10 WAYS TO SAVE MONEY ON MOTOCROSS TIRES: How To Keep Your Sneakers From Breaking The Bank

On May 24, 2009

10 WAYS TO SAVE MONEY ON MOTOCROSS TIRES
HOW TO KEEP YOUR TIRES FROM BREAKING THE BANK

ÿÿ (1) Flip them over. Tires wear out on the drive side before the brake side (unless you are chirping the tire on asphalt in your spare time). A savvy rider can use up the leading edge of his favorite tire and then turn it around so that the rear edge is now the leading edge. Don’t think that you can double the life span of a tire with this trick (because the brake performance will decrease rapidly after flipping the tire), but you can expand the tire’s usable life by 25 percent.

ÿÿ (2) Buy a real tire gauge. Motocross success depends on getting the tire pressure spot on. You can’t afford to be off by a pound or two. Not only is there a performance benefit to the correct tire pressure, but tire life will be extended if you run the proper pressure for the conditions.

ÿÿ (3) Be smooth as a baby. Before you put a tube in your tires, sprinkle baby powder on the tube and inside the tire carcass?this lessens chafing (just like on a baby). Chafing increases heat and can allow the tube to stick to the inner carcass of the tire.

ÿÿ (4) Patch tubes before buying new ones. Motorcycle tubes are expensive, but you can extend the life of a tube by patching it before replacing it. Modern patch kits are phenomenal and, if properly installed, will save you upwards of $20 on every flat. We have seen tubes with as many as five patches that work perfectly.

Don’t cut tires this way.

ÿÿ (5) Groove your old tires. Grooving an old tire can extend its useful life, if you do it right. Don’t sharpen the edges of an old tire. This not only doesn’t improve the performance, but actually makes it wear out faster (because it makes the knobs smaller and weaker). Instead, cut sipes (grooves) in the contact patch of the knobs. Cut the top driving knobs with a groove through the center, perpendicular to the direction of travel. Cut a 45-degree groove in the transitional part of the tire (knobs that aren’t down the centerline or on the edge). Don’t waste your time grooving the side knobs. Grooves create extra driving and braking edges. It should be noted that grooving a tire cuts its life in half?so only do it to tires that you are trying to stretch for another couple of races.

ÿÿ (6) Skip the smoky burnouts. Don’t do burnouts on concrete starting pads. It doesn’t do squat. Just spin the tire a few times to make sure that it is clean of debris. Excessive spinning doesn’t give you any advantage, but it does wear out your tire faster. You want clean rubber?not hot rubber. For a burnout to have any effect on hookup off concrete, you have to do it within 45 seconds of the gate dropping (otherwise the tire returns to its old temperature in under a minute).

ÿÿ (7) Pick the best tire for your riding. Don’t run soft terrain tires on hardpack. As a rule of thumb, intermediate tires use the same rubber hardness as hard terrain tires (a durometer reading in the 60 to 70 range), while sand tires use a firmer 70 to 80 durometer rubber compound. Let your wallet be the judge, but if you ride on a track that is part loam and part hardpack, your tires will last longer if you give up some drive in the loam for better wear in the hard.

ÿÿ (8) Buy cheap tires. If you have the time and energy, buy the least expensive tires you can find to run when you are play riding. There is no reason to waste a $90 tire on a Wednesday afternoon. Save your premium tires for races.

ÿÿ (9) Front tires last four times longer than rear tires, but when it comes to cornering, the front does all of the heavy hauling. Keep a close eye on your front tire every time you change your rear. It is what keeps you going in the right direction.

ÿÿ (10) Look for sales. Tires are a commodity that a dealer doesn’t like to see sitting on a rack. Your friendly local dealer wants to move them and will often try to unload stock at way below suggested retail. In a quick search for 110-90-19 rear tires, the MXA wrecking crew found prices from $55 to $90 for the same rear tire.