Tyre life?

[worzel]

Roughly, what sort of km should you get out of a tyre before it needs replacing? I have a commuter bike with 700x23C tyres on it. My commute is a mixture of road and shared bike/foot path with the usual tree-root launches, broken glass etc.

[Razorwolf]

How long is a piece of string?

Denpends on:
a) how hard you ride the bike
b) how much emergency braking happens
c) quality of tyre

[worzel]

Of course, just looking for a general indication whether it is 1000km, 5000km etc to decide whether I ought to have spares at home. In answer to your questions: Average 26kph, quite a lot due to pedestrians not looking where they are going / me missing turnings; and Vittoria Zaffiro 700x23C

[Razorwolf]

Rough guess 5k - 7k depending on how smooth your braking style is. I've never used those tyres before. I prefer Maxxis Detonator and Refuse.

[ironhanglider]

Yes you should have spares at home.

Tyres don't always wear out.

Cheers,

Cameron

[il padrone]

5,000kms at a minimum, unless you ride some racing lightweights. I get 14,000kms routinely out of my Vittoria Rnadonneur Cross 26x1.75".

[KGB]

I'd expect and be satisfied with 5000km out of a road tyre like the vittorias you have.
I made the mistake of leaving some conti supersonics on after a race once. Barely 1000km and I was looking at threads on the rear - they are purposely paper thin though.
As already alluded to, you won't "wear out" a lot of tyres mostly due to cuts and slashes which can happen more easily as the tyre wears.

[lobstermash]

Tyres you don't like never puncture and last forever...

[Dragster1]

Tyres you don't like never puncture and last forever...

So true

[KGB]

Werd.

[ldrcycles]

Maybe I could get that kind of mileage if i rode on a timber indoor velodrome that is hand polished every morning, but here in the real world where coarse chip bitumen is a luxury, I've never had more than 4,000kms out of a tyre, and by that stage they are completely shagged. That's with Maxxis Refuse, which are nearly twice as good as the next best, and nearly 4 times better than anything else.

[foo on patrol]

I'll give a tick for the Maxxis Refuse also but mine only have about 2500klms on them so far, with no punctures and I ride on some pretty dirty roads also.

Foo

[queequeg]

The rear tyre on my commuter is now over 22,000km, though it did spend the first 20,000km on the front.
This is not usual for me as a rear tyre usually lasts about 12,000km from new, at which time I move the front to the rear and fit a new front tyre. However, the last time I replaced the rear tyre I had a used spare tyre that was in slightly worse condition than then front, so the used spare was rotated in and the front stayed put.

I reckon there as about another 3,000km left on the rear, so I should get to 25,000km.

The tyre....Schwalbe Marathon Plus, 700x28c

[clackers]

Roughly, what sort of km should you get out of a tyre before it needs replacing? I have a commuter bike with 700x23C tyres on it. My commute is a mixture of road and shared bike/foot path with the usual tree-root launches, broken glass etc.

Eyeball the wear, Worzel. The tread pattern in itself is not important, it's the wear of central belt that is.

My commuter does eventually pick up enough glass that cuts in the tyre make it necessary to replace.

[Aushiker]

I keep a track of my bicycle tyre rear rates here and for my "commuter" tyres I am getting an average of 2,100 kilometres from them. My approach on my diamond frames has been to move the front to the rear to the bin which may give me a little more life.

Andrew

[worzel]

Thanks all. So I could be looking at replacement every 3-6 months. That's a lot given my car has had a new set only once in 6 years (at 30,000km)

[ldrcycles]

Ah i should clarify, i was talking about 700x23s, i did have a set of Michelin City 28s that were virtually unworn at 2,000kms when i sold the bike they were on. All other things being equal, a 28mm or larger tyre should last a hell of a lot longer than a 23, simply because there is more rubber there.

Sadly this doesn't work with the $15 tyres i use on 27" bikes, they work beautifully but i haven't had more than about ~1500kms out of one yet, a lot less if there's dirt roads involved.

