When to change a tire

As near as I can tell, I’ve got 2,576 miles on my front tire. I’ve kept much better records of my back tire cause it gets changed much more frequently (usually about every 800 miles). I can tell when my back tire is ready for a change when the bead gets rubbed flat. If I let it go too long, I’ll start getting flats and I can’t stand having to fix a flat.

But my front tire still looks good. Just a moderate amount of wear on the bead. Then I looked more closely.

My tip off was on Saturday’s ride when I saw a ‘string’ hanging off the tire. It came from the rim and pulling it was like pulling yarn from a sweater. Last night, I took these pics of my tire with my camera in macro mode. See the cracks in the sidewall and the way the rim bead is unraveling?

Yikes. I think I’ll change it.

Tagged as: Gear