I was gust getting warmed up good, and KaPow, blew about 1 inch of bead on my back tire. Of course the tube blew also.

These tires were on N+1 when I bought her, guess I'll change both tires and tubes.

I think my Cannondale smiled, when I brought the trek in with a blown tire!

Wired bead?

Take a close look at your brake pad adjustment. A brake that rubs the tire even a tiny bit will wear through the sidewall and cause it to blow out. It's a semi-common problem.

No, did not look like wire.

10 to 1 the tube was pinched between the tire and rim. Gotta watch out for that.

Yes, I can see the bead wires, the tire sidewall separated from the bead.

Wonder how many miles are on that tire . Any idea ?

Yup, defective tire. What brand is that?

No, this will not cause a blowout as described. A pinched tube will blowout the tube but will not damage the tire. Also, "10 to 1" would imply that you are putting the chances of the blowout being due to a pinched tube at significantly less than 100%. Which I believe is opposite of what you are trying to say.

That's why I asked and would have guessed. I've seen the wrapping come off before, even happened to me just after descending at 50 mph. Mine was a lower end Continental tire.

Nope, bike was bought off Ebay last year. By Monday both tires, rim tape, and tubes will be new!

Glad it was the back tire, and caused no crash. I had an old tire start to come apart like that, felt a bit of lumpiness in the ride and got home without blowing out. A mechanic friend asked the question about brake pad contact, but the bike it was on has a disk brake. Tire just got tired.

I had a flat at the start of a club ride. I hurried and changed the rear tube while the group waited. Got it going, took off up a longish hill, then on a 30+ mph descent felt a thumping. Stopped the bike and my heart nearly stopped. The bead was hanging out of the carbon rim, but still held air. Gatorskins are strong tires! Released the air fixed the bead, wasted a Co2, and was on the road again. I hate it when that happens. Haste makes waste, and all that.

Well, my Conti woes continued. Last week, I had a blowout riding to work. The cause? Another Conti sidewall failure ... this time a Gatorskin. The tire was never used but a year or two old, but still.

The tire failed right at the bead.

Yes OP, make and model please.


-Tim-

Just bought a bike where one rear pad was out of adjustment just like that. Noticed a weird rubbing sound on the test ride and that's what I found. I don't know how the previous owner could have not heard it/ignored it.

Looks like wear to me.

The Biker395's picture doesn't look like wear.

+1 on wear. Things don't last forever, not matter how "frugal" one is.

Time to visit the "tubular vs clincher" thread.

scott s.

Friends don't let friends ride clinchers.
.

That's an unused two year old (at most) Conti Gatorskin?!! Are you sure it's not a 10 year old previously owned and used Gatorskin that you bought 2 years ago and just started using? Maybe it's just the lighting or generally poor picture quality but that tire looks old.

don't make tires like they used to. back in 2008? I bought a '70s Schwinn bike for $20 w/ original tires (probably tubes too). tried riding it to work on a quiet Sunday. I got about 12 miles on the 17 mile one way commute and heard sidewall threads snapping. looked down and saw a sidewall bulge. turned around and made it home the additional 12 miles. no blow out

modern tires that fail after a year or two? that's a disgrace

Yep. I'm sure. After my GP 4000s sidewall issues, I decided to stop using Conti's on my weekend road bikes (fast descents). That tire was a left over new tire. I figured would be OK for commuting, as the Gatorskin has an extra sidewall layer and my commute is almost flat.

Edit to add: I found the other spare Gatorskin in the garage this AM. I'm trashing it.

There seems to be great variation in the quality of some Conti tires. I have a 28 mm Gatorskin currently on the on the front wheel but had plenty on miles while previously on the rear wheel. that Gatorskin has about 3000 miles on it and is barely showing wear. And by the way, I weigh 155 on a light gravity day, otherwise, 158 pounds.

I think so too. Maybe it's just bad luck on my part, but Conti casings seem to catastrophically fail with any significant cut of the sidewall. I've left the Conti fold and not going back.

I had a nasty cut in another tire (my current favorite ... Michelin Pro4 Endurance) a couple of weeks ago. I was about to hop on and go for a lunch ride, and I noticed my rear tire had a big slice in it, with a good portion of the tube peeking through.

I took the tire off, and could see that the casing had been cut by something sharp. The cut was probably 4mm long. The difference is, the cut did not propagate along the casing ... it was strong enough not to catastrophically fail.

Maybe [MENTION=204704]SammyJ[/MENTION] can tell us what make and model tire he was using.


-Tim-