gruesome discovery...I feel raped by my dealership

[Wh0M3]

It seems to me that over the past few years the news media in the US has gotten on the topic of old tires. There was a crash that killed the driver and it happened because the 'new' tires were actually old tires that looked new. They still had the little nobbies on them so most people who think to look for those to mean new wouldn't know any different.

There was a Dateline story (I think) where a reporter went across the country looking for places that sell tires to see what the oldest tire they could find in "new" condition and if the shop would sell it to them and what they would say. I remember they found some that were ten years old or so and the guy at the shop installed it and said to use it as a spare only.

I think Mythbusters got into it too, but I haven't had any luck with google to find either story.

It is a good practice to know what your looking at when you buy, and to really look at the tires of a used bike. I wish I had asked for new rubber on my bike when I bought it but I didn't think about it when I bought it.

 

[macem29]

interesting read here guys, report to US Congress on tire aging, PDF file:

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/download/2010/0512/23529107.pdf

here's a C/P of the conclusions:

The NHTSA Field Study concluded that tires continue to degrade throughout their service lives,
whether used on the road or in the full-size spare position. Results showed that thermo-oxidative
degradation of the tires during service in Phoenix led to reduced material properties. The field study
also showed structural degradation of the tires in terms of internal cracks and separations resulting
from the tires being used in service. This internal degradation and damage was nearly all internal to
the tire and likely impossible to detect from a visual inspection alone.

note the mention of Phoenix, ambient temp plays a large role in tire degradation