A place to ask bicycle repair questions, and for bike shop monkeys to share advanced non commercial wrenching resources (no YouTube self promotion). This is only for repair related topics.
Just saw this crack in my tire, don't like the look of it. Is it still fine?
In my experience these will probably work for quite a while. Don't inflate them beyond their rating. It's the right time to get the next set of tires. If you plan to go on a longer trip, I would suggest to replace them beforehand.
It's okay. It happens, but it also means your tyre is approaching its end of life. It may last for a few weeks to many months, depending on how often you use the bike and how much strain you put on the tyre (pressure, weight, bumps, etc.)
It you don't use your bike at all it will fail quickly. It you use it everyday it will hold until your tyre runs out.
In any case, if the tyre becomes herniated (big bump on the side) stop using your tyre at once and change both the tyre and the tube. As for now : don't worry, it's fine.
I have ridden with a tire that had cracks like this for over a year lol.
However I would not recommend inflating close to the maximum rated pressure.
On my fatbike, the threads are visible due to me driving with insanely low pressures. This is the rear tire which I have since replaced, but I drove with it looking like this for about 6 months with zero issues.
On my MTB, on the other hand, freezing temperatures made both of my brand new tires crack like this, and people on reddit told me to replace them immediately, but I didn't, and a year later they're still going strong.
MTB is tubeless and fatbike has tubes. If it didn't, it would have failed way sooner, but because of the tubes it didn't cause any issues despite me being able to stick my finger thru the tire and feel the tube inside.
You should try to replace it ASAP, you could probably get around for a bit with reduced pressure but once it fails you're looking at a new tube as well
Damaged tire sidewalls to me usually mean replace immediately, unless running a lower pressure than rated and riding at a much slower speed.
If you can afford a replacement tire, I'd say go for it
I thought my tires were fine until I jumped something small, a tire popped, and I fell hard. Afterwards , while healing, I thought to myself - how much is my health worth? I now check my tires regularly and replace my tires more often. 😬
If it were me, I'd replace it as soon as I could.