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Used Motorcycle Tires?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Schweisshund
  • Start date Start date
Schweisshund said:
I agree new is always better than used. However, the "reasonable" price for replacing the set on my nighthawk is $140 for front tire plus $60 to mount it. $180 for the rear and $60 to mount it.

When I heard these prices I felt like they were asking me to bend over. I don't think those prices are reasonable.
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Are you sh!ttin' me? Whatever shop that is, run far away from it and never return. I just bought (from a shop mind you, not online) a set of BT021 Z rated radials. The rear is a 190 wide, and these are top shelf tires. I paid $100 less than you got quoted with mounting them up. What are they trying to sell you? Michelin Pilot Race's?

You should be able to get decent tires for $300 mounted. Even at a shop. Online and mounting them myself I would save about $70, but I dispise mounting tires and this shop is very good to me. I like to keep him in buisness so I buy my tires through him. It's nice having a shop where I can get inspection stickers and such without even bringing in the bike, he'll let me borrow tools and he gives me great prices on all my gear. Every motorcyclist should have a shop they are "in" with.
 
shop around and check on ebay
i got a brand new 90/90 18 3x cheaper than the local tyre place wanted
it was brand new still wrapped and is well in date ect
fitting was 15 notes though
(at a local ish tyre place)

just adding it was a metzler tyre and not some cheaper brand
 
I strongly advise you to not mount used motorcycle tires, especially tubeless tires.

First, all tires are subject to road damage. An experienced eye can detect some of this damage. The lighting needs to be just so. Places where plies and components overlap inside the tire look just like damage to the untrained eye. I would expect that technicians who mount and dismount tires full time would get a good feel for identifying damaged tires. Motorcycle mechanics, who do it only part time, would rarely learn the skill.

Second, tubeless tires seal air inside between the rim and the bead. The rubber at the interface is hard and only seals if the rim is clean and undamaged, and if the bead is unkinked. Bead wire is stiff and brittle. It kinks easily when a tire is mounted or dismounted. Dismounting a tire is more likely to kink a bead than mounting a tire. In fact, most beads are kinked when the tire is dismounted. That means that a slow air leak is likely, with the strong possibility of dangerously low air pressure. I recommend that, if you mount a used motorcycle tire, you use and inner tube as a safeguard. (There went some of the cost savings!) If you don't do that, check air pressure every day.
 
Schweisshund said:
The Suzuki dealership, literally right down the road from me, told me I could have as many of their used tires as I wanted. I was like ... seriously? The head mechanic said yes, that it was illegal to sell used motorcycle tires and they had to pay to get rid of them. Is this true?
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REALLY? My friend who owns a motorcycle shop, PURPOSELY puts large slices in any tire that sits outside before they are taken away so they CAN'T be used. People like to sue up here, too! :mad:
Besides, as it's been said, a new Cheng Shin is better that a old, half worn out Michelin.
 
The last couple of sets of tires on my 700 have been racer take offs. I picked up a set of Michelin Power Pilots in a race compound for about $80 off Ebay last year. Just check them over good and look for the manufacturing dates and obvious punctures. If the bead isn't ruined and everything else looks okay then why not? I've run used tires for thousands of miles without any problems.
 
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I always replace my tires just before they get to the wear bars.
So I have been adding to that pile of usable tires. I hate the cost of tires but think my life is worth it.
 
Secondhand tyres only have 2 uses: a swing for the kids or for getting fires going when you want to annoy the neighbourhood.
 
mcycle-nut said:
REALLY? My friend who owns a motorcycle shop, PURPOSELY puts large slices in any tire that sits outside before they are taken away so they CAN'T be used. People like to sue up here, too! :mad:
Besides, as it's been said, a new Cheng Shin is better that a old, half worn out Michelin.
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I slash my old tires too before putting them out for the trash. No one is going to take one of my old tires, mount it, then sue me if it fails for making said tire available.

Sometimes you just gotta prevent stupidity.
 
Firestone factories used to slash their scrap tires. This was to prevent scroungers from taking tires from landfills, making a superficial repair, selling them, and the ultimate customer suing Firestone when the tires failed in service. The scroungers found ways to somehow hide a slash. So Firestone started cutting the beads out. Scroungers found ways to reattach beads. So Firestone began cutting out beads and grinding up the carcasses. I don't think that anyone has yet found a way to un-grind a tire.
 
I guess I should clarify my earlier post. The only used tires I have ever used have been take offs that racers use for a race or two and go to new tires. I've got GSXR wheels on my bike and good used race tires are readily available. This isn't really the case for stock GS wheels.
 
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True that. My grandfather worked at Firestone for years. It was the grinding of tires that ultimately led to discovering new products like road materials, shingles, even doormats made from the residue. They turned it into a separate division.

You don't see too many retread shops these days. I know they use retreads on truck tires but not so much cars. Florida had a lot of these shops at one time, they sometimes did their own work.
 
For my first several years out of college, I ran retreads. They wore out quickly, and tended to leak air quickly, too. Handling wasn't good, but on a '63 Fairlane with terrible springs, handling sucked anyway.

Retreading makes a lot more sense with trucks. Fleets take better care of their tires than Joe Average does, so they are less likely to damage the carcasses. Retreads can NOT be used for steering axles, and I think that there are limits for drive axles. For trailers, most tires would be retreads. We still see the thrown treads all over.

What do our truck drivers say?
 
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themess said:
Retreads can be used for steering axles, and I think that there are limits for drive axles. For trailers, most tires would be retreads. We still see the thrown treads all over.

What do our truck drivers say?
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On the contrary, retreads can NOT be used on the steering axle. :eek:

When I drove back in the '70s, we only ran Michelin tires. We got about 100,000 miles out of the original tread on the steering axle, had them capped (we found a capper that would return OUR carcasses to us), ran them another 100-150,000 miles on the drive axles, had them capped again, ran them another 200,000 or so on the trailers. By the time I left there, we had a few carcasses that were approaching a million miles, on about the fifth cap. :clap:

That being said, ...
I run on used tires on my motorcycles all the time. :-\\\
Only thing is, I have done all the using. :D
The only NEW tires are ones that have just come out of the mold. As soon as they are mounted and roll on the ground, they are "used".

.
 
Ive been using second hand tyres & racer take off for the last 30 years as & when times have been hard .... no problems to date

Having said that i do have my own personal rules when looking at a used tyre ...... condition must be worth the effort of mounting it (undamaged sidewalls & bead + no existing plugs)...... tyre must not be old (i always check the date code) ....... Tread must not be squared off ..... obvious miss matches with the other tyre i'm running are discarded

The choice is yours gents :)
 
tone said:
Ive been using second hand tyres & racer take off for the last 30 years as & when times have been hard .... no problems to date

Having said that i do have my own personal rules when looking at a used tyre ...... condition must be worth the effort of mounting it (undamaged sidewalls & bead + no existing plugs)...... tyre must not be old (i always check the date code) ....... Tread must not be squared off ..... obvious miss matches with the other tyre i'm running are discarded

The choice is yours gents :)
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Absolutely nothing wrong with take offs. It's always premium rubber that has even wear and are definitely well scrubbed in. It's nice getting $400-500 worth of tires for under $100. Plenty of miles left in them.
 
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