Tale Of A Puncture

[bigjap]

last week i had a flat tyre,as usual it was dark,pouring with rain,anyway i changed it next morning,looked at the tyre and the whole shoulder had worn away and the rubber very thin,had a hole the bit that wore away should'nt,have been touching the road,the tread still got 5mm all over on it,its a michelin pilot premacy tyre,on the car when i bought it,and they looked almost new,and the vendor said they had not been on long,i check my tyres regularly,and nothing untoward until now.worried i had a suspension fault or something like i took it over my mates stuck it on the lift checked the suspension bushes etc with bars etc,nothing amiss.so today i go to get new tyre showed them the tyre,the fitter after i asked his opinion how this had happened,had a look around ,then it turns out both the rear tyres are 14 years old,so i had a couple of falkiens fitted.turns out the previous owner had bought these online, second hand but never used,

just goes to show how careful you to have to be,cos these tyres look brand new,and look to be ok and to be fair they have been ok

but a hidden danger

[Cotswold Pete]

I would never trust a tyre over 10 years old even un-used, as it hardens, no matter how good it was in the first place.

I do have pedal bike with tyres that are nearly 30 years old, and it surprises me that they have not yet fallen apart, but the rubber lost any of its oils 20 years ago, but a tyre fail on a cycle is less risky that in a LS

[bigjap]

no nor would i, the prob being, no one knew how old they were,there is a code on them what the fitters read,but i think the general public would'nt know! .even tho the remaining tyre had 5.5mm tread iv changed it

[Cotswold Pete]

no nor would i, the prob being, no one knew how old they were,there is a code on them what the fitters read,but i think the general public would'nt know! .even tho the remaining tyre had 5.5mm tread iv changed it

When I got my Mk4, it had what looked to me to be the original spare tyre, and it was easy to see by the sheen of the tyre, that it was fit for nothing.

I guess it means we should use spare as working tyre, otherwise you end up have £100 of tyre not earning it's keep and being thrown away.

Also good to lift out the spare every 6 months to check no moisture build up on the alloy, as it does mark them.

I tend to find in the winter chucking soaking coats in the boot can soak into the boot may and then condense on the wheel, so my spare has slight spots on it from this (as well as the time when it had the dreaded boot leak before I bought it)

[Maduggo]

I would never trust a tyre over 10 years old even un-used, as it hardens, no matter how good it was in the first place.

I do have pedal bike with tyres that are nearly 30 years old, and it surprises me that they have not yet fallen apart, but the rubber lost any of its oils 20 years ago, but a tyre fail on a cycle is less risky that in a LS

Pedal cycle rubber is just as dangerous when not looked after, shifting along at a steady 25mph in traffic and a tyre drops you to the rim can easily throw you into traffic.

Did that and got the scar to prove it.

As a foot note, i do look around my tyres weekly for any noticeable marks blemishes etc, takes only a few seconds that could save your life. Even more so on my truck, 40+ton makes a mess when it hits anything at 50mph

[steve2006]

To check the manufacture date of a tyre look for the Dot

symbol and the 4 numbers after it .The first 2 are the week and the second 2 the year so 2308 would be week 23 in 2008.