At what point do you change your back tyre?

so then at what point do you change it? when the thing is square? when its hit the wear markers? after the wear markers have gone or before ?

Just curious really?

[dizzyblonde]

When its got a nail in it.........again

Never got to the wear markers since my first SV tyre. That had 15000 miles or there abouts, as square as hell, and borderline MOT failure!

Either of those, or when it looks severely second hand (like on a ride with dave numbers, when it looked like someone had attacked the centreline of the Sportec M3 with a cheese grater).

I normally change mine once it's just coming up to the wear bars. The last "bit" of tyre seems to wear really quickly and before you know it there is carcas showing. It's the only thing connecting you to the road. I think it's best not to scrimp on tyres (or brakes).

[Wideboy]

when they go bald

but then i like to squeeze ever penny out of them

[yorkie_chris]

When they are no longer legal.

[Sid Squid]

It depends, the above advice suits most people, but some like to change the tyre when the profile is squared off.

Depends on what you want from your biking; economy or best handling.

So am I correct in thinking that if you do a lot of normal commute riding or long journeys your tyres are more likely to square off , as opposed to lots of twisty fast riding?

[Geodude]

Yes

Constant straight line commuting will give you squareing but lots of twistys keeps you off the centre and makes you grin more

Usually just before a long trip if I think the tyre won't last.

For instance the tyres on mine now are getting on to being worn (5.5k), but they'll need to be changed before I go to Germany in July, even if it's not quite dead-dead.