Advice Needed: When To Replace The Front Tire?

So I recently felt like my bike was extra squirrely. Particularly in the wind. Granted, I was riding in some pretty gusty mountains, but even when I was in an area a little more protected, the bike felt extra twitchy. I started to get paranoid about the whole thing and tried gripping the handlebars tighter, then looser, with no real change.
To add insult to injury, during this ride an 18 wheeler came around me, blew me around, and scared the crap out of me. The whole experience was just plain unpleasant. I checked my tire pressure in the stock-sized Trailwings when I got home, and it was spot on. A few days later I was going to take my girl for a spin 2 up and turned around 5 miles into the ride. I just wasn't comfortable. Something doesn't feel right on my bike. I'm hoping it isn't a mental thing... but I don't think so.

The rear tire has less than 500 miles on it because I cut the original, the front is the original stocker with maybe 5,000. The front looks worn, but to my inexperienced eyes, it doesn't look "terrible". The knobbies are still pretty tall. Pretty even wear. The only other thing that has changed from my last "good" ride was a very low speed bike drop on dirt. It bent the rear brake lever ever so slightly and cut the handlebar grip. As far as I can tell, nothing else was hurt. My drive home from that incident seemed fine. Or at least I didn't notice anything different at the time.

So does the conditions I describe sound like the front tire is worn out? Or something else like loose steering bearings? Could a very low speed bike drop on it's side cause this twitchiness?
Lastly, how do y'all determine when your tires need replacing?

Dang. 26 views and no replies.
Surely someone on here has some ideas on what's causing my bike's squirreliness or rules of thumb on determining when to replace your knobby tires!

Dude, you're asking stuff like if its loose stearing head bearings. Instead of a big post, you could have just checked it and ruled it out.
If your front is partially worn, and you supect the bike handles awfull becaue of that,then change it...

Then come back.

I have no idea what "quirrely" covers.

I'd also check if the forks and handlebar are straight.

Some change tires 200 miles after they see the metal strands, and some when the knobs are ever so slightly rounded in the corners. Most are somewhere in between.

For me, tires are cheap, and a crash is usually more expensive than a good set of tires that would have saved you from crashing.

Jens,
Wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Been eating pissy cornflakes?
If you have nothing constructive to add just continue to not reply, Dude.

Because me and my bike are 100’s of miles apart I can’t investigate anything at the moment.
But I can start thinking about it, and if someone on here has already faced this issue, I’m steps ahead.
The fact that I’ve never read when to change tires made me reach out to folks with more motorcycle experience than myself.
If the length of the post, which I wrote to give context to my questions, is too long for you, you can always read it in parts. Don’t hurt your brain. Perhaps that’s what made you pissy.

You were asking why no one replied, and a give you my input. Theres no hard feelings, i just dont wrap anything in bubblewrap... Its easier to get a straight answer regarding your safety, im not gonna teel you its gonna be ok and you an just ride the bike.

I just cant understand the mentality of not replacing a worn tire, especially if you feel the bike handles bad.
Some people trash a tire on 1000 miles, others can get 10.000miles out of the same tire.
If you feel the tire looks bad, and you cant provide us with a picture, how can we argue with that? Change it and take it from there

The worst thing that happens is you get a new tire. You say it looks worn, cant see why you wouldnt change it, bad handling or not. Its probably pretty old aswell? You also didnt post what year the bike is from. An original tire could be 1 year old, or +10 years, depending on when the bike was purchased. Have a look at the sate stamp when you get to it.

You could still have checked front end alignment, stearing head bearings, loose wheel bearings ect when you parked the bike, just to rule them out. In the big post of yours, I didnt see that the bike was far from you, so dont blame me for not knowing that.

Again, check all theese things, and make sure the suspention is set up for you.
Safe riding =)

scgmc wrote:

The rear tire has less than 500 miles on it because I cut the original, the front is the original stocker with maybe 5,000.

So your front tyre is 11 years old and you're asking whether it's a good idea to replace it?

When you put on a new tyre make sure you follow the correct procedure for tightening the axle, and axle bolts.

johnkol wrote:

scgmc wrote:

The rear tire has less than 500 miles on it because I cut the original, the front is the original stocker with maybe 5,000.

So your front tyre is 11 years old and you're asking whether it's a good idea to replace it?

