Maintaining Even Tire Wear

Unicycles and Equipment
1

I read somewhere along the way on one of these threads that it’s good to rotate the tire to maintain even tire wear. I don’t mean rotating the tire to stay upright. :slight_smile: I mean moving the tire to a different position on the rim so that the tire wears evenly, has a longer wear life and provides a smoother ride.
My questions are:

  • How often should I move the tire to a different position? Miles (kilometers)? Hours? Days?
  • How much should the tire be moved? 1/8? 1/14? Something else?
  • How do I move it? Deflate the tire and move it? Remove the tire and move it? Move the cranks?
  • Should I even be concerned with maintaining even tire wear?
I don’t know if it matters to your responses, but I’m currently running two different knobby tires - a 24 inch and a 29 inch.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated?

Be well and may the bumps we encounter provide us all with a well balanced life.

2

Do you do lots of hopping or idling? If no, rotating your tire probably is not necesarry, at least the tire on my freestyle and on my downhill unicycle do not need it, whereas my trials uni does. You would probably notice a flat spot pretty quickly if you are wearing them uneven.

I am lazy about rotating the tire, and I’d say how often depends on your usage and your tire compound. I recommend deflating and moving it (if that works, sometimes the tire sits to tight) about 1/8, maybe a bit less on a bigger wheel then 20" , pay attention that your tube isn’t stressed at the valve doing this.

3

With ISIS cranks there are ten positions available and moving between them is easier than moving the tyre.

4

Finnspin,
I ride mostly single track dirt mountain bike trails and hopping and idling are not in my skill set, yet. Like yourself, I’m lazy, however, I do like to keep up with basic maintenance. My riding is landing on weekends only, so maybe every six months would be more than enough.

OneTrackMind,
This weekend, I pulled and replaced my cranks with longer ones and I saw the different positions you referenced. It was very easy to remove the cranks. Going forward, I will probably move them about three positions so that it will provide some evenness and so that I have one standardized method for keeping track.

Thank you both for your responses and insight.

Be well and enjoy the smooth rides.