Topic: Obvious sillyness (Oldest tires & sprockets contest)

[Don R]

  I might need new tires on my bike, the tread is OK but the sizes are some sort of letter code and the date stamps only have 3 digits?  Do they really need replaced?

[PeWe]

If rubber feels not dry without cracks, test ride next.
Might work fine for cruising around in legal speeds.

Inspired riding where your knees or foot pegs will go close to the asphalt, fresh tires a cheap ensurance.

[BenelliSEI]

For tires: “when in doubt, throw them out”.

[grcamna2]

For tires: “when in doubt, throw them out”.

  

[70CB750]

If rubber feels not dry without cracks, test ride next.
Might work fine for cruising around in legal speeds.

Inspired riding where your knees or foot pegs will go close to the asphalt, fresh tires a cheap ensurance.

Done that to plenty of tires with no issues.  Your experience may be different. 

[madmtnmotors]

For those that don't recognize the silliness, four-digit date codes were implemented in the year 2000 making any tire with a three-digit date code well over twenty years old!

Good one Don! This also would have been appropriate in the joke of the day thread. 

[newday777]

Hey I have a couple tires on the parts bikes with 3 digi dates on them.

[PeWe]

An old  bike with its original tires is worth more?

[Don R]

 These tires have white letter sidewalls, they are pretty fancy to be honest. The seller thought they might be original but I'm pretty sure they have been changed once. They did make it a few miles on my test ride.
 I did keep the original front tire off of my sandcast. it looks OK but has a flat spot from sitting a decade or two.
 Thanks Wilbur, I guess the sillyness wasn't as obvious as I thought. lol.
 

[Don R]

 When figuring the sprocket ratio do you count where the teeth were, or only where they are?

[Kelly E]

When figuring the sprocket ratio do you count where the teeth were, or only where they are?

You'll have to count them, they're mostly there.

[Don R]

 OK thanks.

[CycleRanger]

I recently pulled an original front tire off my 1971 CL350. Still had plenty of tread left. 
I've also got a original Bridgestone Superspeed that came on a rear wheel I got from a '73 750.
It has about half the tread left. I should put it on ebay as "vintage".

[HondaMan]

So...does that make this one a 16.75-tooth sprocket?
That will raise the RPM at hiway speeds...

[ekpent]

My 1971 Suzuki T500 still has its original redline tires on it and only a couple thousand miles on it. Leaving them on for now since I still haven't decided if I want to keep or sell it. Already have had it a long time since 2017, tough decision when your a hoarder.    Pic later when I change computers .

[CycleRanger]

That's a beauty!

[PeWe]

That T500 is almost NOS!

[BenelliSEI]

Don…. I’ve only seen one sprocket that worn and threw it away so fast I have no photo!

[ekpent]

I bought a Kawasaki 750 4 cylinder 4 stroke once at a yard sale and it came with a new bearing because the guy said it had a clunk in the back. Well when I got it back to the shop and started looking it over the rear sprocket pretty much had no teeth and the chain was slipping. Guy must not have been to sharp to not notice !  I saved to somewhere in my shop for #$%*e and giggles.

[Don R]

So...does that make this one a 16.75-tooth sprocket?
That will raise the RPM at hiway speeds...

I took a closer look 16.25 teeth.

[Don R]

 I had a T350 a while back but it was the opposite end of the spectrum from that T500. I'd like to get my brother an X6, he worked at an oldsmobile dealer that had suzukis for a while when they were new.

[Kelly E]

Here's the sprocket that was on the 78' KL 250 when I got it. The bike has 15k miles on it and I think this is the original sprocket.

[grcamna2]

When figuring the sprocket ratio do you count where the teeth were, or only where they are?

This sprocket is really worn;I've seen one in the past that was So badly worn that all the teeth were curved in one direction,like a circular saw blade.
The chain was just slipping over it every time the bike was shifted

[Don R]

 Here is an engine that I just opened. Has sat for so long it varnished inside but was awfully abused when it was running. 
 The pump screen was pushed in causing oil to go through it, I assume a lot of this crud happened sitting in the barn but the crank oil holes are plugged solid. No way did that happen while sitting. A chip was gone off of a piston, I think the oil pump ate it.

[Don R]

 The screen.