No, distance on a tyre counts for little. A rear tyre will wear faster on a loaded bike than an unloaded one; it will wear faster if the road is rough or even unsurfaced, if the bike is accelerated harshly, if you don't ride in a straight line, if you get out of the saddle on climbs, if you don't pump it up hard enough, and probably more in winter than in summer. And they wear out more as they get older.
Yes, tyres wear out with distance. But to cite a distance and change the tyre regardless may mean doing it too soon or, indeed, too late.
Little beats looking at the tread and, if you must, taking the tyre off and feeling its thickness with a finger on the top and a thumb on the inside. Or just comparing it to a new tyre.
Some tyres will last until the canvas shows. Others will far sooner perish around the bumps in the tread, or the walls will cut or simply give up. There's no one reason and no simple rule.
If there was a perfect tyre, we'd all ride it. The best advice is to stick with the tyre you like best and convince yourself you are wiser than everyone else. Which you probably are, or you wouldn't be on this website.
This is somewhat off-topic (and I don't have a strong opinion about tire wear in any case), but: Of all the differences in American and British word spellings, "tyre" is, for me, the most jarring of all. (Well, except for maybe "jail" vs. "gaol", but I don't see "gaol" used very often anymore.)
Whenever I read "tyre", I have to pause a fraction of a second for some reason.
Do people who favor "tyre" find the American spelling equally jarring?
Do people who favor "tyre" find the American spelling equally jarring?
To me, tire suggests running out of puff so I favour tyre. But that's the spelling on which I grew up.
Coming back to the original question, I change tyres once they start puncturing too easily. Having said that, we have riding on 50mm Schwalbe Marathon Mondials for the past few years and have had very few punctures.
Hi
We are all most familiar with the spelling we grew up with and with which we're most familiar. English-speakers outside the USA largely favour (geddit?) what Americans call "British" spelling. They therefore find American spelling as curious as you find my version.
It is difficult, however, to hum a tune when the man next door is playing a trumpet. American spellings are therefore creeping into non-American English, along with the return of "gotten" for "got", a variation that died out centuries ago elsewhere but with which Americans persisted.
Many American spellings and indeed many words - faucet, pants etc - are just words that have vanished outside the USA but not within it. And where you still favour -ize endings to verbs, English outside the USA has generally switched to the more modern -ise.
How jarring do we outside the US find your spelling? Some people find it very jarring indeed and conclude that the barbarians are at the door. They remind you tartly what the language is called. Other, more sane and rational people (e.g. me) blink at American spellings but reason that the language has changed many times since Beowulf and Chaucer and even Shakespeare and that doubtless it will change again.
I refuse to call a lavatory a rest room or bath room however, and "twenty" is not pronounced twenny and the country is called Italy and not "iddlee". And there's a T in "mountain."
p.s. You also didn't have the Great Vowel Shift. Notable consequences of that are that you don't have the "o" sound that I use in "coffee" and that your A at the start of a word is closer to my E.
To my ears, therefore, you drink caaaahfee. And you pronounce "and" like "end".
But don't worry. You can't help it. Nobody blames you for it.
As with any on-the-road repair, a flat tire/tyre generally comes unexpected and certainly unwanted. I can't say that any flat has sparked any joy. So, I keep a very close watch on my tires and get rid of them when they have cuts, seem to be seriously worn or keep causing flats. This being said, since switching to Marathon Plus and Marathin Supreme, I haven't had a flat in years and the tires on my Cdale with which I'm touring at the moment, the rubber appears almost new though they are years old. Luck? Conditions? Tyre magic? I don't know, but I'll take it. That sparks joy.
I love the way Leo mocks North American spellings and regional accents with such accuracy and historic context. Leo, stay away from California if you require consonants to be audible. I lived in England as a child, so I do know most differences between US and UK English. I know about biscuits, spanners, lorries, prams, flats, braces and suspenders, and car parts such bonnet, boot, and windscreen. Most Americans have no idea what the word suspenders means in the UK. I also know that the US uses a few French words that are not commonly used in the UK, such as Menu instead of Bill of Fare. As an engineer, I appreciate that a large technical vocabulary is nearly the same in every language.
I generally replace a tire after it becomes prone to flats. Usually no flats for several months, then 2 or 3 punctures in a short time before I retire the tire.
Brent
+1 for the Marathin Supremes.
Pity they don't make them anymore.
Mike
Do people who favor "tyre" find the American spelling equally jarring?
Yes, and I prefer favour!
Here's a spin on the flat tire thread that I thought might be worth it's own thread. I had a recent conversation with a friend about changing tires before our upcoming tour. Jacinto is famous for using his Marathon Plus tires until the blue shows a wide stripe all the way around. When pressured to replace the tire, he tells me that his 'blue' tire has more tread than my much thinner Marathon Racers when they are new. True.
My friend is partial to Continental Gatorskin tires. He changes them every 3,000 miles. That's his criteria. Mileage. I tend to put on at least a new rear tire before a tour. If I'm riding around home and get several flat tires close together, and the tread is looking thin, then I will change the tire. Generally, the tread needs to be thin for me to throw away a tire.
Jacinto purchased a new Rodriguez Bicycle. They stock their bikes with Panaracer tires and touted what a good all around tire Panaracer is. Jacinto had a flat tire within days, and was quite miffed. He took the new tire off, and I put it on my bike. I hated to waste a new tire. We had both checked it, but couldn't find any reason for the flats. I also had a flat in short order, although not the first ride. That was that. I put the tire in the trash. Was it something in the casing that we couldn't find? IDK.
I've meandered around a bit on the topic, no surprises! The real question is what criteria do you have for taking a tire out of service. I've never heard of anyone going strictly by mileage. AD was quite firm in his opinion.
11 months ago