I was hoping Hutchinson would get back to me but I've yet to hear anything after two messages.

These tires are only a couple months old. They are tubeless. Now I'm seeing cracks just above the bead line. No bulging and holding air fine.

Thanks.

Any chance your brakes have been rubbing?

Hopefully the photos you sent the manufacture were better than the ones above.

A little age checking doesn't seem to be that bad, but is up to the rider. However new tires, with cracking near the bead is concerning. The cords, of course are what give the tire strength, but the integrity of the cords is difficult to assess under the rubber.

I'd probably toss a spare tire in my pack, and continue riding. However, I suppose it depends on whether your riding is such that a flat or blowout would be catastrophic. Group rides? Long distance tours?

Brakes are not rubbing, and those pictures look better before I had to resize them for this site.

I'd love to send Hutchinson the pictures, but can't get anybody to reply to my messages.

cpl months old? wow, just wow

reminds me, 'bout 10 yrs ago, when I was desperate for a road bike project, I drove to CT to buy some guy's childhood 10-speed from the 70s w original tires for $20. the tires were dry looking & the tubes held full pressure. they were good enough for me to ride them. er, until I got approx 12 miles from home, then I heard popping & saw sidewall threads breaking & the tire bulging a bit. turned right around & made it home the other 12 miles. not bad for 40 yr old tires tho. guess they don't make them like they used to, huh?

Have you tried the vendor that sold you the tires?

Bike tires often have an extra layer of fabric called a "chafer strip" wrapped around the bead for protection. Are you sure you're not just noticing that, now that the tire is a little dirty?

Yeah I've seen those. Definitely not that.

I managed to score a nearly new set of Maxxis Padrone's for the best price of all, so I just swapped tires.

With the Hutchinson's off, I'm glad to have these off of my bike. The cracks open up deeper than I thought, though the casing feels fine.

I'll run the Padrone's and see if I can warranty these.

I assume you were using one of their webform, lack of, 'e-mails'..

Hutchinson ::

They do not appear to publish a direct contact e-mail address however if you wish to play then a whois will give you,

The rest of it suggests they are registered with some sort of 'privacy protection' service so you will probably end up talking to their registrar. Otherwise it sounds like they do not wish to listen to their customers. Assuming I am blathering about the same company then you might try dropping your query on their registrant address...

Or you might try Twitter,

https://twitter.com/HUTCHINSONTIRES
https://twitter.com/EmmanuelMacron

Whatever.

Cool, thanks for the info. I'll see what I can find.