Rotating Bike Tires?

[castafly]

Anyone ever rotate the tires on their bike? My rear tires always wears much faster than the front, and with the price of tires, it seems like I could rotate the tires and get more life out of a pair. Is this a good idea or bad?

[marle]

Do you want a worn front tire on 30+ mph descent?

[Erik.Lazdins]

A sudden blowout on the front with a clincher on a descent is something I hedge against by keeping good rubber on the front.

[Chad Engle]

I don't have any high speed descents around here. Do it early before it gets too bad and you can get more mileage. Safety-wise, not the best plan

[sspielman]

I don't think that it is worth the effort to rotate tires. You should get about three times the mileage on a front tire that you get from a rear. Also, the wear characteristics are quite different. A front tire wears very evenly across the center of the tire in a nice round profile...while a rear tire wears a flat spot down the center. It is best just to replace the rear tire more often as the tread wears out.

[terrytnt]

I use tubulars so it makes NO sense to rotate. Besides, agree with what's been said, the rear wears much faster and should be replaced more often

[dave thompson]

When the rear is worn throw it away, rotate front to the back and buy new front.

[Moosedryvr]

When the rear is worn throw it away, rotate front to the back and buy new front.
+1

[Needs Help]

it seems like I could rotate the tires and get more life out of a pair.
If you will only buy one set of tires for the remainder of your life, and then when that set wears out, you will have to stop cycling, then yes it makes sense to rotate tires in order to get more life out of your last set.

[BumbleBeeDave]

I don't think that it is worth the effort to rotate tires. You should get about three times the mileage on a front tire that you get from a rear. Also, the wear characteristics are quite different. A front tire wears very evenly across the center of the tire in a nice round profile...while a rear tire wears a flat spot down the center. It is best just to replace the rear tire more often as the tread wears out.

I agree with this. He's correct on the wear pattern and I just replaced both my tires, but had gotten about 2.5 rear tires' worth of wear out of the front one.

Don't rotate. Replace.

BBD

[alancw3]

not a good idea to rotate because all of what has previously stated (rule of thumb, never rotate the rear to front). i usually buy tires four at a time (qualify for discount with some vendors). one for the front and three for the rear. seems to wear out evenly then. i may even switch the front to rear and put last new one in front for safety i.e. wear and drying out. down here in hot south florida the tires really burnup on the roads with all the sun almost yearround.

[catulle]

If you rotate, by the time you need tires you will need two tires. If you don't rotate, you just change one tire at the time. At the end, it all pretty much evens out from the economic point of view. In terms of safety, you always want good tires, especially the front one, atmo.

[Archibald]

+1
+2

[L84dinr]

I found out the hard way about rotating... I purchased some used Veloflex sew-ups. It was evident which was the rear tire from the wear pattern, so I put it on the front and put the relatively unworn front on the rear. The first decent descent (try typing that fast three times) i encountered, the front shimmied something awful! Freaked me out. Couldn't understand why the shakes happened. Once i made it back home and was putting the bike up; i was looking at the tires and realized that prolly the flat wear pattern on the front tire caused a weird oscillation and I made it worse by clamping down on the bars.
Anyway to make a short story long, rotate front to back and put a new tire on the front.

[Climb01742]

Anyone ever rotate the tires on their bike?

don't they rotate on their own? ;)

[Ginger]

Thank you Climb. Thank you.

[djg]

don't they rotate on their own? ;)

Not mine. I have to pedal. Paid top dollar too. Did I get gipped?

[Ginger]

As the earth rotates around the sun...

[toaster]

No! Do not rotate tires, it's a waste. As someone stated earlier the front wears differently than the rear. Putting the slightly worn front on the rear just means it will wear faster than a new rear replacement. Putting fresh rubber on the front when you should've left that slightly worn tire there instead means that the rear isn't getting the benefit of new rubber and the best possible mileage.

When you buy tires you can buy three or five at a time. If you bought five, typically, you would probably use three of those on the rear and end up with the fifth tire worn out on the rear and a second one really fresh on the front without any rotating.

[vaxn8r]

Not sure if someone mentioned it but another reason for not rotating is the rear will wear flat, no matter how subtly. When you mount this worn in tire on the front it will negatively affect bike handling.