Jimbob4life

Ok i was Riding my Specilized Home from work yesterday Without any problems I get home and lean Bike up against wall in back yard. About an hour later I hear a very loud Bang come for the back yard. I take a look out back to find that my rear Inner tube on my Bike exploded blowing a hole through the side tyre wall on the rear tyre.

Im now scratching my head as to how this could happen.

The inner tube has not had any previous punctures, and was last inflated about 2 weeks prior so the pressure had not been increased. It was a stock Innertube that came with the bike and the rear tyre was a continental Rubber queen rigid 2.2 mtb tyre only 2 month old. The weather was very mild and it had just started to rain.

if anyone has any theorys on how this could have happended It would be very appreciated.

jon c. 

No idea how or why, but had the same thing happen once. Although in my case it did not destroy the tire, just blew it off the rim. We were just sitting there on the couch when we heard the loud explosion on the porch. The bike had been sitting there several hours since it had been ridden.

prathmann

You have cause and effect reversed. A loud explosive hole in a bicycle tube is always a result of the tube having escaped from the inside of the tire - either by the bead of the tire unseating from the rim or because a hole developed in the side of the tire. Once part of the tube is outside the tire it will rapidly blow up like a balloon and pop with a very loud noise like a gunshot.

In the OP's case I suspect that at some point in the past his tire sidewall was damaged by hitting a sharp object like a rock. Some of the cords in the sidewall frayed and eventually started to break due to the outward force of the air pressure in the tube. Eventually enough of them broke to allow the tube to expand out through the hole in the sidewall.

DiabloScott

The condition of your inner tube had nothing to do with it. When you hear the loud BANG, it's because of a very rapid expansion of air which usually means either:

1. The bead lifted off the rim and the innertube squeezed out. This sometimes happens from extreme braking heat.
2. The sidewall ripped and the innertube squeezed out.
3. The tread has a cut big enough for the innertube to squeeze out.

In all of these cases, the tube acts like a piece of bubble gum - it gets to a certain size and then fails quickly. You'll never hear a big bang just from running over a thorn or piece of glass - in those cases you might hear air escaping or maybe nothing at all.

I'm guessing #2 and you either had a bad tire or you damaged it somehow and didn't notice. It's more common with older worn out tires because the casing can get kind of brittle.

BTW - this is my hypothesis on why the airlines want you to deflate your tires - sometimes they just explode while they're just sitting there.

fietsbob

Yup, tire casing failed , tube went out the hole in the sidewall..

I've only had 1 experience when I had a casing failure ,
but the HD Thorn Resistant tube had a bulge, out the tear,
short of bursting..
and I stopped, deflated the tube, and replaced the tire .

[loaded bike tour, I brought a 3rd tire]

jethro56 

Same thing happened to me with a cut. It was deep enough to weaken the sidewall but not enough to get the tube. About an hour later sounded like someone shot a 22.

FBinNY 

This happens all the time, I 've been woken at 3AM, and once had a tire sitting right behind my head on a long drive home blow up (almost lost control of the car over it). Overall, about half my wall failures have happened while I'm not riding.

Blowouts happen from the cord weakening until it tears apart, which can take a while after the proximate cause. It's like Wile E. Coyote hanging on the end of a rope as it frays strand by strand before finally dumping him off the cliff.

The underlying cause can be damage from a road hazard cutting the wall part way through, or as is often the case on older tires, the long term weakening from UV, oxidation, and old age.

On one hand you'd expect the failure to happen right after the insult, but it isn't always the case. Other than the element of surprise, I'm always happy when a tire is dedicated enough to take me home before it gives up the ghost.