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How to Make Your Bicycle Tires Last Longer

bicycle tire care tips

By John Marsh

I use an app from Feedback Sports to track when I install every component on my bike. I wrote a QT about it just about a year ago: Catalog Your Bike and Components for Maintenance. You can also keep track of components on Strava if you use that, which is great because you can see how many miles you’ve put on a bike.

Even though I do keep track of when I install my tires, I know that they’re not really a component I can accurately plan to replace at a certain interval. Where the rubber meets the road is the one place on a bike that can go from perfect condition to useless almost instantly if your luck is bad enough. We’ve probably all got at least one such tire story. Here’s one of mine:

I once rolled over some railroad tracks – same ones I ride over on nearly every ride I take of a certain distance – and somehow caught something that ripped through the sidewall of my front tire, flatting it instantly. Thankfully, I always carry paper money and a tire boot in my seat bag, and a dollar bill worked fine to get me home so I could install a new tire.

I’m not the kind of rider who wears my tires down to the nub. I do, however, take steps to “maintain” them to help prevent flats and get as much wear from them as I can.

First, I “clean” them after every ride by spinning them and then letting them run though the bristles of the door mat at my back door. (Three spins each, front and rear.) This little trick does a great job of cleaning off all the micro road grit than can adhere to your tires.

In addition, I regularly check the wear of the tires and every couple of weeks hold each one up to a bright ceiling light, turning it one complete revolution very slowly and closely inspecting for any serious cuts, especially, or imbedded wires and such. To close cuts, some riders like to use super glue.

For an even closer inspection, I use the flashlight mode on my phone, which casts a very bright, focused beam on the tire as I work my way around it. (I pretty well never find anything imbedded, as the spin through the floor mat bristles seems to largely remove such debris.) But on occasion, I’ll find something embedded that I need to use my pick to remove. Little wires from radial tires, especially, can work their way through a tire tread and prick the tube. That’s all it takes.

I always buy 2-4 tires at a time so that I have a regular stock on hand when it comes time to replace a worn or damaged tire. Again, you just never know when that time will come.

Finally, if one tire needs replacing, I’ll then closely check the status of the other tire and often “rotate” the still-good tire to the other wheel, depending on the wear of that tire and which wheel it’s on. Back tires wear fast and thus typically need to be replaced more often.


If you have an idea for a QT, fire away. We’re always looking for good info we can share with fellow roadies. We would love to hear from you with any suggestions you have. Contact us by clicking Quick Tips Ideas.

—John Marsh & The RBR Team

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. larry english says

    March 2, 2017 at 12:53 pm

    i’ve decided ‘rotating’ doesn;t do anything, other than to place the worst tire on the most critical wheel half the time….

    Reply
  2. Wess says

    March 2, 2017 at 2:44 pm

    About once a week, I deflate the tire before the inspecting for embedded particles. Often find small pieces of glass I’ve picked up, they are then easily removed using a good pair of tweezers.

    Reply
  3. Kevin Stamm says

    March 2, 2017 at 4:32 pm

    Living near a recycling facility I go so tired of replacing torn up tires I just hire to ride in front of me – 1. a city street sweeper -2. a very powerful bar magnet truck to pick up the metal and 3. a tornado force blower truck to blow what first two missed out of way cleaning my path as I ride the third world streets of San Francisco. It’s quite the parade. Ooh and don’t forget the pot hole patching truck unless you are on your fully suspended Mountain bike. Kevin Stamm just dreaming.

    Reply
  4. Roger says

    March 2, 2017 at 6:25 pm

    With today’s tires holding pressures of 120 lbs psi and more, should you perhaps relieve some of that pressure after each ride to release some of the strain placed on the tire and wheel, while storing your bicycle between rides?

    Reply
  5. Kerry Irons says

    March 2, 2017 at 9:18 pm

    I’m lucky to live in a state with a10 cent bottle deposit, so we really do have few flats caused by glass, either as punctures or tire cuts. As a result I don’t do any tire inspections and have maybe one flat every 5K miles. As far as when to replace tires, Continental puts wear indicators on GP 4000 tires, and the indicators are gone when the rubber is worn right down to the casing. As far as deflating tires between rides, two points 1) running 120 psi is generally a big mistake and 2) there is no need to let pressure down to “save” the tire.

