Catastrophic Rear Tyre Failure

[delb0y]

After my recent run of inexplicable and unexplained punctures I thought my luck might change. Today, out for a slow and lazy 20 miler with the intention of taking some photographs, I leant my bike against a bridge and wandered over to the other side to take some snaps (as an aside, for the second week running on a Sunday morning, my sudden appearance at a bridge side has resulted in startling a grey heron who flew away each time before I could take a picture). Anyway, I suddenly hear a strange noise and the loudest bang I've heard in many a year. Birds erupted from trees, and had the grey heron not already have made his escape, he surely would have done so then. Being out in the country I assumed someone was firing a shotgun a little too close for comfort. Alas, when I returned to my bike I discovered I had a flat tyre. On closer inspection I saw several inches of the tyre wall had failed allowing the inner tube to burst through and explode! Never had that in 40+ years of cycling. Luckily I had some black insulation tape in my pannier - no idea why - but I taped up the tyre wall best I could, put in a new tube, and pumped it up to a massive 20 psi. Then limped home keeping as much weight over the front wheel as possible. Luckily I was only 10 miles from home.

This is where I was:

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I had the very same thing at the start of this year with a Schwalbe Marathon tyre. The retailer replaced it but wouldn't explain the reason for the failure.

GC

 

[ScotiaLass]

Sorry about the tyre...beautiful spot for it to fail tho'!

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I've had this before, mine went bang on a quiet country lane whilst I was riding in a group, it was caused by the beading parting company with the sidewall, a friend was carrying a tyre boot, a small length cut off an old tyre, and that got me to the cafe and home, since then I've always carried a tyre boot.

 

[MickeyBlueEyes]

I had this one evening, in my lounge ! There I was, feet up on the sofa with my bike behind me and BANG. To say it only made me jump would be a lie and I couldn't possibly repeat the word/s that left my mouth ! The sidewall on a Michelin Pro3 Race had just given out. Although I was a bit miffed I'd lost a tyre, as it was the front wheel I was glad it happened when it did and not the morning after whilst on a 40mph local descent.
Maybe the bike thought "Why can't I sit on the sofa with him, I know, I'll show him...."

 

[The Jogger]

Looks peaceful there, , your arrival that is :-)

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Here's what my tyre and tube looked like after the big bang..

The tyre was only a couple of weeks old.



GC

 

[Accy cyclist]

I noticed a "nipple"sticking out of my front tyre the other week. It was the innertube,it'd found its way out at a point of the tyre that'd been worn down by badly fitted(by me) brake pads. The pads were only touching the tyre by a millimeter or so but it was enough to wear it thin enabling the tube to pop out. I decided to make my way gently to the local bike shop a few hundred yards up the road,but i should've walked instead as after a few yards the bang and hiss followed! The tyre was a Schwalbe Blizzard Sport,not the most expensive out there,but it'd only done about 300 miles.

 

[Davidc]

I had a nasty one a few years ago. I'd put a new inner tube in because the old one had failed where the valve joins on to it, and there was a very loud bang while I was in the local shop. The tube had escaped through a hole in the tyre. It did quite a bit of damage to the tyre too.

When I got home (pushing the bike) I went to put the old tube back, plus boot, to go and buy another tube and tyre, and realised that the hole corresponded to the position of a puncture repair on the old tube, and the patch had a definite stretched section on it.

The likely cause seemed to have been that the original puncture had put a significant hole in the tyre which had been filled up by a part of the repair patch. When the new tube went in it had stretched in the same way but with no patch, and exploded.

 

[delb0y]

Once I've got a new tyre I shall cut out a length of the old one and keep that in my pannier - good tip, Dave.

Meanwhile, my puncture woes continue. Went out in the garage this evening and found that sometime between when I made it home yesterday and this evening my front tyre has gone down. Sigh.