Tyres are the only thing between you and the road, and in Vietnam they work hard: heat, flooding, gravel and the eternal hunt for potholes. This article covers checking and reading them. Exact pressure values are deliberately not given — they are model- and tyre-specific; the sticker on the bike or the owner’s manual is the authority.
Pressure: check cold, check often
Pressures drop slowly and invisibly, and an under-inflated tyre is the quiet cause of vague handling, heat build-up and pinch-flats on potholes. Check with a gauge at a fuel station or garage — the fuel-station pump habit is the easiest routine — with the bike’s recommended pressures, not a generic number. In Vietnam’s heat, checking every week or two is realistic; before any long ride, always.
Reading the wear
Tread depth: when the wear bars (the little raised ridges inside the grooves) sit level with the tread, the tyre is finished — and in the wet, worn tread stretches braking badly. Look for uneven wear: a flat centre band means mostly-highway use; scrubbed edges mean enthusiastic cornering; wear on one side alone suggests alignment or pressure problems worth a mechanic’s look.
Damage that means stop riding it
Cuts that expose cords, bubbles or lumps in the sidewall, a tyre that keeps going flat, or a valve that leaks — all of these are replace-or-repair-now findings. Slow leak diagnosis and roadside puncture handling are covered in punctured-tyre-on-rental-motorbike.
Who pays, on a rental
Tyres and inner tubes are consumables that may be the renter’s responsibility depending on the rental situation — consumables-monthly-rental-hanoi covers the fair split and the questions to ask at pickup.
The one-line version
Gauge-check the pressure cold every week or so, read the wear bars, and treat cuts or bubbles as parking the bike — the two contact patches you ride on deserve the two minutes.
Electric motorbike riders carry extra weight and instant torque — the electric-specific wear patterns are covered in electric-motorbike-tyre-checks.