New Tires - Manufactured Date - What is Fair and Reasonable

[Ulvetanna_imp]

I am not so much concerned about tire failure but rather if it is fair to receive a three year old tire when being purchased as new. Since I am relatively new to buying motorcycle tires I was unsure if receiving a three year old tire, as new, was normal and acceptable from a consumer's perspective.

Earlier today, I decided to contact the re-seller and they agreed to take it back and ship me a newer one. No argument from them and I didn't press the point. They told me they would check the date code on the replacement and inform me before sending it out. I suspect they use a third party to fulfill their tire orders so they would normally never look at the date codes. Let's see what the next date code will be. Maybe a newer Z8 rear doesn't exist in this size?

Let me know if I was too critical in this decision. I will likely be buying a lot more tires in my future so I'm trying to get educated.

If that is your only question, yes, it is perfectly fair and acceptable to be shipped a tire that is less than five years old. This is the industry standard. They don't make tires "to order". Tires are made with preservative and flex agents that allow them to last that long before the first use and still provide the mileage and performance expected.

If your vendor will take the tires back, and you feel better about it, that's business. It's not science.

Science says those tires will work perfectly and they will, as I just described in my earlier post.

The only time I would be concerned about the date is for a tire destined for track use.

Why not contact Metzeler directly and see what they have to say about all this? I'd go with that. Meanwhile check out this video, the link is in [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=11935&pid=189792#pid189792]this post.