Tube blew out on front wheel!!!! Lucky escape!!

[Richard1537]

Well i was out on a hilly section of road this morning (Torr Head, North Antrim Coast) and was on a really fast downhill section, i knew i was approaching a very tight double hairpin so i was braking pretty hard from about 40mph while still going downhill for maybe up to 100-150 yards so quite a bit of braking effort was needed. Just as i got to the downhill hairpin i was thankfully down to walking speed when the front tyre went off with a real pop. My first thought was tyre is buggered but luckily it was just the tube which went bang and popped one bead of the tyre off the rim.
What i can't figure out is what happened the tube, it burst open on the inside part of the tube which touches the rim, it burst a section open about a foot long right along that inner side, i checked the tyre but it was perfect so i fitted my spare tube and went on my way.
The bike is a Specialized Tarmac running Fulcrum racing 3 rims with fairly new michelin pro race 3 tyres and pressures set at 110-115psi. The rims are smooth around the whole rim and don't have holes where the spokes are located.
I wondered was it anything to do with the hardish braking and the extra heat generated!! Really knocked my confidence a bit on the rest of the downhill sections on my way back home!!
Has anyone any experience of this or any ideas?

Thankfully all my gear and myself were totally unharmed!! :-)

 

[fossyant]

Could possibly be that the tyre wasn't quite seated properly.

If the tyre blows off a rim, the tube will just split as there is no tyre holding it together, and 100 PSI makes a nice rip. It could be that the tube developed a weak spot, and it just failed at pressure and blew the tyre off.

Never encountered a problem with heat, even on steep long descents - more of an issue in the Alps though.

 

[Richard1537]

I thought about that but the tyres were perfect on the rims as I was pretty fussy about that when i fitted them, the beads were nicely settled down into the clinchers and running really true!!! The first thing i done funny enough was feel the braking surface but there was no extreme heat built up, i'm not a heavy rider and as u say i wasn't exactly in the alps!! :-)