This is not technical only experience!

[jmgrif]

Today a friend and I were on the final 500 kms of a ride. 200 kms from home his rear tire started to show cord? I'm just wondering if anyone has ridden slowly and carefully any distance with cord showing? He stopped and I will go back tomorrow with my truck to get him and the bike but? Just curious? It is not hot here yet the road is quite cool if that matters? What is your experience? Thanks

 

[escapefjrtist]

Just to make it clear...this wasn't me.

On a ride a couple years ago, one sport bike was showing cord about 100 miles from the barn. He nursed it home albeit slowly and carefully, and vowed never to begin a ride with thin tires again! From looking good to cord in ~300 miles...

YMMV

--G

 

[jmgrif]

What can you do? Our trip was going to be about 1000kms or 600 miles. We both looked at the rear tire before leaving and felt it should be OK? Obviously we were wrong but we don't have experience with cord showing and not too far from home thanks for your input!

 

[someguy]

deep in the carolina mtns, and heading for home. cords showing and approx. 200 mi to go. eased on home... made it.

 

[escapefjrtist]

Hardest tires to judge are those w/o any tread across the middle, ie. Metzler Z6. A few years ago, I was rolling my [then 6800 mile] Z6 across a dusty garage floor. The dust clinging to the tread had the cord pattern in it...This was on a Thursday late evening and I was leaving Saturday morning on a 550 - 600 mile round tripper. On the road with cord showing, would've sucked.

Had the SO scramble for tires Friday, changed them out at a buddies that night and left on schedule Saturday morning!

--G

 

[jmgrif]

200 miles is further than we had to go? We didn't have heavey loads so we may have made it? I just had a thought.... tomorrow if my friend is willing, after all it's his bike; I can follow him to my place where we have new tires to replace his cord worn ones? If we don't make it we have the truck! Experience is a great teacher! I will let you know how we make out!

 

[SkooterG]

I would say it depends on the tire and how it is constructed but you should be able to go several hundred miles showing cords or belts. I would take it very easy while doing so. And I am not advocating it or suggesting it. But I have done it a couple times when I absolutely had to.

 

[Bounce]

Never. I've swapped tires thousands of miles early just to make sure it doesn't happen.

Now the time I fought a front-heavy pig of a GL1100 home the last 200 miles on a collapsed steering head bearing... [Did you know Honda mounted a huge block of metal inside the front fairing as dead weight against the lift of the fairing design?]

 

[FJReady]

Here's an Avon Storm I cut through a while back. You can see that once the cords are showing you are down near the end of usable life. Maybe 3 mm of carcass left. However there appear to be two layers of cords molded in there so if you're feeling adventurous go for it.

 

[HotRodZilla]

I rode 60 miles home one tome with the cords showing. Kinda didn't really baby it either...Just rode.

I wouldn't have left my bike somewhere just 'cuz the cords started to show. I woulda rode it till I either got home, or it started to hiss. I'm betting home woulda come first.

 

[GeorgiaRoller]

It's really amazing how a rear tire can start to get low tread and you think you can still get another 1,500 to 2,000 miles out of it, only to realize about 250miles later that the tire is about toast. Tread always seems to go real fast when it starts to get low.

I did a 4 day mtn trip last summer and this happened to me. My rear tire went bald real quick on me and we got caught in a torrential summer downpour with my wife riding 2up with me. Not a good feeling to be hydroplaning and having no traction on a mountain road with nowhere to pull off. I wont do that again!

I got a 5 day trip planned next month and I'm gonna make sure I have a fresh rear tire on the back before I head out. I got about 6,000 miles on my current one and I think the tread is going fast on it.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Dang, where's those pics I saw of a guy taping up his rear tire to get some extra mileage?

 

[Geezer]

I rode an Angel right through the cords and got stranded about a hundred miles from home. I had been keeping an eye on the tire at every sto and there was no cord showing at the last fuel stop so it went at most 100 miles from the time cord was showing and the air came out. The Angel does not have steel cords/belts. I suspect that a tire with steel in it would last longer after the steel showed through.

Here is the Angel after the air escaped:

 

[RPrice]

Like others have noted, after having the dreaded "tire cords showing" incident happen once, 400 miles from home, I've vowed to never let that happen again! If there's any doubt whatsoever I will change the tire before a trip. Fortunately, I have a No Mar Tire changer handy!!

 

[Intech]

I rode ~300 miles 2-up on a Conti Motion and when I pulled into the garage the wife said is it supposed to look like that? Major cords. In fact, in the position it was in the worst spot wasn't even showing. I came out the next morning and the tire was flat. Close one, eh?

 

[Falko]

about 60 miles with the cords showing about 3/4 inch wide. This was on my old sport bike. You could feel the lack of traction when straight up. One of the guys I was with suggested leaning off the side of the bike and compensate with the bars. That didn't work, unless the goal was to look goofy.

 

[FJR Flyer]

Rode an Angel 32 miles home from work with the rear showing cord. Looked fine in the morning, then it was showing cord when I got to work. That tire felt really thin!

 

[BigChunk]

Bought a Honda Valkyrie off the internet a couple of years ago. Flew from Seattle to Medford, OR and rode it back - 450 miles. A couple of days later I was washing the bike and noticed that the rear tire had 5 or 6 huge areas of exposed cords. To this day I still can't believe I didn't check that tire before I hit the road. Lesson learned (and glad I'm still alive).

BigChunk

 

[Aasland]

Rode about 200 miles, not slow but careful, on a Z6 with cords.