Quote Originally Posted by Marco View Post
As I have said to Graham previously, I tend to switch my front and rear tyres over every year to extend the life of them (the front tyre gets extremely little wear).
Quote Originally Posted by Graham Breeze View Post
I have said (I think) I changed my rear tyre at 5300 miles (there was a thin patch where I had presumably skidded) but friendly Woodrup of Kirkstall recently said my front was still OK and it has now done 6443 miles (too much precision?).
It's very hard to wear out a front tyre on a pedal bike; it's usually cuts and punctures damaging the casing that finish them off.

After several years, depending on where the bike has been stored and the quality of the tyre, the rubber content will perish causing the tyre to stiffen and crack. (If you left a brand new bike outside for 10 years without it moving, the tyres would be shot even though they'd covered 0 miles.) This is the reasoning behind swapping the front and rear tyres over periodically - no one wants to throw away a tyre with lots of tread left because it has partially perished.