The other thread about what to carry on the Road bike has got me thinking.

Might be a silly question, but how do you know when road tyres are wearing out ?

I’ve always had MTB’s till couple of years ago when I got the road bike and it’s obvious when the MTB tyres are wearing as the nobly bits go 😀 ( oh err missus….)

With the road bike, is it a case of replacing by mileage ?

Cheers.

if you start getting a lot of punctures

if there is a flat section developing along the centre of the tyre

if they start getting cuts and full of flints etc

if they get a ‘buckle’ because one of the inner threads has gone (this is rare)

if you see a storming bargain 🙂 but remember that life is too short for cheap road tyres, if you come off then the speed is higher and landing on tarmac hurts more than soil/grass

Mileage depends on the tyre make/model, the tougher tyres last longer at the expense of grip and weight…

What he said —-^

Some have a little wear indicator to tell you, others just when they start to get punctures. Depending on the tyre that’s anything from 3,000mile to 10,000miles. Or if/when they get damaged, my last pair of GP4000’s I had to take off because they got too deep a cuts that wouldn’t glue, my GP4seasons died due to being left out in the sun and the rubber degraded and fell apart (clearly 4seasons doesn’t include summer in Germany).

Agree life’s too short for rubbish tyres too, I really like Ultremo’s on my nice wheels in the summer, perfect at everything apart from being at the pricey and and not too durable (they’ll still do a summer of riding) although there’s plenty of good mid range tyres, I really like the Conti ‘sport’ tyres, they seem to be broadly similar to the GP tyres but made in the far East.

You can normally tell by looking at them. Cuts, squared off, fraying, dodgy looking sidewalls.

I use GP4000s on my nice bike. I know they have the wear indicators on them (two dots) but by the time those are indicating replacement the tyres have become very square and i notice it when cornering hard in racing.

On my commuter bike I run then as long as I can – until I can see the carcass 😉 on my training wheels I’m a little more cautious but it is more likely a cut or tear gets those since the roads in spring/autumn are full of gravel.

In general on my nice bike they get replaced about every year normally at the start of the road race season. Punctures put an end to races as there is no team car or neutral support in a 3/4. Besides I would have done something close to 7000miles on them in 12 months.