"I'm still not able to recall what I used before that ..."

It finally came to me.  The tires I stopped using in favor of Gatorskins were Specialized Armadillos.  They wore oddly and the outer layer of the casing tended to flake off.

I always carry a couple of $1 bills (US) to use as tire boots. Cover the puncture hole on the inside and you're good to go. Or as Leo might say, Bob's your uncle.

I have been using Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires for most of my tours. If you keep them properly inflated they are indestructible. I finally punctured one last summer after years and thousands of miles.  On the side of the road in Oregon, I discovered that my tire changing skills have gone to pot.

When not touring, I like Mondials or basic Marathons for the lower rolling resistance.

I swap the Marathon Plus tires out before tours. I have at least four in the basement that still have plenty of tread on them. That said, I'm not planning on changing the tires for this year's tour. I bring a spare tire (Panaracer Pasella) in case of a catastrophic tire failure.

John Pickett wrote:

"My tyre  changing skills have gone to pot"

A tribute to the durability of modern touring tyres!

End of the year means that I "close the books" on my 2023 riding spreadsheet and notes and open the same for my 2024 riding.  In doing so I note the mileage on each bike's chain and tires.  The point is this; the front tire on my daily rider currently has 10,700 miles on it and is still looking good.  Prior to being used on my daily rider it served on my main touring bike and accumulated 4,200 miles of loaded touring usage. 

I usually get a bit over 8,000 miles from my tires, but it seems that if I only tour on a tire for 4,000 miles or so that I can get another 6,000+ miles of non-touring duty from it.   My fully loaded bike when touring weighs a bit over 100 pounds (when carrying camping gear) and about 80 pounds (when not carrying camping gear), and I weigh 200 - 220 pounds depending. I am a fan of the Panaracer Tourgard Plus tires and as long as I can get them I will use them. 

Hoping everyone gets good mileage from their tires in 2024,

 Peace, Over and Out... 

My number one concern is the sidewalls. If they look iffy in any way they are replaced. Second is traction loss from wear and third is too many flats in short order. 

I’ve taken a couple of crashes over the years caused by sidewall blowouts and I don’t care to save pennies or inflated dollars and have a repeat. I’ve tossed tires that had thousand of Ks left in the tread but the sidewalls were damaged or just looked damaged but I couldn’t tell the extent.

An example of my caution: MJ has taken a break from triathlons for the past few years but plans to start up this summer. Her racing tires (Conti GP 4000s) probably have only a few hundred miles on them and to the eye are in perfect condition, but will be replaced before she races again.

I’m about to experiment with ‘well aged’ tyres. 13 year old Schwalbe Smart Sams 26x2.1“ which have only covered about 700 km on a loaded tour rough stuff in 2013. 

They’ve been stored in good conditions. The tubes are perished but the tyres look good.

I’ll do a couple of easy local rides to test them out before using them on a tour.

I retired a rear tyre a few months ago due to sidewall cracks.  Always difficult to know how bad they actually are and if they are dangerous.

Personally I prefer to use all my gear for at least a few hundred miles before going too far from home.  I had a Linear recumbent and shortly after fitting a new rear tyre the bead opened out and it fell off the rim.   Bad manufacturing.  Luckily the bike remained  stable with a locked rear wheel!

There is a ‘Bathtub’ curve for failures.  They either fail early on (badly made or bad materials) or late in life (wear and tear).