When you put on a new tyre make sure you follow the correct procedure for tightening the axle, and axle bolts.

Nope. That's not what I was asking. Not exactly.
I was asking for advice on some rules of thumb on determining when to replace your knobby tires.... and if perhaps that was causing my bikes ill handling.
But you bring up a fine point, johnkol..Is age one of the rules of thumb for replacement if the bike is stored indoors, has no signs of deterioration, dry rot, or cracking?

No idea when moto tires are too old, but anything over 4-5 years is generally in the replace category on automobiles.  It may be the same.  If it were me, I'd purchase a new tire, it's likely due.  

Out of curiosity, how does the tire look?  Is it cracked? Weathered?  How do the knobs look?  Wearing even?  Is the tube holding air?
EDIT - just saw above you posted the condition, disregard my repeat questions. Age is a factor, even on tires stored inside and protected from the elements. Even though they are not getting weather rotted, the rubber is still going through some changes albeit more slowly and less drastically than if they were outside.


I'm about to replace the rear on my bike.  I'm running TKC80s and have been pretty happy with them for grip on and offroad.  If I have anything to complain about I wish the rear lasted longer on road.  But I'm not willing to give up the grip and how much I trust it offroad.  To be fair, I've only owned the bike about 2500miles/1yr and these tires were on there when I bought it.  So I'm looking forward to seeing a full life span and how long they last.


It was smart of you to turn back when something didn't feel right.  Probably saved yourself.  Honestly, I'd dismount the tire/wheel, pull everything off the rim and replace.  You might need a new tube too.  If anything you can keep the old tube as an offroad emergency spare.

Let us know how it goes.

Looking at it similar to car tires I agree it makes sense to just change it strictly on age. Considering there is only two and that’s how many it takes to stay upright, it’s time to break out the spoons.

scgmc wrote:

Is age one of the rules of thumb for replacement if the bike is stored indoors, has no signs of deterioration, dry rot, or cracking?

Long before dry rot or cracking, the tyre will dry out. Is it twitchy because of this? I doubt it, but I would never ride on dried tyres because the grip in corners drops dramatically -- and if I cannot trust the tyres during cornering, what's the point of riding bikes?

scgmc wrote:

Looking at it similar to car tires I agree it makes sense to just change it strictly on age.

Well, no, the comparison to car tyres is not valid: we use our cars for commuting not for fun in the twisties, so who cares if the tyres are old and have dried out?

But we use our bikes for fun, and if you cannot trust your tyres you cannot have fun.

johnkol wrote:

scgmc wrote:

Looking at it similar to car tires I agree it makes sense to just change it strictly on age.

Well, no, the comparison to car tyres is not valid: we use our cars for commuting not for fun in the twisties, so who cares if the tyres are old and have dried out?

But we use our bikes for fun, and if you cannot trust your tyres you cannot have fun.

The comparison to POVs is valid for safety reasons. If tires are not sound, they will fail on the road, fun or commuting for work. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for a tire to blow out on a vehicle that is traveling? Vehicles regularly traveling at 70mph on highways? Or traveling at 45mph on twisty roads? Or pickup trucks like mine weighing 3 tons unloaded, nevermind hauling or towing for work and play.

The validity is in the safety of what is riding on the tires, the lives of drivers/riders and passengers of the machines wearing the tires. The structural integrity of a tire is important, regardless of the machine it is on.

When tires are bad or old, replace them. If you cannot trust your tires, period, replace them. Fun or not, it doesn't matter.

Monica wrote:

The comparison to POVs is valid for safety reasons.  If tires are not sound, they will fail on the road, fun or commuting for work.

You are lumping all tyre conditions into one bucket; there are a lot of variations, a dried out tyre will not blow out. One needs to learn how to read tyres, and learn the feedback tyres give long before there is catastrophic failure.

johnkol wrote:

Monica wrote:

The comparison to POVs is valid for safety reasons.  If tires are not sound, they will fail on the road, fun or commuting for work.

You are lumping all tyre conditions into one bucket; there are a lot of variations, a dried out tyre will not blow out. One needs to learn how to read tyres, and learn the feedback tyres give long before there is catastrophic failure.

I wouldn't latch on to only one type of failure. The point is when tires are too old or too damaged, on any machine, replace them.