As many of you know, we are a motorcycle service shop in Frederick, MD. We have been involved in the motorcycle industry since the late 90′s and have seen everything. One of the more daily conversations in & around our shop is about motorcycle tires. If you ride a lot, I’m sure you talk about them regularly too. They’re obviously important.
this is where your internet tires come from
One thing you may not know about your precious motorcycle tires, is that they have an expiration date. Yes, believe it or not, just like food and your vehicle registration! Unfortunately for the motorcycle industry though, there’s no official regulation for this. And there are no specific laws against selling older & out-of-date tires. At least not in this country. Europe and Asia have lots of regulations & laws about this, but the there’s nothing in our country that protects us specifically. So we thought we’d post up some information on it, and hopefully better inform our fellow riders, & soon-to-be riders out there as well.
These days everyone shops on the internet. You can shop online for a date, buy an engagement ring, or buy groceries & have them delivered right to your house. We are totally in favor of finding a deal and using the internet advantageously. So, it only makes sense that more & more people are shopping for their motorcycle tires online now instead of at their local hardworking motorcycle shop. Ok, fair enough. At our shop, we don’t turn anyone away that brings us a set of tires to install for them that they purchased elsewhere (usually on the net). The problem we’ve been seeing for a while now though, is that people are buying motorcycle tires from these online “superstores” and “auction sites” for pretty cheap prices, but they aren’t always getting what they THINK they’re getting. Some are legitimate deals absolutely, but others can be a little suspect ….
Motorcycle tires are obviously made of rubber. Rubber of course is an organic material that breaks down over a period of time. Ever stretched an old rubber band and it’s cracked & just snaps or crumbles? Tire manufacturers like Michellin, Dunlop, and Pirelli all produce motorcycle tires by the 10′s of thousands at a time. After they are produced, they are sprayed with an oil-based ‘film’ before they sit on shelves and in warehouses. This ‘film’ is a protectant of sorts and is meant to extend a tire’s shelf life before it ever kisses the asphalt. When a tire is installed on a motorcycle, the film is quickly ridden off after a couple of miles on the street. This is why its always recommended to take it easy on your tires when you first get them. However, even with the tire film, there still is a slow deterioration process that is taking place within the rubber compound itself. And because of this, all tires are required by the DOT to be stamped with a manufacture date. Very similar to a ‘born on’ date on a Budweiser bottle (DO NOT DRINK & RIDE). For motorcycle and car tires, the date stamp shows the WEEK and the YEAR the tire was produced. For instance, your tire might have the stamp 0809 on it … which would mean the 8th week in 2009. Here’s a visual:
- 1910 = 19th week in 2010
The type of rubber that is used to produce tires dries out anywhere from 4-6 years, even while it’s sitting unused in a storage facility. So, the “new” tires you just bought online last month for your bike could actually have already been a couple of years old and well into the disintegration process before you bought them. The tread can even look perfectly fine as if it just rolled off the assembly line, but the structural integrity can be weakened and possibly deadly. Then, the dried out rubber being susceptible to the elements, can start to visually dry rot on the outside. There’s no rhyme or reason to how long it takes a tire from here to actually become ‘unsafe’, but who wants to find out? No thanks.
The purpose of this blog post is really 2 things. Obviously we want to communicate to our fellow riders out there a little bit about tires, & to possibly be a bit informative at the same time. And then to also bring to light that the online tire “superstores” and “auction sites” don’t always have NEW/RECENT tires. A lot of times they are the leftovers from the manufacturers that they don’t want to sell anymore because they are out of date. Again, we are totally in favor of finding good deals online and elsewhere …. just be aware of the manufacturer dating system for tires and be on the look out for OLD and OUT OF DATE tires being sold as “new” ! Even motorcycle shops will sometimes offer deeply discounted tire prices because they know the tires are out of date. Check those dates people! Here at the shop, we GUARANTEE any tires we sell are direct from the ACTUAL manufacturer and are well within the “new” period, & not out-dated.
The next time you purchase tires look for this number located on the sidewall. Your internet bargain may be too good to be true after all. And if it’s not, at least you did your due diligence!
- Ben Meacham for Holding it Big Motorsports. Ride safe. Ride tomorrow.
