Origin of Pirelli tires was in telegraph cables!

Giovanni Battista Pirelli founded his company in Milan in 1872.

For almost two decades, the company specialized in fabrication of telegraph cables.

 Its first tires, for bicycles, appeared in 1890; its first automobile tires, in 1901.

https://simanaitissays.com/2016/12/12/aviation-sells/

there I was, taking the beast out for a cruise to get a burrito... when I hear flap flap flapity flapity flapity in the rear wheel well. Uh oh.

and now I know why things felt weirdly wobbly in the back. I thought, huh, maybe those old air shock are softening up, or something is finally giving out in the steering and causing a pendulum effect in the back.

Well, I was driving slow though stoplight to stoplight traffic, and trying to think out the problem... I went about 5 miles, and on the way back, about 1/2 way, a sudden flap flap flappity flap.

SO, am I to blame BFG for making a tire that has less life than barnfinds enjoy? Or applaud them for building the tire in a way that kept it from having a blowout?

I was thinking about that as I SLOWLY drove back, burrito forgotten while wondering (after pulling over and looking at the issue) if it would make it, or blow out, or leak out.

On one hand, I had wanted to have a tire smoke out before replacing these tires that are plenty low on tread (but I rarely drive the car anymore, it's 6 bucks a gallon for 100 octane avgas, and 10-12 mpg goes through a lot more than I've been able to afford for a long time) but I figured I had years before I'd need to replace them, I went 40 miles in all of last year.

Well, I think I've had these back tires for 13 or 14 years now, but probably only about 10 thousand miles. Time to replace them