maturing tires

"jim beam" wrote in message
om...
i'm not interested in conjecture - just give me facts.

are you saying rubber does /not/ continue to cross-link over time?

jb


What amount of cross-linking is ideal for a given tire? Is it desirable to
have an increased amount of cross-linking for a tire from what the
manufacturer intended during construction and at it's time of "birth"? How
does cross-linking affect traction, specifically wet traction?

Cheers?

Scott..

DOUBLE TIRE GRIP REDUCE ROLLING FRICTION search for in bike tech!

What amount of cross-linking is ideal for a given tire? Is it desirable to
have an increased amount of cross-linking for a tire from what the
manufacturer intended during construction and at it's time of "birth"? How
does cross-linking affect traction, specifically wet traction?

briefly, you have polymers that are cross-linked to each other in the
vulcanization process. unvulcanized rubbers can be torn apart,
vulcanized ones, within their design application, can't.

the "desired" amount depends on the properties you require. very
roughly, hard is less sticky & therefore less traction & less rolling
resistance. the only way a consumer can practically affect the rubber
is to age it, if you are so inclined. i think you'll find that most of
the "big" manufacturers, the ones that spend the money on the research,
design for a product to be used sooner rather than later.

honestly, i wouldn't get too concerned about this. i don't age my tires
any more. in the old days, rubbers weren't as good as they are today,
and the crazy race guys would do anything for some small competitive
advantage. if that meant using "old" rubber, they'd do it. today,
multi-compound treads negate that kind of guesswork. particularly when
you can get them on special for $25 or less from perform-super-bar.

jb.