[rkelsen]

That's a lot given my car has had a new set only once in 6 years (at 30,000km)

Have you ever compared car and bicycle tyres side by side?



There is a (very simple) reason that bike tyres don't require balancing...

[KGB]

Thanks all. So I could be looking at replacement every 3-6 months. That's a lot given my car has had a new set only once in 6 years (at 30,000km)

That's a useless comparison. About the only thing they have in common is that they are both (loosely speaking) made of some kind of rubber.
Generally speaking, at 6 yrs old a car tyre probably isn't very safe anymore anyway.

[ColinOldnCranky]

With the popularity for very thin tyres and sticky compounds I can't imagine much more than a few thousand.

However when I rode a bike i stuck with 1" (700) of no particular branding and, thinking back to how many tyres I think would have bought, I reckon I may have managed over 10,000km a tyre. But I stretch it a bit and often moved them from the back to the front wheel and didn't worry too much about tread. For those who have not realised it yet, a small diameter rounded cross section has no trouble squeezing the water away.

You could resist the temptation to have the narrowest and hardest tyre on the block.

These days 3,000km on 24x1.75 is about what I get. Just as well I only have one to replace.

[worzel]

That's a useless comparison. About the only thing they have in common is that they are both (loosely speaking) made of some kind of rubber.
Generally speaking, at 6 yrs old a car tyre probably isn't very safe anymore anyway.

My comparision had nothing to do with the quality/pressure/width etc of the tyres, merely the time interval between replacement. I will have several services between sets of tyres on the car so plenty of opportunity to be notified, if I haven't already seen it myself, that the tread is getting low. But with maybe 2000km to a bike tyre that could be as little as 3 months if I commute to work on my bike twice per week and do another ride at the weekend. My point is that that is more frequent than a car service and a lot more frequent than a new set of car tyres so I need to be aware/have a spare.

I also didn't say I have had the same car tyres for 6 years, they will be due again soon so 3-4 years per set on low km.

[clackers]

My point is that that is more frequent than a car service and a lot more frequent than a new set of car tyres so I need to be aware/have a spare..

Sure. You could probably get more km out of a tyre with a quite hard compound, but it will probably grip less. For commuting, possibly fine. Cornering in the wet on a roadie, maybe not.

[rkelsen]

[But with maybe 2000km to a bike tyre that could be as little as 3 months if I commute to work on my bike twice per week and do another ride at the weekend.

So your commute is >30km each way?

Regardless, 2,000km is a short life even for racing tyres. I was fairly big starting out (>106kg) and have generally managed to get at least twice that much out of a 23mm rear tyre, even riding on crappy paths every day. Fronts last at least 3 times longer. I don't do what everyone else seems to do and shift the front to the rear. I just replace the rear when it wears out.

I've currently got a set of Schwalbe Marathons on the commuter. It'll be interesting to see how long they last.

[tekapo]

Just replace it when it start to look crap? Cracking side walls and gashes in the tire, or when the anti puncture belt starts to show, or when you get flats every other day? The number of ks will depend on the rider, riding conditions etc, e.g. I am 100kg + 15kg bike +10kg pannier, the tire will wear a lot faster than a 70kg guy with a 10kg bike. I also usually take the bike paths and side roads where the surface is a lot rougher than the main roads as well.

[worzel]

So your commute is >30km each way?

Yep, 32km which is why I only do it twice a week. It is also behind my question - if I have a tyre bulge (had it happen a few times way back in my teens) its a long walk home so I would consider changing the tyre if it had clocked up a lot of km even if it showed no major signs of wear.

I could probably walk to a station in an hour from anywhere on my route but rather not. Whether I ride or get the train I leave home about 6.30 and get home about 6pm so my only chance to buy a spare is at the weekend. And if it is a weekend I am away diving etc it could take me weeks to get back on the bike.