Supertacky tyre shelf life?

I have a 5 year old supertacky minion that has has tons of tread left which I was going to use in the Alps this year. Having just received a new maxxpro 60A tyre for the rear I am amazed at how much stickier it feels to the touch which has made me question the condition of the supertacky tyre which is not sticky to the touch in the slightest.

I tried the Maxxis site with no luck and have done a net search which discusses ~6year for car tyres with higher performance tyres having shorter life spans down to 1 year for racing slicks.

I guess the rubber dries out so changes from the stated spec but is it a considerable amount – worth worrying about at all?

When I get a chance I will stick it on the bike and have a shot to see if anything feels odd.

Bump for any useful info. 🙂

Are you sure it’s not just the release compound from the mould? My new tures feel tacky but teh grip’s shocking for the first couple of miles.

As long as the sidewalls on the old tyre aren’t dried + cracked it should be grand.

The stickiness of the new tyre is probably just the releasing compound to get the rubber out of the mould. It’ll wear off in after a ride or two.

edit – curse you, slow fingers!!!

Depending upon how you store them tyres will eventually dry out and become ‘brittle’, the better the storage, (i.e. cool and shaded), the longer the ‘process’ You will notice that they have a bluey sheen to them, that’s a residue from the evaporating oils.

You can use the tyre but they will probably tear to shreds pretty quick.

You can buy a treatment compound from car racing shops that ‘refreshes’ them and makes them tacky again but it’s expensive and you could buy new tyres for the cost.

It may well be a few points harder, but I have no idea if this will make any difference to the grip. I have recently done a lot of work in thermoplastic elastomers and rubbers examining change in properties over time. As 100mphlus says it really depends on storage conditions, and what the tyre was made from in the first place. The answer would lie in carrying out some polymer analysis on a new tyre and then a 5 year old tyre…

Thanks for the opinions.

The tyre has been stored under the house away from daylight which is a plus.

It does have a tiny bit of surface cracking on the side wall. I’ll mount both up on the bike front and back and give it a good run out and see what it feels like. That should get rid of the gummy covering on the new tyre for a comparison.

I don’t like the idea that the tyre may break down rapidly for a week in the Alps 😯

Checked them out again tonight. Pinching the knobs 😳 – the old supertacky feels slightly softer (or ~comparable) in structure to the new 60A. The only cracking on the sidewall is at the maxxis logo which is bonded on so I think it is a goer

If your tire doesn’t have a use by date on it, it’s a fake.

Don’t be mean, I have wound myself up enough over this already! 😆

It’ll be fine, I regularly run old tyres, Think my hack bike has a 7 year old Tioga on the front and a similar aged Maxxis High Roller ST on the back (now semi slick due to many years wear), still rides fine.

Although I’m sure someone will come on here and mock the idea of tyres over 10 minutes old and have a pseudo-scientific reason for it. A friend has used the same Minions in Morzine foe the past 3 summers as that’s the only time the DH bike comes out