"Is it true that it is perfectly legal for them to be completely bald as long as the middle 75% is ok?"

No. The edges have to have 1.6mm also. TBH if your tyres are below 2mm anywhere they are due for a change.

"Is it true that it is perfectly legal for them to be completely bald as long as the middle 75% is ok?"

Even if it was legal, would you want to be driving anything on tyres like that?

A car with a bald edge on a tyre will fail an MOT - 75% or not I reckon. Plus it's dangerous IMO.

If you've got such a feathered edge you want to get the tracking checked as any new pair of tyres will go in just the same way.

Edited by Marc on 21/07/2010 at 11:09

Bathtub tom is the only correct reply. There must be visible tread pattern across the remaining part. So if you had a 180mm tyre, thats 1.6mm across the central 135mm leaving two shoulders each of 22.5m that must have 'visible tread pattern'.

This is what it used to be, but I thought it had changed. I've been searching the Internet about this, and have found something that said it changed. It looks like the edges are ok as long as the cords aren't showing. On an MOT website I also read this "Each side of the central band of the tyre can be devoid of tread (ie. ‘bald’) and still meet the pass.". So I think they are probably legal.

It's supprising how difficult it is to find this information. Most things mention the centre part but don't mention anything else.

The tracking was out, but that was corrected a while back. I put the tyres on the rear too so I suspect that the inner edges don't get used much. They certainly seem to perform well enough.

The 75% rule presumably applies only to the portion of the tyre normally in contact with the road. Some tyres have wrap-around tread partly up the shoulder as well.

The tread round the shoulder is often less than 1.6mm to start with, so even a new tyre could fail if the 75% applied to the entire treaded surface.

1.6 mm that is next to nothing like previous backroomers have said would you want to drive on tyres this tread depht.This may sound emotional child runs across the road unexpectely you are driving in the rain on nearly bold tyres and have to stop.You never forgive yourself change your tyres.!