Originally Posted by
dvs cycles
I've heard of that when tires are pryed on a tight fit with irons or the brake pad has rubbed the tire.
I've never had anything but great sevice and fortune with Conti's.
Same tire you are holding came with our Santana and got 2200 miles out of it on the rear with th front looking brand new.
Switched to GP-4000 in a 25c F and R and have 2000 miles on the rear and it is getting close to replacement time.
We also had a front tire fail after a century ride in a manner that looked identical to pics. The front tire had only about 600 miles on it - there was no damage to the sidewalls, and the tire had been mounted by hand without tools. The rear tire, which was purchased at the same time (also had the same manufacturing date) had been rotated from front to rear and had over 1600 miles on it. Neither tire ever had a flat. As a precaution, i removed the rear tire and used it on my single - it lasted another 1500 miles before it was worn to the casing.
My conclusion is that our failure was probably caused by a manufacturing defect. Some additional thoughts:
- When Continental USA sent a replacement tire, they used a full sized box and did NOT fold the tire as seen at http://www.sheldonbrown.com/video/tire-folding.html The invoice that came with the tire indicated that you should NOT fold the gatorskin in this manner, and the bike shop where i bought the tires DID fold the tires to put in a bag at the time of purchase.
- Looking the tread design of the gatorskin in the picture, i'd say that's a pretty old tire ... could age be a factor?