Imagine The Walking Dead started in 50 years from now. The way things are going now, picture this scenario:
>A survivor is walking down a lonesome road.
>They arive at a small resort and there’s a car covered in dust and dirt in the parking lot.
>They approach the car and check whether it still has some bio fuel left in the tank.
>Still plenty.
>They look around spotting a decayed body close by.
>They search the body and are lucky to find a ‘keyless’ key belonging to the car.
>There are no door handles and the battery inside the key corroded away.
>They break the glass and open the door from the inside.
>Finally inside, there’s still no way to start the engine without the key.
>They have an idea.
>The digital wrist watch on the body should have the same battery as the key.
>After a bit of tinkering with some tools they get the key working again.
>They press the ignition button.
>The displays light up but the engine remains quiet.
>The displays show error messages:
ERROR CODE: ND47089
Tire pressure sensor subscription expired
Please schuedule service or enter payment information
Engine start failed
>MFW
I have rode the bike I had when I was a kid several decades ago. The tires themselves were good just had to change the air chambers.
Maybe they were not good for profesional cycling but for moving around I didn’t notice anything wrong with them.
Rubber begins to degrade after 3-7 years depending on the compounds. Even if stored in ideal conditions to slow the degrading, you’re only going to give it marginally more life.
Degraded tires risk side-wall blow outs and let will easily let through sharp debris (sticks, thorns, glass, sharp rocks) causing far more maintenance needs.
That’s not to say bikes aren’t beneficial and there’s ways to get around this (stuff the tire with leaves, foam core [also has limited life span], etc), but it is something to be aware of.
This all reminds me… I need to replace the tires on my good weather bike.