Pirelli Rains Q

JBowen33

New Member
Whats the "usable" shelf life on these? I have an extra set of wheels I like to put a set on but spending the money and only getting a season or two is a waste for me right now. Just to clarify I am meaning the usable life before the tire compound itself gets old. Obviously I will properly store them. Thanks.
 

Thunderace

BIG JIM
Control Rider
Rain tires are amazing. I currently have a set of Pirelli rains and this will be their third season coming up. Before that, I had a set of Michelin rains that I had mounted on a spare set of wheels for probably 8 years. As long as you keep them out of extreme heat and extreme cold, they will last a long time.
 

2blueyam

Member
They won't give you ultimate racing grip after a few years, but they will still have so much more traction than DOTs in the rain even after 7 to 8 years. It also depends on how often you run them and if you run them in the drying conditions and overheat or wear them down of course. Mine had not seen much use.

I had a blast passing everyone on track except one coach who also had rains on my 8 year old rain tires. I am not a fast guy, but the guys on the DOTs (or slicks) didn't stand a chance. With that said my rains are 10 years old and starting to crack a bit, I have finally decided I am done running rains. It was fun, but just is not worth the hassle for me. If your bike already has a quick change set up on it, maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but I generally lost a session putting the rains off and another taking them off. So most of the time I did a bunch of wrenching for one extra session. The exception was the day I mentioned above where it rained all day and eventually the puddles got too deep even for my rains toward the end of the day. I am converting my rain wheels to a set of slicks ready to swap on, well at least the rear.
 
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