Battlax tire from Amazon

[samuelmd]

Ordered a Battlax BT-45H for my soon to be triked GL1500. It arrived today and I will return it tomorrow. Tire was 4 years old and a tube type. Now I know why the price was so good.
Sam

[Rosy]

Ordered a Battlax BT-45H for my soon to be triked GL1500. It arrived today and I will return it tomorrow. Tire was 4 years old and a tube type. Now I know why the price was so good.
Sam

samuelmd,
Be careful, not because the tire is old, Great you found out, but some shops will not put on tires they don't sell. I know a couple of shops in the Northeast that will not put tires on they don't sell because they can't control the quality of the tire and if they put it on and something happens, they are liable for it.
It may cost you a little more, but you have the shop to fall back on in case something happens to the tire.
Good luck.

Regards,

Rosy
From NH

[Lakeman]

My HD shop will install a tire that you bring in but charges $20 more to mount it, I don't have a problem with that. I was looking at Avon but I think I will go with HD (Dunlop) for above reasons (Rosy). The front tire is so critical on a bike/trike. I know the Dunlop works so I think thats the way I will go. Also age does matter, 5 to 7 years should be max (depending on cracking), I know I will catch hell here for this statement. Learned this from motor coach experience. I had 8 year old tires on my motor coach and had some very fine cracks on the sidewalls. I kept an eye on them (Michelin says 10 years max with no major cracking "see chart on their site"), I check them before each trip. We took a 150 mile trip to Myrtle Beach and when I checked the tires for the return trip they had BAD cracks on the side walls, this was in 150 miles that they went from acceptable to get them the H--- off the road! I check my tires more often now, the front tires on a motor coach and a bike/trike are the one thing on the vehicle that needs to be in top notch condition!

[GARYD]

My dealer installs the tires free if bought from them. So it's a no brainer not to buy from the internet. And I tell the dealer I don't want a tire older then 3 months.
Buying a tire from the internet (new tire or old??) then freight (unless free), then finding an installer and his cost just isn't worth it to me.
And as Rosy said - you have the dealer right there in case of a problem.
Also you're helping to keep your local shop in buisness, which that alone is worth the additional cost - if any.