Tire Age?

Just got my '08 this week and while cleaning it and stuff I decided to take a look at the tires and discovered they are from 2008. On my sport bike I've always been fanatical about my tire condition, wear and age, going by the general rule that if it's not worn out in 5 yrs it should be replaced anyway. Does this hold true fro Dual Sport tires as well? I'm not going nearly as fast...

I have a friend of mine who use to race off road and several years ago he stopped racing and now just rides for fun. One day he needed to clear out some of his bikes (he had 24 of them) and sold me his 2001 GasGas XC250.

A few months later we were riding at a local ORV Park and while taking a break I asked him when was the last time he had changed the tires on the GasGas since they were beginning to get that hard shiny look to them. He says I don'y know but let me check the date code. After a bit he says the tires were made in the 23 week of 2001.

My response was something like 'WTF those are the original tires' to which he replied 'well see what a good deal you got on the bike, original tires and they aren't even worn out which means there aren't many hours on this bike'.

About that time a thunderstorm opened up on us and we started heading back to the parking area as the trails turned to little creeks. About half way back I was having a tough time getting the front tire to bite and turn and I started to just about sit on the tank. We finally get back to the parking area and it is still coming down so we loaded up and headed home.

When I got home I started cleaning up the bike and noticed all the center knobs of the front tire were gone. Thought to myself that some one got their money's worth out of that tire.

My advice is to look over the tire for evidence of it drying out (?). Hard shiny rubber with cracks is a good indicator. If you have that replace the tire. However, since it is already on your mind you may just want to change it to give you peace of mind while you are riding.

Thanks for the reply. That's sort of what I was thinking..Now I have gone down the rabbit hole of tire choices..What a PIB especcially since I know nothing about dirt bikes, I'll probably just stick some more D606s like it has now

kabulpostie wrote:

Thanks for the reply. That's sort of what I was thinking..Now I have gone down the rabbit hole of tire choices..What a PIB especcially since I know nothing about dirt bikes, I'll probably just stick some more D606s like it has now

How often will you be riding in the dirt versus street?

Hopefully more dirt than street. I live in Yuma so I have desert all around, after summer I want to try and hit some sections BDR...

Well if you live in Yuma I am assuming you don't have much mud there. Probably more rocks and sand I am guessing which is a bit different terrain that what I am use to riding in.

In your case I don't think you would want to go with a D606. It seems to me most folks riding in that type of terrain are using Pirelli MT43's on their bikes which from what I understand works well in rocks.

Another option if you are just getting started is to try some Shinko 244's for your bike. I think they are a pretty decent 50/50 tire and are relatively inexpensive too. I did the Eastern part of the TAT using these on my DR which included about a 3 mile stretch of the muddiest road I have been on which left 3 KLR650's stranded. Well they would have to stop about every half mile and unpack all the mud around their rear wheel. That being said I would have preferred to have had a D606 rear and an MT21 front in that mud but nonetheless it was doable with the 244's.