Bicycle Mechanics - specialized armadillo delamination

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA
Charles Ramsey
10-21-09, 10:32 AM
Here http://share.ovi.com/media/currentresident.bicycle/currentresident.10098 is a photo of a specialized armadillo tire. I bought two of these for my trip brom bend Or to indianapolis In 2226 miles in 2006. Neither trip survived the trip both delaminated like the photo shown neither tire was as bad as the photo the rubber delaminated but did not seperate however they were more dangerous because it was not obvious they had failed. The tires cost $35 each I have used all kevlar belted tires in the 1.5 inch size they generally cost $25 and last 3000 miles this makes the armadillo a bad value by a factor of 2. I believe these tires are different from the ones used by the romp family on their quad http://web.archive.org/web/20030415004331/www.rompfamily.com/page5.html

joejack951
10-21-09, 10:46 AM
I put over 10,000 miles on a Nimbus Armadillo tire (26 x 1.5) without a single puncture flat. I finally retired the tire (rear tire) because the rubber had become so thin in spots that it flaked away exposing the Kevlar belt. The front tire is still has usable life left.

I've also put ~8000 miles on an All Condition 700x25 tire (rear). Again zero puncture flats and the tire still has some life left in it.

I paid around $40 for each tire and consider it money well spent given the tread life and puncture resistance.
sooprvylyn
10-21-09, 04:50 PM
My experience with Armadillos is that they last forever and nothing ever puts a hole in em. I don't really record my distance, but I had a set of armies($30/ea) for 2 years on my daily(approx 10-20mi/day not including longer rides) in college and only took em off for some lighter tires once I moved out to the country-no city hazards like in college. When i took em off they were not very worn down and I gave em to a friend who still rides em on his city beater- it's been three years since then.

Every tire model has a bad batch once or twice. It's hard not to condemn them to the "don't buy again" list after your experience, but if you ever run accross another set for a good price give them another shot.