Bicycle Mechanics - Cheap Tires. Cheap Tire Sidewall Failure.

No more cheap tires for me. Had a Hutchinson Excel 700x23 wire bead on the rear with about 1,000 miles on it. Bought it from Nashbar when they had it marked down to $9.95. Was using it for commuting and training rides so I thought it was a good deal.

Two days ago was riding along, in a straight line, and without warning the rear goes PFFFFffffPPFFFFFffff flap flap flap... I thought, what the heck. I pull the wheel off and there's a hole in the tire sidewall! The cotton threads of the casing broke off at the wire bead, allowing the tire carcass to separate from the bead. Once the hole developed then the tube blew right through it.

I can't blame Hutchinson. The tire was only rated for 100 psi and I had 120 psi in there. Pretty dumb, huh?

Switching to Vredestein Fortezza's. Cost more, but rated at 145 psi and a much higher thread count. The Vred's have a thread count of 120 turns per inch versus 33 for the Hutch's. We'll see how the Vreds do.

Well, for what its worth, I run bargain basement tyres on my roadbike (like wire bead $14.95 Contis and the ilk) and have yet to have a sidewall failure at 100psi +, so it may just have been a bad tyre you got. A lot of $50 tyres have had sidewall blowouts, too. That being said though I think your chances of a random sidewall failure are much lower with a higher quality higher tpi tyre.

[QUOTE=JamesV]

I can't blame Hutchinson. The tire was only rated for 100 psi and I had 120 psi in there. Pretty dumb, huh?

QUOTE]

Yup, sure is!

I've blown out two sidewalls this year. Both times while riding on really bad roads, so not sure if it's the tires or not. They were cheap tires though.

You CAN blame the Hutchinson I had the exact problem you describe with the very same make and model of tire - on about 4 occasions.... the bike shop was good enough to replace failures. I have spoken to other shops about this issue since, and it seems to be a known problem.
I eventually learned my lesson and have used Continental Ultra-gatorskins ever since. They are a vast improvement in longevity and ride quality. I have 2 sets, each with over 1 year's use (one of which has done in excess of 3000 miles). As a commuter, I value reliable products and these have been the best to date. Perhaps a little more expensive, but well worth the outlay.

Cheers,

Ed

You CAN blame the Hutchinson I had the exact problem you describe with the very same make and model of tire - on about 4 occasions....

Interesting. Did you overinflate your Hutchinsons as well?

I've been very happy with my $9.95 maxxis xepher un-categorie from supergo. folding bead makes it a bit of a battle to get on the rim, but other than that they seem really nice.

James - no, not especially. At first, the LBS suggested that I might have been under-inflating, which prompted the purchase of a pressure gauge. After that I was running at around 100 psi. Failure was exactly as you describe - threads failing next to the wire bead causing the casing & bead to separate. This always occurred on the rear wheel & with 3 different wheel-sets on 2 bikes, which ruled out damaged/burred rims etc. It seems the repeated flexing of the tyre at this point caused the failure.

Ed

I've also had two Hutcinson Excel's blow out on me in exactly the same way after only a few thousand miles (without overinflating them). Have since switched to Conti Ultra Gatorskins and have had 5000+ miles virtually puncture free.