Should this tyre be replaced?

[bobbynopedals]

Hey folks, first time poster here.


I Bought this lovely little road bike recently, I noticed the rear tyre has a small gash in it, so I showed it to the guy in the local bike shop and he said im more likely to get a puncture, but that it is not dangerous to ride on it. what do you think?

Here is some pics of the gash...




I'm not a newb to bikes, but this is my first road bike, up to now I've always had cheapo "mountain" bikes, and such a little gash in a chunky squishy MTB tyre wouldn't concern me too much. But, the tyres on this thing are razor thin and im not sure what PSI they are at, but id hazard a guess that they are at least double the pressure in my old bikes tyres.

 

[alienator]

I'd go ahead and replace it.

 

[daveryanwyoming]

Originally Posted by alienator .

I'd go ahead and replace it.

So would I. Sure it may last a while, it may not but it's a clearly damaged tread with casing showing. So you get a few more weeks or even months out of it all the while riding with a greater risk of punctures or a full casing blowout if you hit something sharp that cuts those exposed casing threads.

If you are going to keep riding it or need to ride a tire home in a condition like that I'd at least boot the tire on the inside with something like a folded up mylar power bar wrapper, a dollar bill, a piece of old tyvek racing number or a section of old tire sans tire beads or whatever you carry as your favorite tire boot material. That will at least buy you some extra protection in that area and reduce strain on the casing if you do slice some of those threads.

But if it was my bike I'd suck it up and replace the tire.

-Dave

 

[bobbynopedals]

Dang it, I was hoping you would agree with him, as I kind of like the red tyres and the only spares i've got are all black.

cheers.

edit: no, I definitely don't want to take a chance o f it blowing out, I've been hitting some pretty scary speeds and the back tyre going pop during that is something I could happily live without knowing the outcome of.

 

[J1780]

Yes change it no doubt about it. I'm not sure about where you are but you can get a red tyre handy enough here. Not too expensive either.

 

[bobbynopedals]

If only it was so simple. Unfortunately the missus is in charge of the finances for the time being, and she is also savvy enough to know that I have got a set of suitable spares, and would definitely not have me preferrring red tyres as a reason for spending £30.

BTW; we aren't broke, just in super saving mode for a couple of plans, the road bike spend was justified as it replaced my car for call outs within 10 miles.


Cheers for the advice everyone.

 

[vspa]

If only it was so simple.  Unfortunately the missus is in charge of the finances for the time being, and she is also savvy enough to know that I have got a set of suitable spares, and would definitely not have me preferrring red tyres as a reason for spending £30.  BTW; we aren't broke, just in super saving mode for a couple of plans, the road bike spend was justified as it replaced my car for call outs within 10 miles. Cheers for the advice everyone.

i also vote for immediate replacement, sneak out in the middle of the night and buy a red one online, Vittoria or Continental for example,

 

[Yojimbo_]

Sounds like a pretty horrible way to live to me.

Good luck with that.

 

[bobbynopedals]

It certainly isn't fun, but we've only got until april next year to get the money together for an extension we have had planned for a while, before the permission expires.

If it does and we have to reapply, we will be subjected to some new fangled rules which mean we have do things differently [something to do with sewer and water pipes i believe] which would involve digging up all the way to the street, and our lovely huge gardens which is usually a bonus, makes that a crippling cost.

So we're living on a shoe string while we plough everything into that.