"258" date stamp on the front tire of my 88 SE.  Someone please tell me it's not from 1998...

Hello!

Sorry to tell you but the tires are so old they will last for ever, because the rubber ist hard as wood :-)
If you ride in the rain you could slide away.

Before year 2000 there where 3 digit, from 2000 there are 4 digit
So it's should read 1998

Cheers

club_c wrote:"258" date stamp on the front tire of my 88 SE.  Someone please tell me it's not from 1998...

Week 25 of 1998

Al

Reading this post about tire age, I checked mine.

My rear bt 045 is fairly new, the age stamp says 2016 so ok, 

but my bt 045 front, which I have had on for two years, shows 4213 so presumably only 4 years old.

Although the front has lots of mileage in her, she shows lots of worrying cracks , so will be changed soon.
 So a couple of questions..

When you order a tyre how can you ensure you have are not buying something that has been on the shelf for a while..

Are bt 045 tyres prone to deteriate with age more than other brands

Would love to hear from guys who run other tyres about this.

I like the bt045 tyres , but would change if there was a good enough reason to

Thanks to Chocolate for the tyre info.

Bob

Don't worry. An old tyre is no systematically dangerous, its aging depends a lot of the way it was used, and stored.
Cracks? Don't use.( Most of cracks are due to a lack of air pressure, not aging)
No cracks? Ride carefully to test it, but usually there's a very thin lay that has hardened outside because of exposure to hydrocarbures vapors and deposits on the tar, UV from sun and ozone, that disappears within a hundred kilometers. Once this lay is peeled, the tyre shows a compound that has its original qualities. Only the ozone is small enough to penetrate into the the tyre, but if you've not stored it near a MIG welder in a room where you dismantle electrical converters and clean the floor with diesel,  don't bother.
I've restored hundreds of bike, most of them had not run for 10 or 20 years. I've never seen a tyre that was not good for service, except if it has cracks.
A customer brought me 2 years ago a R45, with only 10 000 kms. It still had its original tyres, from 1978! No problem about them on test ride. Yet he wanted to change them anyway, and re-used the rear tyre on a R100RS to finish it. No problem at all...
Don't consider that I ride very carfully: I live in the Alps, with many twisty roads, practice road hill climb (training the week on the road to work, racing on week ends!) and the average life span of a tyre is 3000 km on my bikes...sometimes less. Often less.

About BT45, I 've often seen cracks on the front tyres when they're almost completely worn, at the bottom of the sculptures. It's more about the deformation of the structure, quite thin, when braking. I still use them with many satisfaction on my daily bikes and my racing bikes.

I love the BT45 and use them all the time. I ride all year, in all weathers. I found they do deteriorate, tread tends to disappear at about 10-12,000 miles on the rear and a bit more on front!

However in cold wet weather like we have here old tyres would not be good. We also have mostly diesel vehicles so more diesel on road surfaces. More curves mean more scrubbed off rubber on road surfaces, all a bad situation when it gets wet. In a warm climate its much less of an issue but I have had old tyres on both Ks when I got them and they could only be described as lethal in wet and cold conditions. You won't get me on our roads on a tyre over 4 years old.

The front BT45 seems to scallop if its run on lower pressures, doesn't seem to affect how it rides though. I now pull the front tyre and rear at the same time and do both.

In times past I could go on a trip with new tyres and come back 2 weeks later needing...new tyres. Great fun back then.....

Once I had put a new front tyre on my K1100LT. A sport Dunlop Dsomething, I don't remember the exact type.
I rode to a BMW gathering to the south France, 350km from home, with passenger and luggage, through the mountain roads I appreciate.
On arrival, I checked the tyre: worn out. No more threads on the sides.
350 km...

Hopefully this is purely academic, but I do hope there is a triangle in front of that 258 date stamp. If not then it would be 1988..

audibob - if you're looking for other tyres I currently have a Michelin Pilot Activ on the front and can't fault it, it has been by far the best tyre I've had on there so far. But then I am too tight to pay out for BT45s so you may be living in sheer luxury by comparison! It has filled with little tears/cracks though, as many do. It's a hard life, being a tyre.

My last set of BT45 in late October cost me E245.00 fitted riding the bike in to a bike shop.

I thought I would need a new rear in April but a chance eBay purchase of a rear wheel for £35 plus postage to save me painting the one I have was even better when I opened the package to find it had a nice 130/90 BT45 on it dated 3714 with probably 1,000 miles use if even that. New front on the way soon too.

I do love how the BT45 behaves in the worst of winter but if you don't ride in it well that's different.