Original tire - 15 years old - use it or replace it?

[flynrider]

No one has come back with a best before date for tires yet... What is the oldest you'd allow a tire to get before you'd change it?[/i][/b]

I don't know exactly where the recommendation came from, but I've always heard that 5 yrs. is about as long as they should go. I always check the date code on tires before I buy them, to make sure they're not slipping me some old rubber.

Prior to 2000, the date code was three letters and three numbers (e.g. FKL404). Ignore the letters and the first two numbers are the week and the last number is the year. So FKL404 would translate to the 40th week of 1994.

After 2000 the date code was incorporated into the long "DOT" number. It will be the last 4 digits of the string of characters starting with DOT and will be 2 digits for the week, followed by 2 digits for the year.

[TechTMW]

Five years is max on a bike tire for me. I won't even buy it if it was manufactured more than 2 years ago.

[logitech104]

I'm riding on 25 year old tires with my 1981 cb400t, their still stickin. their stock from the factory and i have 11K on the bike. i ride em hard too. but in the case of staying alive, Replace!

[qwerty]

Good tread and absence of cracking does not indicate a good tire.

I usually buy fixer-uppers for my transportation needs because I enjoy the fixing-up process. I used to be plagued by blowouts. I haven't had a blowout on anything over the last 20 years or so, since I began a policy of never hitting the road with a tire more than 4 years old. I apply that rule to everything--truck, car, trailer, motorcycle, bicycle, and airplane. I still get the occasional nail, but I don't have catastrophic tire failures.

[logitech104]

i know my tires are horribly old, but im crazy. im going to replace them before i hit any freeways definitly. i have so many crackes in my tires, but i dont know my tire size, dont know how to tell tire sizes, where to get them, how much they are etc. thats why i havent replaced them yet. (I also have a HUGE-DEEP slit in my back tire, superglue fixed that) im gunna die