So I bought my bike last february and it was bone stock. its an 03 f4i it had 5k miles when i bought it. about a month later at 6k miles I hit a nail and replaced my rear tire, been riding all summer having a great time and forgot about my front tire. never really thought about it but how dangerous is it that I have a tire almost 10 years old with 9k miles on it? Kinda scary thinking now that almost every day this summmer ive gone plenty over 100 mph on a tire that old. BTW its the stock tire ( i believe dunlop?).

also I only have a rear stand, can you lift the front tire up with a rear stand somehow? or do you need a triple tree stand.

 

That's crazy! Hard old rubber gets slippery.

You can't use the rear stand for the front. You need a front stand, or... hang it from overhead. I use a tie strap and a come along and ratchet it up from a heavy eye bolt in an overhead beam. I pick it up from the frame, just behind the head bearings. Works great, and it frees the fork tubes up for seal work.

 

Haha yea its pretty crazy. I might try to rig somethin similar to be able to get the tire off. Do you think I could finish off this season and worry about a new tire next season (around february) probly another 1500-2k miles or so this year.

 

I wouldn't ride another day on that tire. But the choice is yours...

 

Not replacing that front tire will probably end up costing you big in fairing repairs when you crash. The stock tires aren't very good new, at 9yrs old they are complete crap.

 

Yup I agree... get rid of those tires ASAP and get some fresh rubber on there


Guy I used to work with, about a year ago bought a 2000 Suzuki Marauder (cruiser).... it had 10 miles on it (literally.... had been sitting in some dudes basement for 11 years since brand new). I told him and told him "don't ride that thing until you get some new tires on it". Well he didn't listen, at about the 100 mile mark he was riding to work and ate it.... went down (very low speed) and landed on his lunhbox, broke all his ribs on one side. He was out of work for about 2 months. Although it certainly didn't help any that he had put some shiny armor all crap on the sidewalls of the tires which I'm sure seeped down into the tread area and contributed to the crash as well, but still 11 year old tires were hard as a damn rock. After he healed up and got back to where he could ride it, he got looking at the tires and there were little dry rot cracks all over inside the tread. I put a new set of tires on it for him and he said it was night and day difference in how it felt. Definitely an "I told ya so...." situation for sure, LOL.... he learned his lesson the hard way

 

Wow. ok well that really scares me cause I use that shiny armor-all stuff. well I have to ride it tonight but Im gonna order a new tire pronto... Im sure this question is overkilled. but I want a michelin PR2 for the front to match the back.. wheres the cheapest? I got the back from Revzilla.

 

NEVER EVER EVER USE ARMORALL OR ANY TIRE DRESSING ON YOUR MOTORCYCLE TIRES!!! You'll be asking for a world of hurt having slickery tires.

 

Beleive it or not this is the tire. to me it looks still in great shape for 10 yrs and 9k miles. decent tread. the greyish crap on it is just dust from my garage floor.plus you can see where I sprayed the armor all stuff on the side, where its shinier.

 

The tread depth is not the issue, the dry rubber is.

If you want to ride on it, go ahead. You don't need our permission.
We will read your rebuild thread after your crash...