Today I decided to cut apart a street tire (Bridgestone RE-71R) to get the construction details. Once upon a time, in my childhood in the early '70s, I helped cut apart tires to line a floating boat dock (cut sidewall to make a flap to nail to the dock, cut through tread at bottom so silt doesn't fill the tire) and, while tough, we mostly used a box knife. Can't do it that easily these days! Modern tires are sooo much stiffer than the vintage ones. I've spent about 10 minutes with a hacksaw and still haven't cut through the mounting bead, LOL! Off to fetch a sawzall...
(Chuckling). Constructed with 180KSI tempered steel and compounded with silica embedded in long chain polymer makes cutting with abrasion methods pretty tough. Be sure to buy some spare saw blades. Good luck.
Angle grinder, once I found it after having moved 5 years ago(*), made short work of the bead cable. Looks to be over 6mm thick, so it was going to be slow-going with the hacksaw. Shears for the sidewall, now back to the hacksaw for the tread since I'm sawing through the steel belts. Tread is not "impossible" with the hacksaw, just going to take time. (*) This is why the Sawzall is not being used for the tread. I can't find the battery charger.
I took yesterday off from the tire project to work in the garden. Back at it today and will have it done shortly. What I'm discovering about cutting across the tread is that the rubber produces enough drag on the blade that you can't use power tools unless they have a lot of torque, so using a hand-powered hacksaw is generally best. The stubby hacksaws for cutting blind holes are best because the full length frame hacksaws can't reach to the center of the tire before the frame hits the sidewall (makes the cut go crooked). While searching for various tools, I noticed I have a decent collection of 13" diameter performance tires from the '90s. Hoosier cantilever slicks, Yokohama A008 (or A008R or A008RS... didn't look closely), and BFG R1. This is not an old man's idea of sport, but once I get over the trauma of sectioning this first tire, I'll consider going after the others when I have time.
No updates because the battery for my digital calipers was dead. Local stores don't carry it, so ordering one... Don't know if color holds true for other tires, but the nylon plies are white and the polyester plies are orange or red-brown. On this tire, polyester was used for the radial construction and nylon are additional belts on the outside of the steel belts.
