Hi All

Just wondering what everyone else does with their old tires – more the ones I have no use for rather them being rubbish or destroyed! I have a lot of wired 700c tire and mountain bike tires that I just don’t use because they aren’t tubeless – are there charities that could use them, seems a shame to bin them all (and there are a lot !!)

Best

Lee

Yep, there’s probably a cycle recycle charity somewhere near you, give it a Google

Pile them up in the garage / shed forever, surely.

Is that just me?

Tyres in good condition I will take to a local charity (like Recyke y’Bike). Ones that are worn out, I took to a local cafe (Pedalling Squares) where they get collected and upcycled in to stuff.

Where are you based? Other members might have a suggestion.

Send them to the BBC costume department to be reused in Dr Who alien costumes

There are charities, or just list them on local cycling club or freecycle pages. I’ve got rid of loads recently. Although my resolution is to be less fussy about bike parts in future, the amount of waste I’ve generated through upgrades rather than replacements is obscene. From now on I’m limiting my stockpile to a summer and a winter tyre set, and neither is getting upgraded until it’s worn out. I realised the other day my cross bike pile has:

3x 28mm Sport Contacts
3x 38mm CX comps
2x 40mm Terrano Wets
1x 32mm Specialized Borough slick
2x 30mm CX Pro
1x 35mm Smart sam

No one needs 12 tyres across 2 bikes! That’s a full set of summer, winter, intermediate and road tyres for each of them!

I’ve got about 8 fat tyres

2 sets of supertacky DH tyres, and not a FS bike to put them on

Still some 26″ stuff

Full set of Summer and winter ~2.3 XC 29er tyres (plus the ones on bikes at the moment)

It’s
Just
Daft

And that’s before I question stuff like why do I have 3 spare chainsets. Answer: because chainrings were expensive before we could get unbranded ones from china for £12.

Hmm, good point this. Got a box full of folded up non-tubeless 700C tyres that I’ll never use (“oh”, my hoarding head says, “maybe I’ll get a road bike one day”).
Can’t be bothered to ebay them, so a charity is a nice idea.

Cyclists Fighting Cancer or any other bike recycling group will take them

Put them back on the bike before you sell it and say there’s loads of life left in them 😆

Put them back on the bike before you sell it and say there’s loads of life left in them 😆

This is usually my tactic, stick the worst ones on any bikes that’s being sold.

But I still end up with a box of part worn, but not too badly, tyres.

Non-tubeless annoys me, OK so ~70% of tyres work anyway, but who is still buying the non tubeless tyres that don’t work with sealent? E.g. continental still make a budget 29*2.2 Race King (that’s actually an alright tyre IME), but it doesn’t work tubeless. Whereas a Schwalbe Racing Ralph does. So I end up with a pile of tyres “well I might put them on a commuter someday”. But I won’t, becasue no one wants a puncture at 7am on a wet Tuesday morning in November.

It’s like rims, almost every rim from £500 bikes upwards is some variation on tubeless now, so why aren’t tyres?

Is there’s a significant cost involved in molding a slightly different shaped bead? I kinda get that the tyre ends up a few grammes heavier, but then the people who care about weight, aren’t buying mid range tyres.

Good question in fact the best of the year. Would love to have some good ideas for uses I have a pile of them I’m storing till I find a good use for them.

JeZ

Hi All

Interesting, it’s not just me then ! I am based in Leicester and I have tried to google relevant charities but nothing obvious comes up – I might just Gumtree them, but it feels a bit mean spirited when someone might profit from having them 🤷🏻‍♂️

Chuck them with the pile of tyres at work that we pull out of rivers/brooks and then take them to a recycling centre.