tyre wear: flats vs hills

Team Banana Spokesman

tyre wear:

is it distance?
1000km on the flat = 1000km on hills?

or is it time?
100 hours on flat = 100 hours on hills?

or is it speed?
10 miles at 20mph = more wear than 10miles @ 19mph?

I do less miles than most for e.g. a 3 hour ride as its all hills. should I replace my tyres for the same milage I used to do when I used to live on the flat?

ride_whenever

Hmmm, an interesting question...

Replace tyres when they need replacing though.

balthazar

It's load. Tyres don't care whether you're going up or down hills; they care (so to speak) how heavy you are, and the back one cares how much power it transmits. Replace them when they're worn out, an easy check.

andrew_s

It's power.
The more power you put through the back tyre, the faster it wears. You push harder for longer when it's hilly, so the tyre wears faster than when on the flat.
For the front wheel, the more braking and cornering you do, the faster the tyre will wear.

I've found that a loaded 800 mile alpine tour will put about 2000 UK miles of wear into a pair of tyres, but a loaded 800 mile UK tour has a much less noticeable effect.

I check my tyre wear visually rather than go by miles. Sometimes I'll use miles as a pointer to start carrying a folding tyre, just in case I don't check at the right time.