Modern Vespa

New tires installed at dealer. Appears they sre 5 years old before mounting. Still okay to use?

Or did i read the date code wrong?

What do they have printed?

The numbers are 1012, so the tenth week of 2012. So does the life of the tire start now or in 2012.?

Wow. Kind of old for installing as new. I'd say you're okay if you get mileage on quickly. OTOH, if you're likely going to put on less than 1K miles in a year I'd be a bit more concerned. Unless they're stored hermetically sealed or something, they'll still age, probably better than on the street.

That is New Old Stock... not bad if you're restoring a vintage scoot or car, but not so good for everyday tires. Tenth week of 2012 is 6 years ago.

Make sure you're reading the right number on the tires. And ask the service manager about it.

I mean if I was buying new tires... I want them produced in the same year I was buying them. Even at significant discount.

That being said... I had mounted up a set of 10 year old, never used race tires on my track bike. They worked fine at an elevated pace.

You could ask the shop if they have a durometer...

Where are you in North FL?

Thanks. Ten to fifteen per year. I will keep an eye on them.. Seem to grip okay.

I personally would not be a happy camper over a dealer installing 6 year old tires. If I paid current rates for tires I expect them to be no more than 2 years old.
Anything older than that they would have to start dropping the price.

tires are considered old after 5 years from manufacture date and should be replaced on age alone not mileage.

Thanks, will get more info.

5 year old tires are not considered old. That's old info. Tires made now are OK to use eight to ten years from manufacture. That info is from the tire manufacturers. Of course, in use, you still have to inspect them regularly for cracks, damage, etc.

And tires stored in a warehouse or dealership back room are not out in weather or UV rays like tires mounted on the scooter would be.

If it were me, I'd pitch a bitch unless I expect I'd be changing them in 3 years anyway.

Thanks for the reply.

I work at a tyre shop, & agree 5yr is about time to change them... Today I found the ones on my 6x4 trailer were from 2012 & 2009, oops!

Good point about the trailer tires. I'll have to check mine.

Of course youre going to recommend that. More tires = more sales = stable employment.

What are you basing this 5 year theory on?

Till just resently, EVERY tire and rubber manufacture recommended 5-6 year max. Tire compounds have been reformulated to hold up better against UV damage in the past few years. But a 6 year old tire may not have the latest compounds that are more UV resistant like the newest tires do.

After the Firestone debacle this was stressed more by the tire and rubber manufactures.

I change ALOT of tires and I am now changing my cost structure based on year of the tires. Example I just did a customers VTX 1300 that had original 2005 factory installed tires, they were hard as granite, so hard on the front I had to cut the bead once I got it to break off the rim. Which took me all my weight bearing down on the bread breaker on my NOMAR and still had to use a large vise grip C clamp to assist in getting the bead off the rim.

Once the tire was off it left pieces of rubber on the rim seat and 10 minutes of cleaning the rim to remove that, other wise when installing a new tire it would leak.

I charged him triple what I normally charge because fighting with those ate a lot of time.

My new fee sched will be by the date of manufacture of the tire.
5 years or less standard
5-8 years add 40%
9-12 years add 90%
12 years and up add 150%

the longer they are on the rim before changing the harder they are. and they keep getting harder.

Again, the tires were old but never installed til now. Stored in a warehouse out of the sun and heat. Does that increase the time to when installed or when mfg.?

you can do what ever you want its your scooter.
install and put any tire you want on, its your scooter.

if your happy with it , its your scooter

I install tires for folks and my standards are higher than most because its THIER scooter.

So you are saying the life of a tire starts at the mfg date? Get it. So michelin now says six years with regular inspections after that. All is cool. As an aside, the last two mc i crashed were moto guzzis. Love em.

reformulated? Um you can buy sunscreen for your tires... its called 303 protectant if UV damage was a concern.

What firestone debacle? From the 1990s??

thats great. If I need more than 10 minutes for a tire service... I probably shouldnt be standing in front of my tire machine.

Are their hard tires? Sure... you should charge whatever you want.
I wont do Goldwing riders, Harley riders, or junk scooter owners stuff. Because... those are exactly the type of owners that would roll on 12 yr old tires...lol. Plus they NEVER can pull their own wheels.

Duplicate

It should matter on the plus side since they weren't out in the weather or in use. Note that tire manufacturers give a number of years - 6,8 or even 10 depending on the tire and its use, and some don't even say to automatically change them then, but advise you to regularly inspect them.

The Firestone debacle was mostly caused by putting a passenger SUV body on a pickup truck frame and suspension which caused a hard ride. The "solution" to that issue was to tell the owners to inflate the tires to a PSI that was at least 6 pounds less than they knew the tires should have been. Most crashes occurred in the summertime Texas heat. Under inflation is very bad in the heat.

Thanks,my thoughts also.

They put the date code on because date they were put in service means nothing what so ever.

And how do you keep that on the tread.
Read up on tires, that's how I learned and didn go to forums. Read industry news and manufactures websites. Learned a lot form rubber manufactures websites too.

And put that tire crap on a motorcycle tire and take a hard turn and see what the hell happens.

That's when all the tire dates started being stressed be manufactures.

You'll laugh and make jokes till you have a front blow out at 70 MPH on the front.

you know when I word my posts a specific way... yet you still try to find fault with whatever it is I post?

Are you going tell me about taking hard turns next? Im pretty sure I know alil bit about that discipline! But always willing to learn more!

[quote="turboblew"] Dunno really... Something about the rubber going hard & walls cracking.

Okay... so the front tires on my scoot are from 2005 and 2007 (original tires). About 3k on each scoot. I guess I should change them?

This Modern Vespa Forum gave me the coding to understand the
age of tires. My local Vespa Dealer put new tires on my 300 that
were manufactured the year I bought them.

Take my word, I am not a tech guy. Some of you know more than
I do. I believe the age of the tire is important. I would be concerned
about purchasing old inventory. Those tires are older than my Vespa.

Bob Copeland

I would never accept tyres that were over 6 years old. No way! Take 'em back and demand NEW tyres.!

6 year old tyres are NOT new tyres. They WILL have deteriorated and the rubber WILL have hardened.

I had a set of tires installed on my Focus at Walmart.
The tires were on super-sale, or whatever you want to call it when they're closing out a model.
Got home to discover that not only were they old, they were rather dirty, having been stored apparently at the back of the trough.
Anyway, when installed they were ~4-6 years old (like, as in, not only old and dirty, but ranging in age by a couple of years). Clearly they were scraping the bottom of the stock barrel.

Sooooo, was I concerned? Nope.
Focus has 4 tires, ABS, and traction control.
And I drive it ~25,000 miles a year or more, so even if the tires last 100,000 miles I'll replace them by the time they turn 10 (age at which the manufacturer recommends changing out due to time). That is, if the Focus makes it to 300,000 miles (!?).

Would I have accepted this on a scooter? Nope.
But then, I'm not QUITE as cheep when dealing with scooter parts.

can't compare car tires with m/c tires. cars have 4 points of contact, m/c's 2 very small points of contact. blow out a tire on a car meh no big deal really, blow out a tire on a m/c REALLY BIG DEAL.

I be asking for new tyres if that's what you paid for not old tyres

seems to me they give you old stock tyres

That's a big part of why I am not concerned.

about 8 years ago I bought an 87 CH150 at an estate sale. The thing had 200 miles on it and 20+ years of dust on it! I pumped up the tires, did some basic services on it, and rode it around. Eventually the tread seperated from the carcass on the rear. It was awesome! .
Changed the setup to a hybrid tubeless.