Ok, I know I should post this under the Tire section, but I wanted to address the Touring crowd on this one. A few weeks ago, I picked up an '05 RK Classic with 6k miles on it. It hadn't been ridden since last November. The tires had about 5 lbs of pressure in them for the ride home. MY girlfriend was following me on the freeway and saw me fighting the wandering.....I thought I was going down a few times! Being new to the street bike thing, it didnt occur to me to check when I was leaving the sellers house.

I figured out the pressure thing as soon as I got home and its been great ever since.

The tires look to be in good condition with plenty of life on them. No cracks or anything. My question is even though they look good, tire condition and quality are of a HUGE concern to me, especially since my girlfriend is riding with me most of the time. Since the bike is 5 years old and has low miles, is it possible that the rubber compound has hardened up and aren't as safe as they could be? I have run into that with car tires over the years if they sit too long.

I'd hate to have a failure at speed due to my lack of knowledge about motorcycle tires.

I feel I can never be too safe about my equipment.

IF you feel they should be replaced, what's a good wide white replacement?

Thanks!!

 

Setting aside your riding experience in getting your bike home, the tyres are close to the end of their natural life. There is a code on them somewhere that will tell you the month and year they were actually made. I recommend you replace them without further thought!

I have an 05 wheel in the rear of my old Glide and a 150/80 tyre, which has a higher load rating of MU than the stock MT tyre, so you could also make that change, especially if you are going to be riding 2-up a lot.

There are plenty of tyre threads for you to chose your brand from. My preference is Avon Venoms, which come with white walls.

 

I had the same worry you do about the age of the tires so last year I went ahead and replaced both tires with Dunlop E3's. My old tires still had plenty of tread on them but since you are only riding on 2 tires, I didn't want to chance it. I now have over 10,000 miles on the E3's and they still look and handle great. If anything, buy them for your girlfriend.

 

Riding experience? You are being to kind Sir.

I think he has a death wish, with his statement, "The tires had about 5 lbs of pressure in them for the ride home. MY girlfriend was following me on the freeway and saw me fighting the wandering."

 

Put new sneakers on her it will give you piece of mind...Well worth it to know you have new tires and you know the age of them....Many coices and opinions.. Shop around...
www.cyclegear.com
www.denniskirk.com
www.jakewilson.com
www.ronayers.com

Probly fergettin some.

 

Avon Venom WWW you will love them

 

Either you didn't have far to ride home, or the tires are still in pretty good shape. With 5 lbs of air, you are lucky they didn't overheat and shred on you. I would replace them with E3's before I ride anymore. JMO

 

For peace of mind and to save bodily injury replace the tires. It's a new bike for you, you'd be a lot better off starting out with new tires.

But I replace tires way more than everybody else.
I don’t want to be lying in a hospital bed saying “Well I got 20,000 miles out of that tire, look at the money I saved. Ain't I a smart SOB”

 

Interesting statement Ron. Which reminded me about a few years ago I was following a compact (small) car and noticed he had one tire extremely low. I was trying to figure out how to tell him he had a low tire while we were driving 70 mph down the road, when all of a sudden that tire blew up and shredded like crazy.

You are right, it could have happen......and now these tires integrity may have been compromised.

 

Id replace them for sure. I'm running the E3 also. Love it.