Tyre shelf life?

[BerlinMatt]

A couple of weekends ago I went for a longish off road ride. It had been raining seemingly non stop the week before and i didn't think the Paselas I was using would work well in the mud. Two local bike shops and decathlon had a only a minimal choice of tyres in 26" and it was too late order online, so i had a rummage in my cellar and found a pair of Schwalbe Marathon that looked up to the job. I gave them a good look over- they had next to no cracks and or visible damage. They rode really well for about 20km when the innertube started bulging out the sid on the rear tyre.

I had a go at sewing the tyre back onto the bead and we stuck some gaffertape on for good measure, but it held up for all of 1 km before giving up the ghost.

Should I clear out all the tyres I've been hoarding once they reach a certain age? Or are there ways to determine how 'healthy' a tyre still is?

[slowster]

There have been two recent threads specifically concerning Schwalbe Marathon* tyres failing at the bead wire:

viewtopic.php?t=149440

viewtopic.php?t=149177

* It's not clear whether it is particular to only one or more of the various different Marathon models, although wire beads appear to be a common factor.

I think it might be appropriate to merge this with one or both of the threads above. I did not simply go ahead and do so, because I have not read them all closely enough to be sufficiently sure that they do merit merging.

Incidentally OP, assuming that your username indicates your location, I would have imagined that you and your fellow riders might be better informed about any issues with Schwalbe tyres than those of us in the UK, even if only from reading comments on german bike forums.

[richardfm]

I have no idea if it is relevant to cycles, but in the caravan world the recommendation is to replace tyres when they are five years old.

[mig]

depends on storage conditions.

store them in the cool and dark - they last for years.

in the light or sun? a far shorter time.

judging by the sidewall graphics that tyre is really quite old,

[BerlinMatt]

depends on storage conditions.

store them in the cool and dark - they last for years.

in the light or sun? a far shorter time.

judging by the sidewall graphics that tyre is really quite old,

It must have been over 20 years old so I was probably pushing it a bit - but the rubber looked fine before I mounted it on the rim. I was lucky I wasn't on my own or it would have been a long walk to the nearest train station.
I'll have a tyre cull before I'm tempted to go out for a ride on something of a similar vintage...

[BerlinMatt]

There have been two recent threads specifically concerning Schwalbe Marathon* tyres failing at the bead wire:

viewtopic.php?t=149440

viewtopic.php?t=149177

* It's not clear whether it is particular to only one or more of the various different Marathon models, although wire beads appear to be a common factor.

I think it might be appropriate to merge this with one or both of the threads above.



That's true, although I was more interested in tyres ageing generally, it being a marathon is just an unhappy coincidence.

[tim-b]

store them in the cool and dark - they last for years.

They need to be dry as well. Depends on the cellar, I guess

[531colin]

There are only 3 possible causes for tyre damage at the bead (that I know about!)

1. "flange split". ...where the wheel rim abrades through the tyre sidewall. This generally happens with a lightweight (skinwall) tyre where the chafing strip is missing or misplaced. Can also happen on heavier tyres (gumwall) like Marathons where the wheel rim is rough and abrasive, for example due to corrosion from road salt. viewtopic.php?t=149440&hilit=flange+split

2. Brake block chafing (rim brake bike) .Self-explanatory really....the brake block is set too high and contacts the tyre not the rim.

3. Tyre lever damage. If the tyre has been on the rim for a long time, it gets "stuck". The thing to do is to squeeze the tyre all round, and the bead will un-stick and pop off the bead seat, into the rim well. You can then slip a lever under the bead and the tyre comes off easily. If you just shove a lever under the bead and force the bead over the rim you can abrade the fabric of the tyre bead so that the wire bead is exposed and the tyre integrity is destroyed.
Because of the way the bead wires are exposed I think thats what has happened here, although it would be good to see clear pictures of each end of the damage. From examining other peoples tyres, if there is one area of bead damaged by enthusiastic use of levers, there are usually several areas.

[Nearholmer]

I think that tyre is “ancient”. I recently passed a bike that is c25yo on to someone else, and that had the Schwalbe tyres it came new with (in perfect order and never a single puncture!), and those tyres had a later version of the logo than these.

[pwa]

What is it that causes tyres to "age", assuming they are not damaged through mishap? Is it UV light, some sort of chemical reaction or what? I have a couple of boxed Hypers that I've had for a few years, stored on a shelf in a dark corner of my garage, mostly in cool conditions.

[Jdsk]

What is it that causes tyres to "age", assuming they are not damaged through mishap? Is it UV light, some sort of chemical reaction or what?
...

There's a long list of factors that contribute to degradation: time, mechanical load, UV light, other light, temperature, humidity, oxygen, ozone...

I don't know of a recent review.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire#Wear
https://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Docume ... b_Kane.pdf

Jonathan

[pwa]

What is it that causes tyres to "age", assuming they are not damaged through mishap? Is it UV light, some sort of chemical reaction or what?
...

There's a long list of factors that contribute to degradation: time, mechanical load, UV light, other light, temperature, humidity, oxygen, ozone...

I don't know of a recent review.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire#Wear
https://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Docume ... b_Kane.pdf

Jonathan

Thanks Jonathan. I'll have a read.

[BerlinMatt]

3. Tyre lever damage. If the tyre has been on the rim for a long time, it gets "stuck". The thing to do is to squeeze the tyre all round, and the bead will un-stick and pop off the bead seat, into the rim well. You can then slip a lever under the bead and the tyre comes off easily. If you just shove a lever under the bead and force the bead over the rim you can abrade the fabric of the tyre bead so that the wire bead is exposed and the tyre integrity is destroyed.
Because of the way the bead wires are exposed I think thats what has happened here, although it would be good to see clear pictures of each end of the damage. From examining other peoples tyres, if there is one area of bead damaged by enthusiastic use of levers, there are usually several areas.

That seems plausible, I bought the bike a few years ago mostly for the hubs (maxicar rear and SON front) so I think I probably did 'rip' the tyres off not expecting to ever reuse them.
There was a DIY shop a few miles up the road so I was saved by a cheap and nasty 1,14" tyre that made next 200km of forest tracks and Pave especially memorable. The Marathon landed in the nearest bin so i can't take another photo of it.

[Ray]

Ideally we need to 'wear out' tyres before they 'age out' and become brittle or delaminate.

Those who own n+several bikes - some of which may not get enough use to wear through the tyres - need to assess their tyres regularly. But don't we all do that anyway, even if we own n+0 ?

[irc]

Ideally we need to 'wear out' tyres before they 'age out' and become brittle or delaminate.

Those who own n+several bikes - some of which may not get enough use to wear through the tyres - need to assess their tyres regularly. But don't we all do that anyway, even if we own n+0 ?

I just replaced tyres on my "good tourer". I use it on foreign 4 pannier tours. I use a Spa Steel tourer for UK tours. Due to life and Covid etc the good tourer hasn't been on tour for 5 years. I'm planning on going to the USA this summer. So I replaced the tyres. One was a well worn Marathon Supreme - binned. The other a lightly worn Voyager Hyper was hung up in the shed meantime. Looks OK but why risk going on tour with old worn tyres?

In the big picture anything else is false economy. If they were half worn I wasted £25

This link suggests a decade for replacing tyres based on age.

https://bike.bikegremlin.com/9003/when- ... cle-tyres/