Can you ‘shave’ a tyre to restore its profile?

Q. If you do a lot of straight line work and the profile of your tyre starts to ‘square off’, couldn’t rear bike tyres be ‘shaved’ back to a useful rounded profile to restore feel?

• Save £££s on motorcycle tyres

I know it sounds dodgy but new car tyres are often ‘shaved’ for track use, and surely extending life and feel would be better for the environment?
Brian Parris, Maidstone
 
A. While it’s true that car tyres can be shaved, either to make the tread more shallow so it doesn’t overheat, or to remove a layer of ‘fried’ rubber, the kit to do it is hugely expensive, and bike tyres have far more complex curved profiles instead of a flat-profile car tyre.

They also vary between sizes and makes, which would add even more to the expense.

These days multi-compound tyres mean that they are less likely to square off early and it tends to be right at the end of the tyres’ life that it goes off.