thi_sanna

This was one of the weirdest and funniest things that ever happened to me.

I had an old bike at home, wich my university supervisor lent me when I moved to Canada. As I just bought a better one now, I was going to return it. But the tire was really old, dry, and ripping on the beads, and I decided to put a new one before returning it.

I took just the wheel with me, went to the bike shop, and replaced it..but said that the tube was fine, and didn't needed replacement. The thing I didn't realized was that the tube WASN'T fine..it had 3 or 4 patches on it...

So, after that, I went shopping with my girlfriend, and then to White Spot to have lunch.

All of a sudden, I hear a loud BANG just besides me. Everybody at the restaurant stands up, the server come running from the kitchen "What was that, what was that?" Then I notice a small white piece of plastic floating down towards the ground.

I had wrapped the wheel in two plastic bags, because the bus driver complained about me taking it dirty in the bus on the way in...so then I just tought "Oh, ****...the tire"

I look under the table, and there is a big hole blasted through the plastic bag, and the tire was flat.

Embarassed, I expalined people what had happenned, I stood puzzled while I finished my lunch, wondering what might hd happened.

I returned to LBS after, they inspected it, and, apparently, due to the temperature difference from the outside and the restaurant, the pressure changed, and one of the pacthes, or a weak spot in the tube, gave in. It was strong enough to rip the brand new tire where it had contact with the rim.

At least, it happened in Canada, so I just apologized to the people in the restaurant and that was it...if it was in the U.S.,I would probably be at the police station answering questions until now

thi_sanna

I tought it myself...so it could be a faulty tire then? Anyway, the LBS kindly gave a new tire w/o charge, even being my option to keep the crappy tube.

CyLowe97

Nothing like that gunshot-like noise when a tire blows out! Always good to have a few people doing the duck and cover, no?

DannoXYZ 

No, tyre's fine. When you replaced the tire, some of the tube was poking out between the tyre and the rim. Eventually it worked it way out enough to blow.

edp773

I have never known temperature to make more than a few pounds difference in pressure. That is a good one. Imagine all the tires that should have blown, when I rorked a tire shop for three years. Some days it was 20 below outside.

Great story though. If I was you, my knees would have hit the table when I jumped.

Kayakado

When I was a kid this was a common occurence at the playground. Kids would ride their bikes up there and park them against the building in the sun and the intense heat from being parked in the sun would cause the tires to blow. Once was enough to make you remember, but there was always that new kid.....

MarkS

That's what I first thought. Except that he says that it "ripped the tire" ... which sounds like the tire was damaged. Or does the OP just mean that the tire was ripped off the rim? I wouldn't expect a poor mount to damage the tire, since the 'explosion' occurs outside the tire. Especially if its not bearing any weight at the moment.

Gurgus

This happened to me this summer with a tire that had less than 100kms on it. It was a faulty bead. The bike shop gave me a new one free of charge!

sweetharriet

some older wheels don't have the right kind of rim to hold in tires inflated to full pressure. i blew through 4-5 inner tubes, despite freaky-careful installation to avoid pinchflats with the new tires...because i was overinflating the tubes for that kind of rim. there are some other threads on the forum about this. long story short, due to the rim, while the tube says 80 psi, i can only go up to about 55...or the tube will work its way between the tire bead and the rim, pinch, and blow out. so maybe they overinflated it.

SpiderMike

I accidentally pinched the tube under the bead. Got to 100psi and POP. That was at my LBS, which has awesome accoustics for loud bangs. If the accoustics of that restaurant is anything like my LBS... I feel for ya.

BlazingPedals

It was absolutely caused by the tube being under the tire bead, like Danno and others have said. I can't say whether it was due to improper installation or because a high pressure tire was used on a roll-bead rim. If the rim is an old steel, chromed rim, then it may not be capable of mounting a HP tire. But in any case, it was not the inner tube's fault.

If the bike shop installed the tire, they should fix it at their expense because it was their mistake.

Brian

We had a brand new tire let go at 120psi this weekend at the shop. I was looking right at it when it popped. Little grey cloud, and it was off the rim. There's less shock when you can watch it pop 2 metres from you, but your ears ring for a while.

thi_sanna

Some more bits of info: it was a MTB tire, on an old steel rim. Since it was MTB it was probabky at 60 PSI or something. The inspection after revealed a hole about 0.5cm where the tube blew up, with ragged borders...and the tire ripped horizontally (paralell with the rim), exactly where the bead leaned at the rim border. The rip was about an inch long.

I looked at least 10 times under the table, and there was absolutely no sharp points, or any kind of heater.

It might have been a pinch, but it's definitely the weirdest thing that happened to me. Victoria is known as the best place in Canada to retire, so all establishments are always full of old people. I'm glad that the blow didn't caused any asthma or heart attacks.

BlazingPedals

The hole in the tube is as you'd expect for any blowout. After all, without the support of the tire cords NO tube can hold 60 psi. The rip in the tire that you describe is a brake cut, caused by the brake pad overlapping the rim onto the tire. It hadn't been on your bike yet, so the shop either sold you a defective tire or a used/damaged tire.