tyre gash?

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photography27

Active Member
Location
Swansea
can anyone tell me how big of a gash in a tyre is acceptable before you throw it out?
i have one about a couple on millimetres big
 

hubgearfreak

Über Member
i wouldn't worry about it at all. for a big gash, you can always put a patch on the inside of the tyre
 
What tyre is it on? If its the rear I wouldn't worry too much, If its the front you may want to keep an eye on it. In general though I agree with Sheldon Brown that some folk are too quick to replace tyres
Tire Wear-When should you replace your tires?
Many cyclists waste money replacing perfectly functional tires simply because they're old, or may have discolored sidewalls. If you just want new tires because the old ones look grotty, it's your money, but if you are mainly concerned with safety/function, there are only two reasons for replacing old tires:
  1. When the tread is worn so thin that you start getting a lot of flats from small pieces of glass and the like, or the fabric shows through the rubber.
  2. When the tire's fabric has been damaged, so that the tire has a lumpy, irregular appearance somewhere, or the tube bulges through the tire.
Cracks in the tread are harmless. Small punctures in the tire such as are typically caused by nails, tacks, thorns or glas slivers are also harmless to the tire, since the tire doesn't need to be air-tight. Gum-wall tires sometimes get unsightly blistering on the sidewalls from ozone damage. (This is frequently caused by storing the bike near a furnace--the powerful electric motors in typical furnaces can put a fair amount of ozone into the air.) This blistering is ugly, but doesn't actually compromise the safety/reliability of the tire in the least.

 
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