Tyres: Tread and damage

[Fallout]

I was having a look at my rear tyre yesterday. I got it last year so have probably only done a couple of thousand miles of semi-energetic riding on it. I have two questions ...

1. How do you correctly measure tread depth. I have the sort of performance tyre with the minimum amount of tread, and it blends into nothing at the center. So deep lines at the edges which become shallower and shallower until it reaches the middle of the tyre, where there is nothing. Where do I measure the tread depth?

2. Secondly, I have a few slits towards the center of the tyre, probably from all this resurfacing gravel crap. Some of them I can pull apart and seem to be fairly deep (maybe 5mm). Does anyone know at what point this would be considered dangerous?

The make/brand of trye will determine how easy it is to measure the tread. Eg, the Michelin PP/2CT series use wear markers within the grooves. I'm sure others do also. Simply test is whether the height of the grooves are flush with the wear marker. This indicates that you're on the legal limit. As the tyre wears more in the middle, its tempting to ignore the squaring off if the sides have loads of tread. But the smoother that middle gets, the closer you are to the belt of the tyre (which is obviously dangerous).

If you dont have tread wear markers then measure the inside depth of the tread nearest to the middle (I believe 1mm is the requirement). Rather than add more of my opinion, visit this Michelin site which has more than enough detail - http://www.michelin.co.uk/tyres/lear...yre-tread-wear

As for the slits, if you can pull it apart then its more likely debris can get in there (nails, stones etc). When it would be considered dangerous is very difficult to tell without seeing the tyre and your best bet is to have a garage (preferably a motorcycle garage) check it over.

[Jayneflakes]

I recently had to buy new tyres due to getting a little thin in the rubber. My local bike shop told me that it is a tread depth of 1mm in the section closest to the middle.

Prior to this I was led to believe that it was 1mm over three quarters of the tread area, but sadly this is no longer the case. It pays to stay up to date, finding out that my tyres were no longer legal was rather worrying.

[Jayneflakes]

Ooh Double post, do please remove this one or leave it here and I can just tell you how much I love you all!
Hugs XXX

[Fallout]

Thanks peeps. That's pretty annoying. Spend however much on a decent Dunlop and then it's time to change it the next year. I think I have found wear markers and it is only slightly lipped above them. Maybe less than a mm (but obvious the wear markers have a mm below them). MOT coming up soon.

Should I really be changing my rear tyre every year, or did I just buy the wrong brand. I'll get a pick in a minute to show you ...

Get some bridgestones, you either bought the wrong brand or they're stupidly sticky.

[Fallout]

It looked like I've worn it to nothing, but that was the design. The tread faded to nothing when it was new. I think you may just about be able to see a wear marker on the longest visible tread groove. Probably done 2000 miles. 3000 tops. Most of it pleasure riding, so at reasonable speeds, but as you can see by my chicken strips, I'm not that energetic.

Think I'll have to go for one with huge tread if this is what happens.

Buy sport/touring tyres like avon storm 2 or similar (any brand really) they last longer and provide a decent grip as well

I find if Im starting to "think" its out of tread, then thats a good indication that I should be looking to get it changed. Saying that I put well over 1500miles onto my last set of tyres AFTER I'd bought their replacements but just never got round to fitting them.

[Fallout]

Yeah, good advice gents. I might take a ride down the tyre shop next week and see what they say and see what they've got.

Out of interest, do you guys think riding technique might be partially to blame? I don't mean opening the throttle like a scud missile. I won't be changing that. I have a habit of down shifting and using the engine braking, such that I don't really have to use the back brake at all. I wonder if I'm generating too much drag on the rear tyre from the way the SV likes to generate a lot of engine braking. Perhaps that's contributing.

Think I'll start a thread on the SV board ...