Rear Tyre Blowout, Rubbish Tyres Or Something I Have Done?

[Cletus Van Damme]

I had a blowout on the rear tyre of my commuting bike the other day, it has 700 x 28 Michelin City's fitted. Fortunately it was on the rear and it was on the flat and straight so I did not come off. On closer inspection of the tyre a small section of the tyre bead has come away from the rest of the tyre. The tyre has covered nearly 700 miles and looks like new, 200 of these miles were done on a turbo trainer although only for around 10 miles at a time. I also inflated the tyres to around 80 psi (85 psi is the max). The reason I am so bothered is that sometimes I have my 22 month old daughter in a child seat on the bike and I do not want this to happen again. I also have the same tyre on the front of the bike and I am tempted to buy 2 new different tyres as I am bothered that I may of bought a couple of tyres out of a batch that have defects. Maybe I should go a touch wider. Anybody else experienced this before?

 

[Globalti]

There are two more posts somewhere about Michelin tyres blowing out. You ought to send the tyre back to Michelin, there could be a QC problem at their factory so you'd be doing a lot of cyclists a very big favour.

 

[Moodyman]

You're always going to get the odd rogue product from thousands manufactured, but it's worth noting that Michelin moved their cycle tyre manufacturing from France to the Far East a couple of years ago.

 

[Globalti]

All the more reason to send the tyres back to them for examination.

You wouldn't believe the numbers of QC rejections we get on chemicals we import from China - they are often found to be adulterated or diluted. We use the same GC technology that's used for drug testing athletes.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Thanks for the replies guys. I am just going to spend a little bit more and try some Schwalbe Marathon's, hopefully they will last a bit longer as the Michelin's have been a false enonomy. I have emailed Michelin about them, whether they will or reply or not is a different matter.

 

[jig-sore]

mmm, i use the Michelin city tyres on both my commute bikes. both sets must have done over 2000 miles each and i find them to be exelent long lasting budget tyres.

haven't noticed any problems around the bead area but i'll give them a full inspection over the weekend, thanks for the info

PS: i know this may sound obvious but have you checked the rim for any sharp areas ??

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

haven't noticed any problems around the bead area but i'll give them a full inspection over the weekend, thanks for the info

PS: i know this may sound obvious but have you checked the rim for any sharp areas ??

No I haven't checked them jig-sore but thanks for the heads up I will take a look. I thought that they were great value too, probably just been unlucky.

 

[jefmcg]

I've destroyed two rear tyres this way: in my case it was the brake rubbing on the tyre that caused it. Then a bang, sudden deflation and "f*ck f*ck f*ck" as both times were on busy roads with cars and other cyclists.

But it was pretty obvious that what happened, with distinct wear all around near the rim

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

I am pretty sure that it is not the brakes as I rarely use the rear brake.

 

[Jezston]

QC = Quality Control ?

GC = ???

 

[Jezston]

Also, bear in mind Cheesney that Marathon Plusses are VERY heavy - probably 2-3x what your Michelin's weigh. Might be worth looking at Gatorskins or Armadillos as an alternative.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Ground Control? (to Major Tom.....)

QC = Quality Control ?

GC = ???

 

[LosingFocus]

QC = Quality Control ?

GC = ???

Gas Chromatography.

 

[mcshroom]

Funny I had one blow part of the bead (around rim level) on the front a couple weeks back. It's about 1300 miles old and it appears that a 5mm section of bead came lose from the tyre carcass. I assumed I'd hit something that had sliced it, but I'll go and check the other one on the rear of my hybrid tonight.

Marathon+ tyres are rather heavy, the Standard Marathons are a bit lighter though.

 

[Globalti]

In the early days when I used to mountain bike with my tyres under-inflated, I had a couple of tyres that wore out where the sidewall was bulging against the rim - they were badly under-inflated! Have also had tyres damaged by badly aligned brake blocks.

Yes, GC = Gas Chromatography. Widely used for comparative analysis of chemical compounds.