Originally Posted by Wierd Beard
After sustaining my sixth puncture in 3 months I decided to fit Specialized Armadillos to my wheels to try and minimise the risk of this happening again. To make this all as clear as possible I have a Trek road bike running as a fixed gear.
Anyway, after fitting the new trye and a new tube I began pumping it up and as I got to about 115psi (the recommended pressure is 125psi) I heard a loud BANG! At first I thought maybe the tube had blown or at worst that the tyre had popped off the rim. No. Much worse.
The rim of my wheel split! Right along the top edge for about 5 inches and about 2mm from the top.
I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else or if anyone knows what could have caused this. It was a Campagnolo Omega rim and was fairly old (about 9 years maybe).
Thankfully I am having a new wheel built anyway but unfortunately its gonna be another three weeks to order a Goldtec hub as they have to make more.....
I've been beating that drum for quite some time (to mostly deaf ears) everytime somebody goes into the more air pressure is better mode.
Half of the interface between your tire and rim is the rim. Everybody looks at the air pressure recommendation on their tire and thinks that's the whole answer. As you've discovered, it's not. I also have personal knowledge of cases in which of tires blew off of rims that appeared to be undamaged. I'm a lot more conservative about tire air pressure than I used to be.