All those old tires in our garage, what to do with them?
The finish on my Heckler was anodized, so it didnt chip, it didnt scratch very easy, basically the only way it scratched is if it gets gouged strong enough to also gouge into the metal. It was prone to rubbing off, not that easily, but there were defined wear marks where the heel of my shoe would rub on the chainstay. Over the years (since April 2006) I had worn the anodization off asmall part of the chain stay, so it was a pretty strong finish.
The finish on my new Nomad however is a clear paint, not sure if its even powder coat, but nonetheless, its not nearly as tough as the anodization on the Heckler. On my second ride I scratched the underside of the downtube pretty good, on the third ride on the new bike, the front tire threw some rocks, pebbles, dirt chunks against the downtube which chipped it.
Those of you that know me, know that Im no primadonna when it comes to my bike, but the sound of the the downtube being struck by rocks and seeing the effect it had on it in such short order was a little disheartening.
But hot diggity, I just happened to be in my garage looking at all the extra tires we have hanging from the rafter, and it hit me, find the most worn out one your not likely going to use again, cut to fit and glue it to your downtube.
Its cheesy but it works...for me.
Its pretty easy to do, doesnt take too much time either.
Tools:
Scissors strong enough to cut an old tire, if its wire bead some snips will be needed to cut through the wire.
Materials:
Old tire, or new if thats your thing.
Glue, I used 3m Spray Adhesive Formula 77.
Steps:
Measure how much downtube you want to cover with your tire.
Cut tire about an inch longer than your measurement.
Hold your piece of tire up to downtube to determine how much "wrap" you want.
Trim to desired width (wrap) and hold up again to make sure alls good.
Trim bottom and top of your cut piece of tire to mate with your bottom bracket shell and headtube interfaces cleanly.
On a drop cloth or newspapers, lay the piece of tire out with the tread pattern facing down and spray a good coat of adhesive onto the inner side of your cut piece of tire.
Let the adhesive setup for a little bit, I think I waited 3-5 minutes, otherwise it will be too wet to keep the piece of tire from sliding around getting glue where you dont want it.
Apply your piece of tire onto your downtube and press into place.
Let it dry for 30 minutes to an hour (depends on your adhesive).
If you have glue where you dont want it, denatured alcohol or rubbing alcohol and a clean rag will clean it off easily.
It only takes 10 minutes or so to do this and if you dont like it then its easy enough to undo and cleanup.
I did this a couple weeks ago and I dont see any area of the old tire peeling off or moving.
I hope you enjoyed this lame tutorial on a simple way to recycle a used bicycle tire.