    Reply
  6. John Marsh says

    March 2, 2017 at 10:36 pm

    Totally agree with Kerry re: inflation pressure and no need to deflate between rides. I ride at 90 front, 95 rear, pumping up once or twice a week. In between I simply let the tires lose some air, down to maybe 80 and 85. It’s never a problem. And there’s no reason at all to go as high as 120. You’ll have a much more comfortable ride with the lower pressures — and suffer zero performance downgrade.

    Reply
  7. Kevin Simmons says

    March 3, 2017 at 3:24 am

    Salt trucks put down a whole lot of silica slivers with the salt. Those little slivers love to work their way through bicycle tires! I believe they are supposed to add traction for car tires.

    Reply
  8. David Frost says

    March 3, 2017 at 7:23 am

    I’m a firm believer in having the best tire in front, so when my rear tire needs replacing, the previous front (which typically has little wear) goes there, and a new tire goes on the front wheel. And I also believe that life is too short to spend it on cheap tires.

    Reply
  9. russell says

    March 3, 2017 at 2:58 pm

    I would avoid “super glue” for small cuts, as the hardened glue can then become the cause of a future puncture.. I’ve found “Shoe Glue” to be a far better alternative patching material as it remains flexible.

    Reply
  10. Bike Fitness Coaching says

    March 3, 2017 at 4:10 pm

    Shoe Glue – great idea!

    Reply
  11. Larry says

    March 3, 2017 at 4:33 pm

    Rotating is important–wear on the front is far less than the rear and an old tire can be a dangerous tire. Rotating insures that each tire is reasonably fresh. On Conti’s, the fabric applied to reinforce the bead will sometimes start to fray and you’ll find long, nylon threads wrapped around the axle, the cassette, the derailleur pullies, etc. if not careful. Rotating keeps this to a minimum because the tire isn’t dried out and frayed. The best lesson I had on avoiding old tires is when I recently needed to use a backup wheel. The tire had micro cracks in the tread, probably from drying out while on the hook but it looked OK. I came back from a ride, inspected the tire and found that about 2/3 of the tread had exfoliated and I was riding the casing. That one was on the rear but on either end, tires degrade if not rotated out.

    Reply
  12. STeve K says

    March 6, 2017 at 5:11 am

    Agree that inflation over 100 psi might make it feel faster but studies show it does not actually improve speed.

    Reply
  13. Martin Ditzel says

    March 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

    I disagree. A front tire should be a less worn tire, generally. A tire puncture/flat on the front will probably be more difficult to control-to-a-stop than a rear tire puncture/flat.
    Also, a rear tire wears different than a front wheel: A rear wheel does not pivot in a bike frame; so it must grind through corners to follow the line of the front wheel. This causes the tire to develop a flat top (which is not a good characteristic for a steering/front tire)!
    Assuming the tires are front-to-rear interchangeable:
    If the rear tire needs replacing; remove the front tire and put it on the rear wheel.
    If just the front tire needs replacing; a new one is best.

    Reply
  14. Anonymous says

    March 6, 2017 at 10:53 pm

    Sometimes a small object — wire, stone, glass, ? — can be stuck/embedded in the tire casing and tread to the degree it is very difficult to remove. If you remove the tire from the wheel; and pinch the tire to make the object protrude; it should be easier to remove. Even then, it may require a gripping tool to pull it out of the tire! For such occasions, one may use finger nail clippers or some such device carried in a repair kit.

    Reply
  15. John Mulvihill says

    July 25, 2019 at 8:23 pm

    If you can’t find whatever punctured your tube by examining the outside of the tire, try searching the tire’s inside. Line up the puncture point of the tube with the corresponding region of the tire. Closely examine the inside of the tire in that region by turning it inside out and holding it under a strong light. Often the culprit will be a tiny shard of glass that has worked its way through the tire over time.

    My Continental Gatorskins don’t permit these shards to get through, and that’s why I accept the weight penalty and use only these tires. Here in the Bay Area the surrounding hilly roads never have their shoulders cleaned and as a result are strewn with broken glass. (The local deplorables smash bottles on the shoulders of the back roads in the hope of inconveniencing cyclists, who represent everything they hate.) Lightweight “racing” clinchers have no chance against glass particles or goat head thorns, another hazard to watch out for.

    Reply

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