Although not necessarily Ducati related this is still relevant for all older bikes...i recently changed the tyres on my 1977 Laverda, the date codes on them indicate they were made in 1998,i've been riding around on them for the past 4 years of my ownership, and i only wondered about changing them cos the rear is a bit squared off and has been skipping over some rippled road surfaces lately. My tyre man was shocked at their age ,and recommended changing tyres @every five years or so regardless of their condition...what is the consensus on here re. tyre life etc?
This topic has been discussed previously and IIRC, the “best advice” was no older than 7 years. Many moons ago, a little rule of thumb pointer I was given, was to push your finger nail into the meat of the tyre and see how long it took for the mark to recover. It should only be a few (single figure) seconds, if it takes more, it’s time to change. New compound tyres like the Metzeler Roadtec 02 which are using less organic material and more recycled materials, are likely to degrade with time (not necessarily use) differently. The mileage I do, I get through 2 sets of tyres a year so not an issue for me. Andy
