I've gotten into the habit of checking my tires after every ride for a while now. Well, today I checked them and found a bulge on the rear tire. It's got about 1900 miles on it. I've got new spare tires already, so replacing it won't be a huge loss.

The bulge is on the cassette side and in the tread. I would estimate that the bulge is about 1/16" wide and the bump on the tread is about the same. For those that think in metric, that's 1.5mm.

What do you think? Should I can it? For those in the UK; should I bin it?

Check the pics below.











You can see a bulge in the tread over the letter "F" in FPS.


Here's a pic of where I rode today.

If you have to ask...you should probably just bin it.

I've ridden worse. It's on the back so it likely won't cause a loss of balance. Does it ride funny? Have you tried to let the air out and straighten out your tube and refill?

If it's new it's defective. If it's used and used to be straight, the body is failing -- possibly form a high impact on a sharp edge, like the far lip of a pothole -- and will let go pretty soon.

In any case, you'll probably feel it as a bit of a wiggle every time it comes around. These usually ride like crap, so while it might be safe, you really don't want to ride it any longer than necessary.

It doesn't ride funny.

The bead of the tire is still running concentrically around the rim in the bulge area as you can see the witness line in the second to last pic. The tube wouldn't just decide to wad itself up all of a sudden, would it?

This bulge happened while I was out on a ride today. It wasn't there after the last ride.

The road I always ride doesn't have a single pot hole in it and just two rough spots at each end of a bridge. I always stand up and slow way down for those small bumps. I've never smashed into a pot hole on the tire; I just don't encounter them out here in the country. There must be some other cause for the problem. Maybe it was a small rock I ran over last week... I remember running over a small one, in the shade, with the rear tire and it shot over to the right side of the road. This canyon road has lots of shaded areas from the steep sides blocking the sun, especially since the sun is running a more southerly path lately. Hmmm.... that rock could be the cause, now that I think back on it.

The tire has about 1900 miles on it and has been great up until I found this bulge today.

According to your explanation, nothing has happened that would cause the tire to do that.
Therefore, the plies are starting to let go.
I'd toss it. 1900 miles isn't too bad for a rear and why be worrying about it every time you ride in the future?

In post number 6, I mentioned running over a rock on a ride just prior to today's ride. I'm pretty sure that injured the tire. The tire looked fine after the ride where I hit the rock, but apparently, today's ride started loosening things up internally.

I'm going to move the front tire to the rear (it still has the molding ridge in the middle) and put a new tire on the front. I like to save a buck when I can, but with 35mph downhills around here, I'm not willing to risk a crash or trashing a wheel to get a few more miles out of this tire.

Do you come down that hill? At over, say, 30 mph? You do not want a tyre failure in that situation.

If something goes wrong, and you were to find yourself thinking "I knew that would happen" - then you've been dumb.

That tyre is fine on the rear for a flat commute to the office. I wouldn't bet my teeth on it by whizzing downhill though.

I've chucked tires for FAR less then that. Can it.

Replace it.

How "allergic" are you to road rash? Sounds like you plan to replace it anyway.

When in doubt, toss it out.....................

In the picture the rim under the 700 looks damaged,right where the tire's damaged, possibly might have been some sort of collision?