...well venting about my bad luck with tires. I was about seven months into pair of 700x32 Continental Touring Pluses on my Charge Plug commuter. As the rears wear faster I like to rotate tires after 6 months to even out the wear and help them last longer.

After removing, swapping and remounting I flipped the bike and gave the tires a final once-over to make sure they are seated evenly and the wheels are true...and there it was...

...a small, but deep gash across the tread, as if someone had taken a razor-blade to the tire, although that is highly unlikely, especially since this was previously the rear with a full fender. It's more than likely a puncture that continued to tear. I think I could see the orange of the Mr. Tuffy Tire liners that I put in the tireseven though the Continental Touring Pluses are supposed to have a puncture resistant layer of their own.

I'm a little frustrated that I didn't see this until after taking the time and effort to swap and remount the tires. However, I suppose this is better than having tire failure halfway to work.

It's just that a couple of months ago the same thing happened when I changed out my studded snowtires for summer tires on my other bike. I didn't see a bad breach in the tread until after mounting and all.

It's possible those kinds of tears and gashes don't show up until the tire is inflated.

I guess in the spectrum of bicycle problems this is minor, but I was enjoying the Continental Touring Pluses which were firmer than my usual tire choices, but grippier.

Oh well, I think I may go for something a little more supple since the stiffer, supposedly more resilient Touring Pluses ended up being breached, and the tread wear was no better than other tires I've bought over the years.

That's a glass cut. The orange you see is the rubber layer Conti uses as puncture protection. Depending on the size and location of the cut, you might still be able to get more miles out of it. If you decide you wanna try to get more miles out of it, I'd recommend you put it back on the rear.

These days, I buy my tires in groups of three. I mount two and have a spare for such damage. If I don't have any damage and simply wear out the tire (it's always the rear that wears out first) I move the worn front tire to the back and install the spare on the front and buy a new spare to put on the shelf.

-Kedosto

So here's the tire. First, as it looks unmounted, then pinched to show how deep it was, and then the inside where you can see it breached the tire. When inflated on the wheel it looked wider. There were some other cuts and gashes that were not as deep. I probably could have gotten some more use out of them, especially since I still run tire liners (which may have kept the inner tube from puncturing in this case).

While I was initially put off by the firmness of the Conti Touring Plusses, they did "soften up" and had very nice grip. But I decided that since I was missed the suppleness of the previous tires, I went with the 700x35 Forte Metro ST tires that were on sale for $15 each. They have minimal tread which I enjoyed on my road bike in the past. They felt less "chatty" on the round the block shakedown...we'll see how they last.

I'd put a radial patch on that and put it on the back, but I'm a tight arse.

Yeah, I think I'd patch it from the inside and remount it on the rear. It looks like there's a lot of life left in that one.

If you think the Conti's are stiff, don't even think about Specialized Armadillos. I run Armadillos on my regular commuter and threw a set of Conti's on a backup bike. The Conti's felt downright plush! Unfortunately, I need bombproof flat protection and the Armadillos have proven to be the best so I stick with them.

-Kedosto

My first thought on reading the thread title was 'how the heck do you vent a tire?'

By puncturing it!

very good pics. good luck w the new tires!

I presume your tire liner acted like a boot. Still, that is a pretty big gash, full thickness.

I can't say whether I'd try booting and remounting (rear) or just toss. You are already quite worn down.

One thing that I do is check the tires for glass, wires, and thorns before remounting. So, I'd probably have picked up that gash as part of my routine check and removing debris (I don't do it as regularly as I should for tires that are in use).

nice ... I'm not a big fan of conti tyres and have since switched to Schwalbe.