Barfly

Since we have settled the debate regarding the blue tint on tires, I was curious to know what you guys feel is the upper limit of shelf life for a typical R compound. Let's assume just 1-2 heat cycles and proper storage.

I have some world challenge tires that had 1 heat cycle and have been stored for a little over a year (blue tint and all ). Still good?

Thanks.

_______
Jason

Jay Gratton

Are you racing or doing DE days? If you are racing I would not use them, but if they are for DE I would use them until they cord.

DanR

I would guess they would be fine, but taking them out and trying them will gve you the answer!

chrisp

bagged and stored in a refrigerator they last a long time (several years). The closer they get to heat and light that faster they cure. Heat cycling = curing. You can either do it over several cycles at track temps or one long cycle sitting at room temp. Stored in plastic bags in a 60 degree dark basement away from ozone generating electric motors they should last a few years.

Is that one heat cycle a world challenge race? If so, although it's only one heat cycle, it's a very long heat cycle and not the same as say a 20 minute DE session.

Professor Helmüt Tester

Last year, I dragged a set of 10+ year old race rubber (Bridgestone RE71-R's...remember them ??!?! Probably circa 1995...) out of my special "tire storage" bunker, and screwed them on a race car that I was loaning to a friend...he's an experienced racer, and said afterwards "the tires are fine". Car was a work in progress, so we weren't right on the edge...but that's a racer's definition of "edge", not HPDE definition of "edge".

Secret ? Cool, dark and away from electric motors (ozone source).

Barfly

Thanks for the input. Yeah, these would be for practice during something like a PCA DE event and not intended for racing. I don't escape a race weekend without a new set of stickers, sometimes two.

That's encouraging. I will mount them and try them out later this fall.

__________
Jason