Brand New Nokian Studded Tire Cracking

[big_rider]

Hi all,

After receiving some good advice on here, I bought some Nokian Gazza Extreme Studded tires. I have put a maximum of 50 miles on them, and I have not filled them up beyond the max recommended pressure of 65 psi. I broke them in on "normal" roads consisting of pavement and dirt just like the instructions say. Yesterday I was out riding, and I noticed that the outer casing is already cracking! I only had 60 psi in them.

Does anyone know if this is normal for these tires? Should I be sending them back for replacement? I am feeling down on them now, especially after everyone assured me they would last for years.


Here are some pics:

IMG_4117.jpgIMG_4122.jpgIMG_4119.jpg

[Burton]

Yup - they should last for years. But crazing or cracking of the rubber isn't normal and on top of that AFAIK Nokian uses a softer compound specifically because these are targeted for low temperature environments.

And your rims indicate that you have almost no milage on that set-up. I'd suggest to contact whoever you bought them from, express your concerns and see about an exchange.

[scoatw]

Looks like a factory defect to me. I've had mine for five years now and nothing like that. I had a pair of Armadillos where the rubber came off the casing of both tires. Pissed me off because I liked those tires. I still bought a new pair to replace the damaged ones thinking that I just got a bad batch. So far so good. Maybe thats the case here. Nokian has such a good reputation that I would hate to think that they're putting out junk nowadays.

[coldfeet]

Are there any batch numbers molded into the tires? I'm wondering if they are very old stock that the store has had for a while?