Brompton tire blown out

[skyleech]

Hi 👋. my front tire blown by itself early in morning while in a park position. It was loud bang that causes me to spring out of bed to check on it.

Anyone encounter this situation. ? You can see that the inner tube kind of exploded and rip through the tire.

puzzled. 🤔

 

[Cycleops]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
It was likely caused by a cut to the tyre which finally gave out, just count yourself lucky it didn’t happen when you were riding.
No fault with the tyre but a good opportunity to change to some Schwalbe Marathons but be aware the Plus version is a pig to get on.

 

[Gunk]

Those Brompton tyres are rebranded older style Schwalbe Marathon Racers, the tread is identical.

 

[berlinonaut]

Those Brompton tyres are rebranded older style Schwalbe Marathon Racers, the tread is identical.

Surely not. For one, the Brompton tires were invented in 2000 (the yellow one in pic along with the green one), this was (if I remember correctly) many years before a Schwalbe Marathon Racer even existed. Secondly the tire construction of the Brompton tire differs completely from the Schwalbes, materials, layers, etc. - all completely different. The Brompton green (which later became the Brompton Kevelar) i.e. was using a Kevelar insert - something absent from Schwalbe tires, they use different technologies. The weight of the tires is completely different (as is in fact the thread pattern). It is simply a completely different tire and the Brompton tires were made by a Chinese company (Chen-something, forgot the name). So your claim is as wrong as it can get.

Indeed the Brompton tires were heavily inspired by the Primo Comets, which were the only high pressure tires for 349 in the 90ies and they were available in kevelar and non-kevelar versions as well and the construction is relatively similar (though dimensions, weight and thread differ). The Comets were a well appreciated after-market accessory for the Brompton back then as Brompton were delivering the bikes with the very slow and very puncture sensitive and still relatively heavy low pressure Raleigh Record tire. The Primos were way better in every single aspect and that led Brompton to create their own tire. The yellow one was discontinued in 2008, the green became the standard tire (until then the yellow was standard and the green kevelar one was standard on the higher ranked models only). The green became renamed and redesigned in 2013 and discontinued and exchanged in favor of the Marathon Racer in 2018.

If you want to think about "inspired" tires you should have a look at the Nutrak Sipped - it looks suspiciously like an older version of the standard Marathon threadwise (but is cheaper, faster and different regarding the construction).

 

[roley poley]

looks like a slash and I am glad it popped while in park not ride. Had the bike been in storage for a while as those tyres went out of sale as was said above 2008 ish ? It could have been picked up there

 

[skyleech]

looks like a slash and I am glad it popped while in park not ride. Had the bike been in storage for a while as those tyres went out of sale as was said above 2008 ish ? It could have been picked up there

Bike wasn’t really on storage. But utilization rate was pretty low until this period with covid 19 pandemic. The utilization increases for short commute. And the conversation timeline of 2008ish is about right. I bought this bike in 2009 with these tires. I will guess it is a case of deterioration over time.

 

[skyleech]

Further details include this picture of innner tube rupture for sharing. Still it is puzzling that a slash can result in such delay blown out. But I will guess it is also likely that this tire is already 11 - 12 years old.

 

[skyleech]

Could this displace rim tape be also a causing factor of the blown out ?

the rimtape seems to distorted and out of alignment and it is also appeared to be harden. Wonder if this isa potential cause and if it is also due for a replacement.

 

[Cycleops]

Unlikely, just another side effect of the blow out.

 

[roley poley]

Unlikely, just another side effect of the blow out.

yep new tyre and innertube needed ,keep the rim tape , oh and the lucky gold dust cap that stopped it from blowing when you were riding it

 

[fossyant]

Probably replace both tyres if the other is as old.

 

[Tenkaykev]

I'd recommend a new Brompton 😉