>>Word on the street used to be that mail-order houses sold tires that had
been sitting in warehouses for some time and were not as fresh, so would not
last as long.
Is there any truth to this anymore? Has anyone had recent experience one
way or the other?
Take a look at some of the prices at the dealer and you may find that some of
his tires are quite old too.
I have been buying tires mail order, mounting and balancing them myself since
I got back into riding and never had a problem.
Some tires from mail order purchases were a year old, others were a few months
old. There is usually a run of new tires from manufacturers at the begining
of a year. If it is a popular tire in style and size, it will generally be
fresh because both high priced dealers and mail order houses can't keep up
with demand.
Some higher priced mail order places like Chapperal (there are a lot others
that are cheaper) will have older tires but I mean old as in one or one and a
half years, if it isn't a hot seller.
That isn't bad and a tire hasn't really started to die in that time frame.
This tire thing is as controversial as motorcycle oil vs. automotive oil and
debate will go on forever over it.
I just know I do a better job mounting and balancing a tire than a dealer will
do because I do things they don't like completely clean and balance the rim
before mounting the tire and I have often posted my method of balancing a tire
by shaking the axle not spinning the wheel. That outweighs getting a tire
that may be a few months older than another one if the bottom line is more $$
to spend on gas when I am done and know that there is no problem with a tire
that is a year or so old from a discount house.
Bob Ratcliffe ratso@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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