Dilyan

Hello and good day to you!
I can purchase really cheap couple new tires - Schwalbe City Plus 28x1.5 622-40. Now these are no longer produced for years i believe. Send i question to Schwalbe, but still no answer. I cant find any reviews or information about them.
There is no web page about them on schwalbe website which is really sad. I know they have good protection against flats (but is it good enough against Thorns?) Punchture guard level 5. Now i know these tires wont last very long (i will be really happy of 3500km on mixed terrain mostly bike paths) i hope they can provide that. Im worry about that they might be really old.. like 10 years old. Still brand new. On schwalbe website i can read their tires can be stored for around 5-7 years no problem... So is it safe to ride with them after 10-12 years...? Thats how much i estimated their age is.Hopefully im wrong. I will really stress these tires, i will do 30-55km daily with some gravel and low quality terrain with some forest trails but light ones. Mostly bike paths. I know they are for city but i think they can handle it. My current tires have no longer tread - Schwalbe Tyrago - basically zero, very wear.. and they handle rough terran like its nothing.

Chuck M 

This is a who knows question with a maybe but probably not answer. I aired some Schwinn Records from probably some time in the 80s up to 100 psi to take a bike I just bought around the block to say I aired some Schwinn Records up to 100 spit to ride them around the block. That's as far as I'm going to go on them. I don't think these tires, if they are as old as you think would be dependable enough to try to save some money on.

MrWasabi

I'm interested in this as well. I have some 15-20 year old Michelins on a bike I'm fixing up and they look OK from the outside. They probably have less than 25 miles on them and have been in a climate controlled garage that whole time. I was just going to change the tubes since they're cheap but they've been holding air fine now for about 5 days. I don't plan on any heavy riding on this bike, just cruising around the neighborhood but if I do ride rougher stuff, I think I'll get new tires. If you plan on that type of riding you may not want to take the chance. Schwalbe has a sale on a bunch of tires on their website now BTW.

Dilyan

My concern is early cracks on sidewalls after say 300km... hope i dont have them. So far im really, really interested. From website are telling me they received them from November last year so thats pretty recent.So they might be 5y old or something... Schwalbe automatic message says might take few days until i get reply.
The price is soo good that i can have 2 of them with shipping for less money than 1 single Marathon tire without shipping. And they have same level of protection, just less durability and weaker sidwalls thats it.

Random11

There are two questions here. The OP's question is: should you buy old tires, and I'd lean against it. But another question is whether it would be risky to ride on old tires. What can go wrong, really? You get a flat tire. That happens all the time with new tires. Ride old tires? Sure. Why not? Buy old tires? I'd pass on them.

honcho

How cheap is cheap? They'd have to be less than $10 US each delivered to me for me even to consider a run-of-the-mill NOS (New Old Stock) tire. I say that because in common sizes, it's pretty easy to find current stock tires under $20 US each tires. The tires will probably serve you fine as long as they were stored in reasonable conditions. That said, there are reasons to spend more for NOS tires such as when you need / want sizes and styles that are no longer in production. I just recently bought 4 NOS Schwalbe tires in a style and size that Schwalbe discontinued about 5 years ago and paid handsomely for the privilege of doing so.

Safe riding

Ogsarg

The issue with old tires is sidewall cracks and the fact it gets hard and therefore doesn't perform the same when cornering. Cracks you can see and if you're not riding aggressively, you probably won't notice lack of performance so if you need tires and can't afford something current, give it a go. What is the worst that can happen?

Dilyan

well yea, on discount now 9.99$, buy 3 get free shipping to door basically for my country. I think they have 500 in stocks thats crazy. Normal price would be 20$+
Is just crazy for big global brand like Schwalbe to produce and sell globally tire then out of sudden delete all information about it and act never existed.. I am still waiting for reply from them, send 2nd email... on first one they said , yea this tire is no longer produced buy insted this tire bla bla bla... with pretty much zero reviews over the internet that matters (i have seen couple on ebay but there is no value, people say oh looks good, seller was fast and 5 stars thats it.. without even testing tire..)
Next week might place an order for 3 , test them in 200-300km specially punchture guard level 5 protection for thorns , we have many thorns here and will post here in 2-3 weeks.

Dilyan

yea i think with this tire the tread will be gone faster than cracks to do any damage. I expect 2000-3000km life.Worst can happen i was newbie couple years ago i was riding on KENDA cheap tires. Bike was on basement for 10 years, so tire was somewhere 11 y old and i ride about 100km for the good old times and tire had many cracks i just didnt paid any attention because it was just fun casual riding to park and back and one summer night luckily 200m from home tire just complete failed and was no longer possible for riding. Week before that i got flat 15km from home in remote area lack any trafic i didnt had any patches left so was fun pushing it back haha

veganbikes

You are quite cheap no-info tire obsessed. If you have specific needs get the right tire for those needs don't just shop in the bargain barrels you aren't going to be happy. If there is a tire you are looking at seriously that you think will work and is current go with that. Anyone saying is this still good or I have doubts, means that person should move on to something they don't have doubts on.

The tire might well be fine if stored well a tire can last a while but if you are worried about it, skip it. Or buy some and try them out and if they don't work well there goes a little bit of money and if they do work, great.

Schwalbe need not promote a tire they no longer make and aren't required to have any info on it on their website anymore. It could also have been an OEM tire hence no real reason to post about it as they don't sell it to consumers and their site is more consumer oriented.

