how long can you store tires?

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ms6073
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Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:24 pm
Location: Houston, Texas

by ms6073

BikeAnon wrote:Lance's tire guy used to age them for seven years before mounting them the first time.

Seriously! Everyone saw that show where De Vriese talks about aging the 'tübülars' but wasn't he really just having a bit of fun with the video crew (and apparently most of the audience)? Sure he had a bunch of tires in that basement but given the rate at which pro tour teams consume tubulars in the classics and grand tours, that was nowhere near enough tires to support the teams racing efforts for 4-6 months, much less the last 10-years! More importantly, when the team changed sponsorship from USPS to Discovery, there were a slew of different sponsors including tires. Now at that level, 'hot stamping' logos on tubulars was/is common practice, but given that at the time, the former USPS tire sponsor did not even make tubulars, I find it highly unlikely the new tire sponsor would pony up $$$/tires only to see the teams head mechanic set them aside, so he could use tires with competing sponsors logos out of his basement!
Last edited by ms6073 on Mon Jun 27, 2016 12:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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TheKaiser
Posts: 653
Joined: Thu Sep 05, 2013 3:29 pm

by TheKaiser

mattr wrote:I doubt any manufacturer does it anymore beyond the length of the supply chain and stock levels.
The reasoning is that you can't effectively vulcanise rubber to very lightweight tyre carcases (silk definitely, lightweight cotton is marginal) without damaging the fabric. Virtually no one makes tyres out of silk or very light cotton anymore, the synthetics have got a lot better, so you can vulcanise to your hearts content. No real need to age.
Some very very low volume stuff may not be fully vulcanised either, hence the history of the "special" pro tyres needing aging. Not sure pro teams even use special tyres anymore (maybe TT or high mountain days?) as consumer tyres are much better than they used to be.


Dugast and FMB tires, which a lot of teams use regardless of their official sponsor, are not vulcanized together and instead the tread rubber is glued to the casing. Having said that, I have always been curious as to what the production process is for the tread rubber strip. I think that it is vulcanized prior to gluing to the casing, but I am not sure that it imparts the same qualities to the rubber as the vulcanization process that would be done on a conventional complete tire.

Having said that, aging may harden the rubber, which may impart better puncture protection on a handmade tubular, but it will also compromise grip, so I find it hard to imagine that it would be preferable to simply having the tire made with an additional purpose made puncture resistant belt.

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froze
Posts: 427
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2010 3:47 am

by froze

I have not found tires that have been stored to have any issues whatsoever. In fact I have two extreme examples. About 6 years ago I got a 85 Schwinn Le Tour luxe with just 250 miles on and still had the original tires, the owner stored the bike in the garage under mounds of blankets since 85, the tires were cracked, no problem I knew new tires were in order anyways. Then about 4 years ago I ran into a garage sale where I picked up a 84 Fuji Club which had only 5 miles on it and the owner stored it in his attic, which I live in the NE Indiana area, which means the bike was in attic for 28 years which in the summer it would get very hot and in the winter it would get very cold, those tires looked brand new, no cracks no nothing, in fact I even rode them for about 200 miles and only changed them out to put on lighter folding tires with better puncture resistance which back then they had none; I still have those tires in a wheel bag and their still fine. Now why was it that one set of tires were completely useless to ride on but the others were like new? Sorry, but I don't have an answer. But I can say this, if you need to store tires for a couple of years or even a few more then a couple I wouldn't worry about them in the least bit unless you store them outside exposed to the elements. I bought a set of Specialized tires on sale last year and I simply stored them in a ziplock bag and in put them in a dark drawer in my tool chest that's in the garage to be used probably next year.

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