my rear seppo tyre ,tire, is 10 years old now , Jon the pom from Franga where i got the Matic from (US import)said it would soften up ( it was like new, still had the (.V.)’s on it) and it’s been ok so if it aint got dry rot use it, chuck it in the esky
vik...
Yeah, the hardest thing about old tyres that have been sitting for years is they go hard and shrink slightly, and are almost impossible to fit on rims, I got Jeff at Ace Motorcycles do a "strip and fit" for me one time, taking a relatively newish tyre off one wobbly rim and installing it on another one, and it almost killed his tyre machine, and our friendship. I did think about swapping the Michelin Commanders that were on my wobbly spoked rims onto the Henry Abe rims, but for the price the Ebay seller was selling the new Stinko's (3 new tyres and tubes, and fitting/balancing for $450) I really couldn't be bothered.
My brother in law Bruce (RIP, sadly) was a mechanic, and told me that his neighbour would buy new tyres for his car, and save them in his garage loft for a couple of years before fitting them. His theory was that once they go hard they wear a lot slower. I don't know if the theory actually had any merit, Bruce came home from work one day to hear his neighbours wife screaming so he ran into their garage, and found his neighbour had hanged himself from the rafters.
Anyway.......... it's a nice looking day here, so I might finish putting that Lester rear wheel's hub assembly back together, after I check the wheel bearings and re-grease them if they're good. I'm tempted to pull out the Swamp Rat's dead engine and do an autopsy, and see if there's any useable gearbox parts I can swap into my engine, I'm looking forward to taking my K2 bitsa for a ride, and so I might just tip the engine upside down and take the bottom case off, to see what damage lurks within.