have a safety issue?

abcdggs

No, the tread on a road tyre is essentially cosmetic. slick tyres have the best grip, treads are only on car tyres to let water out of the contact patch so as to avoid aquaplaning, due to the small size of the contact area on a bike you have to be going very fast for it to become an issue

psi Bar mph km/h
120 8.3 113 183
100 6.9 104 167
80 5.5 93 149
60 4.1 80 129
40 2.8 66 105

Boosterseat

abcdggs wrote: »

No, the tread on a road tyre is essentially cosmetic. slick tyres have the best grip, treads are only on car tyres to let water out of the contact patch so as to avoid aquaplaning, due to the small size of the contact area on a bike you have to be going very fast for it to become an issue

psi Bar mph km/h
120 8.3 113 183
100 6.9 104 167
80 5.5 93 149
60 4.1 80 129
40 2.8 66 105

Slicks have better grip! That's very interesting, thank you. Judging by the table, mine are inflated to 100psi, does this mean i have gotts travel at 167km/h before I have issues? In that case - nothing to worry about.

abcdggs

I would have thought that tyre width would affect the results, but according to sheldon this is the case, and i'm certainly not going to disagree.

to clarify, slicks have better grip on road

tomasrojo

I find that after 5000km is about the time when puncture-resistant tyres need replacing. I usually swap the front and back tyres after about 2500km too to get even wear. If a tyre is very worn, don't put it on the front though.

Boosterseat

tomasrojo wrote: »

I find that after 5000km is about the time when puncture-resistant tyres need replacing. I usually swap the front and back tyres after about 2500km too to get even wear. If a tyre is very worn, don't put it on the front though.

From replies here it appears mine are not actually that worn at all. Thanks for tips.