Comments on: I just rotated my bicycle tires to make them last longer

By: You Too Can Retire In Your Early 30′s | The Blog of A.J. Kessler

You Too Can Retire In Your Early 30′s | The Blog of A.J. Kessler — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 05:02:19 +0000

[...] more lattes at Starbucks cheap”. To work for 10 years and retire, you need to be “I rotate my bike tires so they last longer” cheap. You need to be “I buy a year’s supply of rolled [...]

By: Nathan

Nathan — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:17:37 +0000

From a safety point of view this is not an optimal strategy … better to throw away the worn rear tire, move the relatively fresh front tire to the back, and get a new tire for the front. This way if you have a blowout it will occur on the rear tire, which is much safer than a front blowout.

By: bigato

bigato — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:57:16 +0000

Then replacing both tires just because the rear tire needs to be changed is the real problem. Forgive me if I still don’t get it, but if you rotate you don’t get any advantage over the normal sane solution (that would be changing one tire only when it needs to be changed). Plus you have to do more work to rotate.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:39:03 +0000

@bigato – Many replace both tires at the same time, so given your 1:3 wear schedule, they’d buy two tires per year if they didn’t rotate. If they did rotate, they’d only buy 1+1/3=4/3 tires per year. If you just replace each tire as it wears out, you wouldn’t gain an advantage.

By: bigato

bigato — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:30:18 +0000

Rotating your tires won’t make them last longer. Unless I’m wrong, let’s do the math. If the front tire last three times longer, we can say it will last three years if the rear tire lasts one year. It means we would buy four tires each three years. I don’t see as any rotating scheme would improve on this. Did I miss something?

By: Britz

Britz — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 05:54:38 +0000

I only just now saw your previous bike-commuting entry, and I liked both it and this one; they sort of sound like the happy and excited rants that I’ve made my wife quite tired of My new bike had mountain bike tires, and I considered slicing of the nubs but eventually just bought some new road/country tires, and the bike now flies [even faster than before]. I reckoned that I’d need tires at some point anyway, and I can always use my mountain bike tires then. I was taken a bit aback by the price of the new tires: even on bargain, they cost 2x40US = 80US but were said to last long. When asked “How long?”, it was the bike seller’s turn to be taken aback. He guessed a couple of thousand kms, not too impressive; I hope they last longer. I save about 9USD each commute (33miles) in petrol/train tickets, but at 2000km = 1242miles, that is about 40c of tire per trip, not much, but comparable to the food-fuel (eg., rice: 66c) that I burn.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 02:05:34 +0000

@veganprimate – I think it’s because it’s the more weight bearing one.

By: veganprimate

veganprimate — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 01:23:40 +0000

Why does the rear tire wear faster?

By: MoneyEnergy

MoneyEnergy — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:58:32 +0000

Nice tip – I’d never thought of that, nor knew about it!

By: steve

steve — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 03:19:40 +0000

Citrus is the stuff for cleaning your drivetrain.

To reiterate, if you put a front mudflap that hangs to within 2 inches of the ground on your bike, you won’t need to clean your drivetrain much more than once a year. Plus it keeps your feet a lot drier.

On the chain lube front, I don’t bother with buying bike chain lube at $5 for 2 oz or around $150 a gallon or whatever.

I use whatever oil happens to be around when I fill my metal oilcan. Which was hydraulic jack oilthe last time. Normal clean (unused) car engine oil works good, too.

Both work perfectly fine for the purpose of a basic road bike.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:01:41 +0000

It’s a Trek2100Zr road bike with aluminum frame and carbon stays. Ultegra on the back and 105 on the front shifters (I think they call them brifters now). It weighs around 18-19lbs. I paid $1300. I usually go at 19-20mph plus minus wind. I eat commuters and amateur road bikers for breakfast … the reason this works for me is because I can park the bike in my office (I would never leave it locked outside!), it practically never rains, and I never have to ride in the dark. Normal commuter bikes are very different. Subscribe to this blog: http://bikecommutetips.blogspot.com/
for some better suggestions. You’d want racks for panniers and fenders and somewhere to put a water bottle. That blog discusses all of that.

By: llangolen19

llangolen19 — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:04:43 +0000

Jacob Can you tell me what kind of bike you own/price range? I am shoppng for a bike which I hope to use for errands and at least 3 days/ week to work. I’m 45 female and in fair/good physical condition The dealers i spoke to all recommend different brands. They were not helpful. thanks JL

By: Jacob

Jacob — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:52:50 +0000

@Steward – I use a chain scrubber (park tool cm-5) and some generic citrus cleaner. Then I wipe the chain off and put lube on the inside of each link, both sides. This works better than anything else I have ever tried (various degreasers and spray cans). The chain runs virtually silent after that.

By: Steward @ My Family's Money

Steward @ My Family's Money — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:49:09 +0000

I really need to clean up by gears and chain as well. They are all grimy. I plan to do with my my tongue and to oil my chain with natural human oil derived from my face and hair … just kidding. I will probably just clean it with a mild degreaser and a rag and use some type of lubricant. I have never done it before so it should be an adventure or really boring.

By: Bruno

Bruno — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:53:01 +0000

Your blog makes me happy.

By: doubleourmoney

doubleourmoney — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:42:16 +0000

It is such a good feeling when one makes some adjustments and something becomes like new again while saving your money.

You will probably be looking at that bike with a lot of pride whenever you see it from now on.