Tyre wear - When to replace/swap front and back?

petemadoc

So my rear tyre wears much faster than the front. I guess that's pretty normal as most of the weight is on the back wheel.

When the rear is finished do you move the front tyre to the back and fit a new tyre on the front or just buy 2 new tyres?

I've just put the summer bike away for the winter and noticed that the newish tyres (500 miles or so) are worn flat at the back but still have the tread on the front, should I be buying a replacement already? Swap them over so they wear more evenly? or just continue until the rear is worn out and do as above?

:?: :?:

explosifpete

you should be getting more than 500 miles out of the tyres.
Personal I would put a new one on the front and the old front on the back to save a few £

petemadoc

explosifpete wrote:

you should be getting more than 500 miles out of the tyres.
Personal I would put a new one on the front and the old front on the back to save a few £

Yeah the tyre doesn't look badly worn, it's a Veloflex open corsa. There's a very shallow tread that's worn flat in the middle, still looks like it has lots of life in it to me.

cougie

500 miles for a set of tyres ?? I'd try a different make if they're wearing that fast ?

petemadoc

I should have made it clearer, I'm not looking to replace the Veloflex on the summer bike yet as I'm sure they have plenty of wear in them however the rear has lost it's tread right in the middle.

I'm buying winter tyres at the moment and was wondering if people just buy one tyre and move the partly worn front one onto the back.

John.T

PeteMadoc wrote:

I should have made it clearer, I'm not looking to replace the Veloflex on the summer bike yet as I'm sure they have plenty of wear in them however the rear has lost it's tread right in the middle.

I'm buying winter tyres at the moment and was wondering if people just buy one tyre and move the partly worn front one onto the back.

All tyres have tread. Just some have 'tread pattern'. This serves no real purpose on a bike tyre on the road other than to make you think it is worn out when it isn't.
No problem with moving a front tyre to the rear to replace a worn rear one. Never fit a rear one to the front as the flat worn into the tread will just wear faster to suit a front mounting position and may give poor handling.

Stone Glider

According to Sheldon Brown RIP you should always have your best tyre on the front wheel. As said above, he also felt there is no purpose to a pattern in the tread of a road tyre.

Monty Dog

You said you were using Veloflex tyres - these are race tyres designed for speed and handling rather than durability. I expect to get a 'season' out of a race tyre, perhaps 1000 miles at most whereas I'd expect to get a year's use out of a regular/training tyre, maybe 5000miles plus.