Moe Zhoost

For that price, I'd certainly give them a try, They've probably been stored in a manner to prevent much deterioration and so should give good service. I have some tires still in use that are over 30 years old.

xroadcharlie

With new tires the casing and belts wears mostly from use, not age. So it comes down to the rubber. If it is still soft and pliable with no hint of drying out or cracks I think your good to go. If I where racing or planning on speeding down a steep grade at 50+ kph on a regular basis I'd be more skeptical.

The cheap tires on my old bike where 31 years old with just light cracking. Not Ideal, But I never felt they where a hazard for the recreational cycling I did on them.

Bigbus

When I was buying tires for my coach they had to be manufactured within the last 6 months (at $800./tire times 8 I wasn't going to pay for tires with a life span of 7-10 years that had already used up even 1 year of life) But with bike tires, if I can use them and they're cheap, hell yeah! You'll see the deterioration in the sidewalls long before they fail you and even then, you probably got your monies worth out of them. I picked up some 27" tires and tubes at the local thrift shop the other day for $2.50/tire and a buck a tube. I bought all they had because I don't plan on getting rid of the old Giant any time soon. These were new and in their original boxes. I felt like I really scored after just paying $20. for a new tire at the local hardware store that had probably been sitting on the shelf for years. So I repeat-buy them and ride them into the ground, just keep an eye on the sidewalls for drying and cracking, which will probably take many more years to happen.

Dilyan

I have changed a bit my priorities. Since i am quite new and read everyday i found out i better invest in a tire that is low in weight and have good rolling resistance, rather than good punchture protection and tons of weight with probably poor rolling. All of Schwalbe tires that are Non premium ones have same rolling resistance so expect same from this one as well. After deep search i found this tire weight just under 800grams for 1.5 inch which is quite heavy isnt it...My Current tires Schwalbe Tyrago are no longer in schwalbe website but thru timearchieve i managed to go back to 2016 where i last saw them on their site and they weight 600grams.
The only 2 tires that came close or lower is Schwalbe Marathon Racer - 500grams but i read bad review about it - no defense against thorns pretty much , cost 20 euros and rolling resistance is same as Marathon GreenGuard.. wow... next one is Schwalbe Marathon Mondial Raceguard - 630~grams but with much better durability, capeable for poor road conditions and decent rolling resistance. Now i just need to wait for them to be on promotion. I read reviews i could last with them over 15k km... Basic math shows currenly i get 1 marathon Mondial tire for the price of 3 Schwalbe CIty Plus... so 2 tires for 6 City plus. If city plus last me 5k Km.. thats 5x3pairs = 15 000km... So i just need to wait for better deals on them.

Dilyan

News just in. I was right. Went to local store and for my surprise i found them there. the two Tires that were there - they were very distorted. On multiple places. Looks like factory seconds probably?.Almost no way i could mount it properly. Date of manufacture 06 = 2006 year.... Wow. 15 years old rubber. Still tread was there like new very hard on touch. Probably ok for going to park but i plan to do long trips 50-60km a day for weekend so i have no option but drop the model. Just saved 30 bucks and all the trouble.

UncleG

I heard the 26" Presta Valve tubes are going to stop being produced and they're going to shift back to the Schrader on the 26", reason being - other options (29in tires) are replacing the 26" in the MTB.

Can a presta rim be bored out to retro-fit a schrader valve and not compromise the rim integrity?

Bigbus

I think that totally depends on the rim. I did it for a friend's MTB (27.5") a few years back and he hasn't had any problems with the wheels. We did it because I had spare shrader inner tubes handy at the time and he didn't care so long as he could ride.

Pratt

"Do you think it is safe to______?" is a fairly common question here. I principle, if you are even asking the question, you already know that the answer is "NO."
A more refined answer might be, "Not as safe as if it was new, undamaged, used for its original purpose, etc." If you have enough expert knowledge to make a considered judgement that although the safety envelope of the item in question is reduced, your riding will still stay within it, you would not be asking the question.
Maybe a better approach would be to recast it as a statement, "I'm planning to ride my bike with (insert potential problem here)." See how that sounds.
Good luck.

Bigbus

MTBers don't give refined answers, we just laugh when someone has a good fail. Like mum used to say, "It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt." And then my dad would say, "Walk it off, you'll live."

Dilyan

OffTopic:You are forgetting that majority of the world population doesnt speak well english.Including me. So for us best is right to the point questions and answers easy to understand. Often by asking or typing something we mean a lot more things than the question/comment by itself.We just dont have the skill/knowledge to express ourself accuratly. We know just bunch of english words that we put togheter and trying to make sense without too much gramatical errors...Perhaps we should all use google translate? ))
OnTopic:Ill be making another trip to that local store and try to ask and find tires in better condition and more recent factory date, and see whats there.
Maybe they will allow me to make short test mounting them on my bike to check if everything is ok...
Honestly if they prevent this: https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3f17c8d417.jpg
Then should be ok..
5 in a row wow...well i guess better 5 same time than one by one...

UncleG

Not familiar with Schwalbe tires. But I use Continental Tour.

I'm more interested in tubes. I think there are a lot of inferior quality tubes on the market.

I'm more interested in rim strips.

And what about slime? Does it work.

I've never worn a bicycle tire down to the cords, and I can't get my head wrapped around the idea of tubeless bicycle tires. But inner-tubes have become disgustingly poor in quality or, there's a trove of good inner-tube experience and recommendations that is waiting to surface... or the inner-tube is truely the bane of many a-cyclists existence.

Bigbus

Now that's getting your monies worth out of a tire...haha

Dilyan

what do you mean this is default tires that came with bike i never paid for them. They are pretty good and fast ,lasted me 4000 km on rough terrain.Just very weak against specific thorns.