Pre-aged tires | GTAMotorcycle.com

Pre-aged tires

nobbie48

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It's about time for new rubber on the 1500 Goldwing and I don't want tires that have been sitting on a shelf for a few years. The date code as I understand is the first two numbers are the week of the year and the last two are the year of manufacture. 2613 would be for a tire made mid 2013. Five years old.

What's acceptable shelf life and if it's not sitting on the dealer shelf how does one know ahead of time what is going to show up?

Goldwing tire selection isn't great and they don't tend to be on the shelf.

Thoughts?
 
old will generally be from a dealer, not a distributor, no? I generally don't like any tire older than 4 years.
 
Depends on how often you wear out your tires. Someone who rides so much that he wears out a tire every year will not need to be concerned with shelf life as much as someone who takes 5 years to wear out his tire.
 
old will generally be from a dealer, not a distributor, no? I generally don't like any tire older than 4 years.

+1 if they don't have it on the shelf, that will solve the problem
 
Not ALL tire date codes are the same. I have a Michelin with a code of 5315.
I won't ride on a tire more than 5 years old.
I won't install a tire more than a year old.
If you get tire through Parts Canada you never know how old they're going to be. They don't turn over stock very well.
 
Not ALL tire date codes are the same. I have a Michelin with a code of 5315.
I won't ride on a tire more than 5 years old.
I won't install a tire more than a year old.
If you get tire through Parts Canada you never know how old they're going to be. They don't turn over stock very well.

They're supposed to be the same, it's part of the DOT number. You sure the first digit is a 5?

Edit: That is a valid date code actually. Last week of 2015
 
So Michelin thinks there is 53 weeks in a year now?

...maybe they are SUPPOSED to be the same, but they're not.
Try to interpret Avon race tire date codes.
 
53 could also mean the 12 month of 2015

Posted on January 16, 2013 by TwoWheelMania.

Deciphering the numbers

You may need to grab a calculator to figure out the age of a tire. For example, a tire with the digits 2510 was made in the 25th week of 2010. Instead of grabbing a calendar and counting out the weeks to determine the month, you can simply divide the number of weeks by 4.3. In this case, the tire would have been made in June 2010. To determine the age, you can subtract the manufacture date from the current date, which would make this particular tire 2 years and 7 months old.

When you purchase tires from a dealer, you can expect that they will be between 18 months and 5 years old, so make a note of it to remind yourself when you'll definitely need to replace them. The sidewall also contains information pertaining to the tire's width and height as well as the size of the rim, making it easy to find a replacement that will fit.
 
+1 if they don't have it on the shelf, that will solve the problem

I spoke with Honda dealer and the parts guy acknowledged the problem. He said he would know the date when they got the tire.

I asked if I would be stuck with the tire and got the impression it was a negotiation. If I was going through a set in a year it wouldn't bother me as much. It also depends on how the tire was stored.
 
Working at a Honda dealer i never see anything older then six months to a year from a supplier. Doesn't matter which one it is, Parts Canada, Motovan, Kimpax, or Thibault all of them are solid. We typically stock GL1800 tires but not GL1500. Just not popular enough to justify having them in stock.
 
So Michelin thinks there is 53 weeks in a year now?

...maybe they are SUPPOSED to be the same, but they're not.
Try to interpret Avon race tire date codes.

Weeks of the year don't necessarily start on Sunday. A partial week at the beginning of the year will be week 1, and a partial week at the end of the year could be week 53.

In that specific case ... week 1 started on Thursday 1 Jan 2015, it's quite possible that the plant worked on 2 Jan during week 1, the first full week of the year was actually week 2, and Sunday 27 Dec through Thursday 31 Dec was week 53. The plant probably worked on the 28th through 30th December, week 53.
 
So what do they do with tires they don't sell that start to get a little older? Is there any place I could buy new but older tires to save money? Since I go through a rear tire every year I wouldn't mind a tire with an older shelf life if it's cheaper.
 
They end up getting sold eventually. Someone will buy them at the right price. "Sale price" at a normal vendor, or a vendor who always seems to have tires for sale cheap ... watch out for that manufacturing date.
 
The age of a tire is always somewhat of a concern. But it really depends on how it is stored and what the intended use is when installed. I spoke to a Dunlop rep. about some brand new 8 year old tires. I told him they had been stored in the dark since I had them. He said he wouldn't advise using them for a track day, but regular road riding should not be a problem once the outer layer had been worn off. Anyone like myself who was brought up on bias ply tires finds modern dunlops very grippy once warmed up, even when old.
 

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