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When to Change Your Bike Tyre? 7 Signs to Consider

A tyre is one of the essentials of your motorcycle when it comes to determining how your ride will be. However, since tyres wear out and age with time, they can cause disaster if you do not check and replace them on time.

If you are thinking about when to change a bike tyre, you must consider some common indications. The discussion below will clear out these signs along with the ideal time interval for changing tyres.

What Is the Ideal Time to Replace Your Bike Tyres?

Ideally, keeping in mind about the different conditions, you should replace your bike tyre within 5 years of purchase. Even if a visual inspection does not detect much wear and tear, it is essential. However, if your tyre has acute cracking due to weathering or unfitting storage, then you must replace it much earlier.

What Are the Signs that Indicate When to Change a Bike Tyre?

If you are wondering when to replace a bike tyre, then examine the following 7 vital parameters:

Obsolete Tread Marks

Every tyre of on-road bikes and cars has tread marks, which are grooves on its surface. These treads enhance the tyre and road contact by preventing water foaming between them. Thus they ensure better control and grip in your ride.

Ideally, the depth of these treads must be 0.5 cm before you decide to change your bike tyres. However, a few manufacturers provide a specific depth indicator, making it easy for users to know when to change a bike tyre.

Irregular Wear and Tear

Tyres generally suffer from irregular wear and tear due to several different conditions. Some of these are some unfinished work in the wheel well, constant high exit speed while cornering, and poor alignment. Such uneven wear can deteriorate your vehicle’s ride quality and performance at a high pace.

Users should check their bike’s tyre wear and tear regularly. One easy way to inspect this is checking whether the tread depth is more on one side than the other. If so, then it is time to replace your bike’s tyre.

Pruning of Front Tyre

Another way to examine uneven wear is to check the pruning or scalping of your bike’s front tyre. It gets exhausted across the tread’s length, which can be quite alarming since it can cause stability issues.

This type of damage usually happens for faulty suspension setup. Therefore, it is highly recommended to replace your bike’s front tyre in such a condition.

Damaged Sidewalls

Sidewalls are areas between the bead and treads of your bike’s tyre, which is visible from a vehicle’s side view. These are some of the most crucial parts as it supports your vehicle’s weight. Therefore, owners must check if any bubble, crack, dent, or other damage is visible or not.

These types of damages generally tend to occur after a long road trip or in scorching temperatures. If such damages become predominant, it simply alarms you when to change a bike tyre.

Exhaustive Usage

If you use your bike for extensive purposes like adventurous and long road trips, you must check it regularly. It is also essential to thoroughly examine your bike’s tyre if you recently took it to tough terrain.

Although the damage may not be visible from the outside, its structural strength must have deteriorated. Therefore, it is essential to change your bike’s tyre immediately after a long road trip to Leh or Bhutan.

Severe Punctures and Cracks

If you are thinking about when to replace bike tyres, then check if they have visible cracks or not. Severe cuts and punctures in large numbers can cause poor road and tyre contact and balancing issues.

Therefore, you must immediately change your bike’s tyre as further damage will make it incapable of providing a quality ride.

Tyre’s Age or Life

Last but not the least factor is to consider the age of your vehicle. Most tyres in India have a lifespan of 5 years due to the weather condition, terrain and type of commute. Generally, any tyre suffers enough ageing from both inside and outside within this time.

Therefore, changing your bike’s tyre within or after 5 years is recommended even without any visible damage. However, in case of any damage mentioned above, it is essential to change tyres before this time.

No matter what brand of tyre you own, proper maintenance is vital to make it durable for longer. In addition, you must maintain proper tyre pressure, suspension and other aspects to prevent your bike tyre from wearing out. 

However, factors mentioned in this article are undeniable to determine when to change a bike tyre. Therefore, you must replace it immediately if it encounters any such damage.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should I change my bike’s tyres?

You should change your bike’s tyres typically within 5 years of their manufacture. However, you can use them for a maximum of 10 years if you are riding on smooth terrains.

Can high-speed turning and emergency braking damage bike tyres?

Indeed high-speed turning and emergency braking can cause damage to your bike tyres.