Arkansas Rocket

Since I have gone to the Darkside, of course the rear tire will last a long time. I installed it on April 2008 and have over 25,000 miles on it. I still have quite a bit of tread left and could probably go another 10,000 miles or more. But here is my question. Does the rubber brake down over the years and become more brittle? My tire doesn't show any signs of cracking but have been thinking about replacing it even though there is plenty of tread left but i'm concerned about the age of the tire. Any thoughts on this matter?

UNCLE JESSE

Not real sure but if I didn't see any cracking in the sidewall I would let her run, I know on RVs they recommend 4 to 5 years but that is with thousands of pounds of weight so I would say you're okay to run

JoseyR3Wales

Danger of Aging Tires, Expiration Dates

It probably stands to reason that there is a correlation between the percentage of rated load a tire carries before degradation and running a car tire on a bike hardly loads it. you could spend an eternity disproving any theory on rubber aging, do YOU trust the tire with your skin or to ride a child pillion? Then you know your answer. That is good service. What tire are you running?

tdragger

You and I went darkside about the same time and have about the same amount of miles. Mine is up on the lift right now in preps for the tire replacement. I'm happy to have 3 years and 29k miles out of mine and don't mind spending the $120 and a few hours of my time to replace it. The new Riken Raptor should last me at least another 3 years.

Arkansas Rocket

I'm running the Toyo Proxy T1R 235/50. I think my next tire is going to be the Riken
Raptor but going down in size to a 225/55. I think it will corner somewhat better than the 235 that I now have, even though I really don't have that much trouble cornering now.

jrhorton

The biggest problem I see with high mileage tires is the too long interval between checking and lubing the final drive splines. Based on my experience with the Valkyrie, I would advise that you pull the rear wheel, inspect, and lube the splines about every year or 10,000 miles to prevent failure of the final drive.

Just my experience...

tdragger

Agreed. Basically, it's done every year during the winter tear-down.