Date Code Info and Pics

I bought a 85 aspencade with 6000 miles and the tires had 400 miles on them cause I got the tire bill with the bike but they were 10 years old so I just bit the bullet and changed them also, better to be safe than sorry.

16 years is pretty old for a motorcycle tyre. I would be inclined to change them asap.

That is not the date code. It should be a 3 digit # if before 2000 i.e. (327) if the 32nd week of 97.

DaveO430 said:

That is not the date code. It should be a 3 digit # if before 2000 i.e. (327) if the 32nd week of 97.

Click to expand...

Well Dave, that's the ONLY stamp on the tire, period. The tire is required to have a date code...and looking at the tire closely it looks original (as was the front one)...so as far as I'm concerned, it's gotta be the date code. It makes sense that a 1998 model could have a tire made in 1997 and my research showed that some of the older date stamps contained more than the 3 digits representing the week/year, but that the last 3 were always the date. It seems that before 2000 the stamps were not quite as uniform as afterwards.

I'll be taking the wheel in tomorrow to have the new tire mounted and I'll ask the shop, but I don't know if they'll be able to shed any light on the issue.