Maintaining Your Motorcycle Tires

Your motorcycle tires play a crucial part in your ride. Proper maintenance helps extend their life and keep you out of the service shop and on the road where you belong. Below, we cover the top ways to care for your tires. If you have any questions or want to look at motorcycles for sale, visit St. Charles Harley-Davidson®. We proudly serve those in St. Peters, St. Charles, and O’Fallon, Missouri.

Preventative Maintenance

The better you take care of your tires, the longer they will last. Preventative maintenance can help prevent or reduce damage while extending the life of your tires. You'll end up replacing them less often, which means saving money.

Washing Your Tires

Caked-on dirt and debris create more than an unappealing look. They can actually lead to damage if left on your tires for too long. All you need to do use a powerful hose to knock loose stuck-on gunk.

Riding

Be intentional with the weight you load up onto your motorcycle. Too many supplies can put excess pressure on your tires, causing them to wear out faster. As you cruise around town, be mindful of any debris that you hit. If you bump over something that seems like it was more than a little rock, pull over to look for damage. It's better to catch a problem now than ride around for several more days and end up with more damage (and a higher mechanic's bill).

Storage

If possible, avoid storing your motorcycle outside. The sun's rays can cause sidewall cracking. Other damaging aspects including fluctuating temperatures and humidity. It's much better to store your motorcycle in a cool, dry place such as a garage or shop. Just be sure to place it far from any corrosive materials stored there, since spills do happen.

You'll also want to store your motorcycle on a stand if possible. This helps prevent too much pressure from being placed on your tires, which can lead to deflation and excess wear. If you don't have a stand, you'll need to regularly rotate the tires to relieve the pressure.

Inspection

It's important to regularly inspect your tires. This helps you catch issues before they snowball into more damaging issues that will cost you more money to fix.

Visual Inspection

Take some time to glance over your motorcycle tires. Do you see any bumps, bubbles, or cracks? These are signs that your tires might be losing their structural integrity. Get this repaired or replaced before it poses a safety threat on the road.

Inflation

Proper inflation helps optimize the forces pushing down on your tread. This includes acceleration, braking, and the vehicle's load. It also helps boost your fuel economy, decrease the tread wear, extend the life of your tires, and facilitate a more comfortable ride. Simply check your owner's manual to find out the ideal air pressure. Then use a tire pressure gauge, which is a cheap tool that is easy to store in your motorcycle, to check the psi. Try to measure in the morning when tires are cold for the most accurate reading and make any adjustments you need to so you can match the pressure to the manufacturer's recommendations.

Tread

Tire tread helps your motorcycle properly grip the road. It gets worn down naturally over time, but eventually it gets worn down enough that it becomes a safety issue. When this happens, your motorcycle won't be able to properly grip the road. This can be dangerous when you accelerate, turn, or stop. Your owner's manual will tell you at what point the tread gets low enough to warrant a replacement. One thing to note is if one tire is getting worn down faster than the other, this can be a sign of improper tire inflation or poor wheel alignment and merits a visit to a service department.

At this point, your tires should be ready to carry you to every destination, no matter how far. If you have any other questions, though, or want to look at motorcycles for sale, visit St. Charles Harley-Davidson. We proudly serve those in St. Peters, St. Charles, and O’Fallon, Missouri.