Had a blowout on my ride home today along the seam of the innertube. It was bad enough that it blew the tire off the rim. But what has me really concerned is that where the tube blew out, a thin strip of rubber came off the tire. The strip was right along the bead, was maybe 4-5" long and was real thin. Nothing is poking through, but I'm now concerned about my tire integrity.

Stupid expensive, puncture resist tires. Do their job perfectly until they get taken out by the tube.

can you still feel the lip of the bead on the tire, or is there a spot where there isn't a hook on the side of the tire? what kind of tire is it, and how old (age and miles)? also, are pictures possible?

The tire is a Schwalbe Marathon plus. The lip is still there, I think, but the surface of the rubber is rougher. I tore the strip of rubber off when I was mounting the tire back on for the last couple of miles.

Tire is maybe 6 months old, has probably 200-300 miles on it.

Edit: I'll see if I can get some pictures in a little bit.

Pics would help, but it's probably just the strip of fabric/rubber some mfgr's glue on to help protect the bead when installing/removing. If so, you're fine to keep using it.

agreed (pending pics).
just keep an eye on it when you're inflating it.

Sorry for the delay, imgur was being difficult. The spot where it tore starts at that little dot below the E and runs a bit out frame. No change in texture for the whole length of where it tore.

My guess: it was an installation problem. you did not seat the tire well..

I haven't taken that tire off since I got it(LBS might of when they trued the wheel though, come to think of it). Can problems like that months/hundreds of miles to show up?

Or do you mean when I seated it, the tire was off just enough to cause that piece to rip off?

6 months and only 300 miles? I have Marathons on now (Plus Tour version though), and I do 450 miles in a month. Always take your time when installing (use baby powder).

If the piece of rubber that came off is a thin, string like piece, reminiscent of a piece of floss, but thicker and ragged, then it is likely nothing. I often encounter them coming off a tire after a few mount/unmounts. It is possible it is something different, and may be a problem, though primarily a CYA statement, you should continue to monitor the area for other problems.

LBS probably removed it to true the wheel. Personally, this amateur will do quickie trues on the bike with a tire on, but if it's worth going through the trouble to mount it on the truing stand, having the tire off makes it go so much faster.

Blow-out like that, tube but not the tire, is uncommon. I think the suggestion that it was not seated properly was referring to a cause for the blowout. Probably not the case if it has been a while, but maybe... If the LBS did touch it recently, then you might approach them, especially if you still have the tube to show.

Other possibilities: Tube too small for tire. Does the size of the tire fall inside the range of the tube?

Something sharp inside the rim - again, not likely if it's been months/100s miles, but something worth checking.

Was it near the valvestem? That could lead to some other causes.

It was about a quarter of the wheel away from the stem. It was a straight split down the seam of the tube, not ragged like the time I had a pinch blowout from bad mounting.

I checked the tire, not the rim for sharp bits. Didn't keep the tube. Tube is about right for the tire(It's a 28-32 tube, I think. I ride a 35 tire).

To make things stranger, I got an email from the office(I took the company car to a branch office). Had another blowout while it was just sitting there(Apparently scared the **** out of everyone). I think I'm going to take the wheel into the shop and figure out what happened. I replaced the tube in the field, then took it home and made sure I did it right.



Short commute, and had several months where I couldn't ride due to injury. Even now with my longer commute, I'd only be at 200 miles per month on a perfect commute(10 miles RT). I don't think this is a tire problem.

Just take your car. ;-)

Apparently I should. Just no luck, this week.

Generally, blowouts like this happen because a little bit of the tube got pinched in between the tire and rim. You should put a little air in the tube before stuffing it into the tire, and once the second bead is on the rim, work your way around the rim on each side and make sure you can't see the tube when you press the tire away from the rim. Then inflate the rest of the way.

Happened to me few weeks back, I felt stupid, being the cause of my own problem but I learned something!

Just curious... Which shop did your wheel truing? There is one particular shop in the Okla. City area that always seemed to be in a rush when working on my bike. It is possible that the shop mechanic didn't get your tire seated properly (if he removed it to true the wheel).

If it has blown out twice, I'd be leery of riding on that tire any longer without a shop inspection.

How would you use Baby powder in the install? I have an issue sometimes when installing tires where the tire doens't seat correctly all the way around (one section kind of gets sucked in & when you look at the tire that part looks like it was pulled under when the tires was inflated). I've been using soapy water to help get rid of it, but maybe baby powder would help.

Thanks,

I took it to the Bicycle Store on 122nd. I like Celestial Cycles more, but they seem to always be backed up 2 weeks on even small/simple repairs.

I intend to take the whole wheel/tire into them this afternoon.

I have had successive blowouts like this before with a particular rim. I never worried about the integrity of the tire, I was just concerned about the cause of the blowouts which I attributed to a bit of tube being pinched as noted in one of the posts above.

It is possible, I haven't had a change to inspect the 2nd blowout. I did go through tubes like candy when I first started fixing flats, but I think I got it correct on this one. Regardless, I'm going to have the shop inspect both the wheel and the tire for me. I need some better wheels, anyway. These don't hold up well to the crappy roads and my big ass self.

I've had good success with the Bicycle Store. We got my wife's Sedona (now my daughter's bike) from them, and I've used them a few times for minor stuff. I would trust their diagnosis of your blowout problems. They did lose my favorite of their employees, who is now at Schlegel Bicycles.

This is backwards. The tire is responsible for holding the tube in. When the tire doesn't do its job well (either because of defects or shoddy installation work), the tube blows through the gap. A tube can't "blowout" if it's fully contained inside a tire.

I've been happy enough with them. A few of their guys are a little rude, but most of them are pretty cool. Reasonably speedy on the repair work.

Which shop has seemed rushed to you? Feel free to PM if you want.

+1 The cause of the blowout is usually a tire failure of some kind, such as defects or seating problems. One of the effects is the blown tube. A tube can blow on its own, but is unlikely to produce enough force to blow the tire's seat out like you have described.

Blowout as in sudden, explosive decompression of the tube. It may be operator error, but I may have something else going on. I examined the tire pretty carefully and didn't find anything, but I'm going to let the pros take a look at it regardless.