600 Miles of Tire Torture

Shinko Cheater

  This is the follow up on the Shinko 505 Cheater tire I promised the MX43 readers. I reached what I call the worn out stage of this tire. It is probably well beyond the point most of you would run a tire since it is nearly bald and is beginning to tear knobs off.

I do this on most tires for two reasons, first is purely economics. If I changed a rear tire as soon as they fell into the ‘worn’ category I would be changing rear tires literally weekly! I do that on the motocross track tires.  Off Road I generally ride in areas that have the worst ground that is very hard packed and extremely rocky.

The second reason is I find out very quickly how well a tire works while it is in decent condition, but I want to know how well it works or doesn’t work when it is stretched to its limits. Does it become total garbage or does it fall apart, literally, by chunking and tearing knobs off. Do I start getting flats, etc.

I now have right at 600 miles on the ‘Cheater’ tire and it is what I would call worn out! But it still has a little knobby down the middle and the edge knobs are just starting to tear at the base. I am impressed! It performed very well until this point. It was not until my last couple of rides that I didn’t make it up a couple of hills and had to try a second time. Before it got to this point I never failed to get up any hill whether loose or hardpack.

I ran regular heavy duty tubes with about 15 psi to ward off flats and was never on the side of the trail making flat repairs. This always makes me happy!

So as an Off Road tire I would buy another one, so now maybe it is time to get one for the MX track and see what it can do.

For price, traction and longevity I give it 2 thumbs up!

#33

‘Laughter is to Life what shock absorbers are to a car. It won’t take the potholes out of the road, but it sure makes the ride smoother’