Tired Tires?

I've known for a while that my tires are beginning to wear out. 9000+ miles on the original rubber is not too bad, but it is getting up there and the age of the tires is beginning to worry me. Yesterday, I got a look at the tread and noticed the wear bars on my rear tire are beginning to show through. For those of you who don't know, wear bars are raised sections in the grooves to show when the tread is getting so thin that it is time to replace your tire. You can see the flat spot in my rear tire's center groove in the picture below as an example of what I mean.

I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do a little post on motorcycle tires and taking care of them. I think it almost goes without saying that maintaining your tires is probably one of the most important things you can do as an aid for safe riding. Properly inflated, good tread, soft rubber tires are vital for keeping good traction on a ride. Obviously, all three aspects I mentioned play important roles in braking, cornering, and accelerating. Proper inflation means the tire will not flex under strain (as is the case with under-inflation) or (in the case of over-inflation) be so inflexible as to promote slides and low traction. Good tread means better contact patch and traction, especially in the case of wet roads. Lastly, by soft rubber I mean tires that aren't too old. Old rubber hardens and dries out, leading to cracking and drastically lower traction.

I hope this serves as a good reminder to all riders to be mindful of their tires, and to new riders I hope this gave a bit of insight into what to look for and to think of.