It’s always a little disheartening when you go to get on the bike & are looking it over to see if some motorcycle gnome has come for a part in the night & you realize, man those tires sure are cracked.  Noted this morning that both tires have more cracking in them than I feel comfortable when riding if I know they’re there.  And I know.  Had to a) put on the center stand, b) jack up the front of the bike, c) drop tires off at a place that will do motorcycle tires & then d) wait for them to be ready.

Found out the front tire’s slow leak was due to a previous owner putting an inner tube into a tubeless tire.  Fixed that.  Tire on front was manufactured back in 2006 and the tire on the back was manufactured in 2005.

So I just happened to look at my front tire the other day & realized how cracked it is.  Just for kicks I also checked the rear tire and it wasn’t quite as bad with cracks long ways but had a few deep ones the short way.  Checking on the age of the tires reveals them to have been manufactured in 2005 (back) and 2006 (front).  Pretty old for a set of tires.  The front one’s always had a slow leak so I’ve had to put air in it every week.  Picture is my method of jacking the bike up – put on center stand, put bricks under front of crankcase, tie handlebars back with bungee cords (and put sponge between brake lever & grip to keep brake pads from being pushed out).