Odd Dealership Statement...

[browad]

Got off the phone today from a BMW dealer (not my most favorite one) after inquiring about tire pricing, installation, etc. They charge $65/tire to swap them out (not sure if there is a discount if you bring in the rims), and $160/250 for front/rear Metzeler 880s (tires only, install extra). About what I expected to be honest.

The parts gentleman made an odd comment about having to "be careful about buying tires online, you are never sure what you will get". Ok....I asked for a bit more detail and he said that they had just swapped out a set of tires for a customer that were 1 year old. To be clear, these were tires that the customer had in his garage for x months until he brought the bike in for the dealer to change.

I didn't really want to get into a pissing contest about this, but am I correct that you can keep tires for as long as you want with no ill-effects? I felt like I was missing some Rosetta stone piece of information that would clear up my ignorance. Course, could have just been a dealer trying to make a sale.

So...was I missing something here? This really is so basic it feels that I am.

On another note, they were talking about buying up a huge quantity of Metzelers so they could start doing some type of internet price matching.

We'll see about that.

Cheers,

[tbarstow]

UV in sunlight and ozone can damage tires. I my opinion, if you don't store your tires out in the sunlight or with an ozone generator, they should last quite a while.

Most shops here in So Cal won't mount a tire that you didn't buy from them.

[NOGILLS2]

Many years ago I replaced a set of original tires on my new car, with a set of the same, after a few months the belts shifted. I returned for a warranty exchange. Only for the to dealer argue with me: He said: I couldn't have purchased the tires from him because the date on the tires were older than when he started business. We went at it for awhile, until I produced the receipt of sale with his co. name planted at the top of the receipt. He got very quiet and replaced the tires. I decided to take my business elsewhere later!
You never know what they will say!

[andy]

Here is something I am parroting, but given the source I have little doubt there is at least a grain of truth in it:

"Tires age."

Now lets take a close look at this statement. The way tires are made is with heat and pressure some MUCH softer components are vulcanized together to form the rubber compound you have grown to know as your tire.

"Unfortunately it is technically next to impossible to mix the components in a way that stops the chemical reaction that happens when the tires are made in the first place. Meaning: Once started That reaction WILL continue to some degree and continue to react untill all the reactive material is used. This means in most cases that tires as they age they become a little bit harder, which is the reason why we buy them about 1 to 2 years in advance and let them sit in the garage to harden. Otherwise they would last only half the miles"

This statement was made by a SENIOR owner of a trucking company I happened to know and lo and behold they ALWAYS had a store of unused tires in their garage sitting around. Granted that statement was made about 20 years ago, but the last time I checked the basic chemistry did not change in the last 20 years.

In other words for MC tires that has to mean: If you store them correctly they will 'just' harden a little bit. This in turn is as we all know a two sided sword. On the one hand they will last a tad longer, but on the other hand you will get less grip in extreme situation out of them.

I don't think one can blankedly say this is good or bad. It really depends what your choices are in terms of riding style, grip , ....

This is as worth as you paid for it.