Tyre Blown !
- Thread starter Adam4868
- Start date
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Sterlo
Early Retirement Planning
- Location
- East Riding of Yorkshire
Is that a Conti GP5000? I was thinking about getting some but I've read conflicting reviews on them. one of them being splitting like yours.
I like Skol
A Minging Manc...
- Location
- Sunny Ashton-under-Lyne
Split? Looks more like a cut to me, which is not the fault of the tyre (although I have had poor experience of Continental tyres being poor at resisting damage and punctures).
OP
OP
Adam4868
Guru
Yes Conti I'm guessing it could happen to any tyre...but it hurts more when there expensive!
Edit to add more than likely it's a cut...not split
Sterlo
Early Retirement Planning
- Location
- East Riding of Yorkshire
Sorry, I meant a cut. I've got 4000's on at the moment and mines got a cut in it from a large piece of grit that got embedded, not as bad as yours though. It was almost like a flap but you could see the threads, managed to glue it back down sort of, should be okay but the walls are looking like they're starting to crack a bit. Had them on for 4 years although had 18 months out after accident.
I wouldn't buy a cheapie tyre, it looks like it's one of those things that happen.
OP
OP
Adam4868
Guru
Yea I know what you mean...but had a pair of Vittoria Rubinos on my winter bike for the last 6 months and they've held up pretty well.One puncture if I remember right and still look ok.Cost if I remember right was well under 20 quid a tire.
Do I spend more than double that on a tire..I'm not too sure.Be honest it's not like I can tell they ride any different.
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
Just make sure you get the black walled ones next time 
OP
OP
Adam4868
Guru
I only paid a premium price for tan wall so I could look like a pro....never again lolJust make sure you get the black walled ones next time
When I started using bicycle to go to work, late nineties, I used Schalbe Marathon Plus because of the advertised thick (5 mm anti leak layer. When cuts / wearing, I could see the green color of that layer/rubber. I had 1-2 punctures annually, most due to nails, sometimes due to chestnut husks, a typical november occurrence.
I didn't have a single case of grit stuck in the rubber
Then, I think that was around 2015, the Marathon Plus was sold here in BE as nonexistent word "onplatbaar", suggesting that you can't get a flat.
At the same time, the color of the compound changed from green to blue.
And from that point on, I discovered pieces of grit stuck in it. I got 3 flats the first 4 months using it. One occasion was a stone as big as 15 mm, that got embedded in that blue compound and cut futher towards the inner tyre. It was just weird to see such a size grit sitting stuck. I'd rather expect it to be pushed out again but no. In the end, I ceased chosing Marathon Plus due to this. The next year I decided to go fixed gear, shortly later a travel bike and 62 mm tyres, Schwalbe super moto x. I have had as many flats as the green antileak compounf Marathon Plus, which is acceptable. Only drawback is that they last 1 year instead of 2.
So, one may wonder in which degree the rubber kind of the anti leak affects grit getting stuck or not.
I didn't have a single case of grit stuck in the rubber
Then, I think that was around 2015, the Marathon Plus was sold here in BE as nonexistent word "onplatbaar", suggesting that you can't get a flat.
At the same time, the color of the compound changed from green to blue.
And from that point on, I discovered pieces of grit stuck in it. I got 3 flats the first 4 months using it. One occasion was a stone as big as 15 mm, that got embedded in that blue compound and cut futher towards the inner tyre. It was just weird to see such a size grit sitting stuck. I'd rather expect it to be pushed out again but no. In the end, I ceased chosing Marathon Plus due to this. The next year I decided to go fixed gear, shortly later a travel bike and 62 mm tyres, Schwalbe super moto x. I have had as many flats as the green antileak compounf Marathon Plus, which is acceptable. Only drawback is that they last 1 year instead of 2.
So, one may wonder in which degree the rubber kind of the anti leak affects grit getting stuck or not.
fritz katzenjammer
Der Ubergrosserbudgie
- Location
- Deepest Darkest Canada
We had a customer in our shop recently who was complaining about the durability on Contiās current product. He mumbled something about not being made in Germany anymore. I havenāt looked into this but it wouldnāt be the first premium product that went down hill after moving production out of their motherland.
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
Well "look into this" and report back please: don't come here with spurious second hand assertions. The 5000s BNIB I have say 'Handmade in Germany' and I'm inclined to trust Germans with their respect for authority and obeying laws.
fritz katzenjammer
Der Ubergrosserbudgie
- Location
- Deepest Darkest Canada
Who is making spurious assertions? If your tires say made in Germany then they are. His tires were not and I honestly forget where he said they were from. A check of what is currently in my garage shows I own Continentals manufactured in both the US (ProContact) and Thailand (Ultrasports)
All of the major component manufacturers have facilities splattered all over this planet. Checking the packaging on an item doesnāt even guarantee you are getting what you hope you are getting. Thereās a Chevrolet plant down the highway from here making āNorth Americanā vehicles, attached to it is a warehouse full of crates containing drivelines (engine/transmission packages) from a plant in China so your shiny new American car has a Chinese engine and transmission.
as long as a product meets its homelandās content laws regarding what local content must go into that product to be labeled as made in that country they can happily put their made in whatever on it. Here the locally added value of the finished product must exceed 50% for it to be made here. Interesting this means if the labour and packaging is worth enough you can label it as made in Canada even if itās made from totally imported components. My last job involved the manufacture of vehicle headlamps, every lamp we made was made in Canada from pretty much 100% imported parts.
Do not think itās any different in Germany, we had several divisions over there as well.
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Which parts of the tyres do you believe are made in another country and shipped in crates to be assembled into the finished tyre, and labelled made in Germany?
fritz katzenjammer
Der Ubergrosserbudgie
- Location
- Deepest Darkest Canada
They most likely bring the rubber compound in from another facility, some compounds have short shelf life between compounding and thermo setting or moulding into its final form and so would be within 24 hours trucking distance, all three of the rubber facilities Iāve visited brought their compounds in from elsewhere, two used compounds with long shelf lifeās which could be purchased from pretty much anywhere. One plant I worked with regularly purchased its rubber compounds from Tennessee and processed them in Iowa.
They would not be making any belting in house as that uses very different materials and processes from the tire compounding and not something you would want in the same area due to cross contamination issues. Making rubber products is a properly dirty process so you donāt want to be trying to wind nylon cords or extrude belting in the same area as these need to be kept contamination free and working with rubber compounds leave friggin carbon dust everywhere. Beading materials would be brought in as well, steel wire beading is a completely different process as you can well imagine and will go through several hands from refining through winding and possible heat treatments. Any of these things could come from specialists anywhere else on the planet.
So basically, every component in the tire could come from pretty much anywhere, it might be imported from another Continental plant, but that plant could be far, far away. Years ago I was involved in a rubber part, a door seal, that we sold exclusively out of our plant in Canada. It was made in one of our plants in USA entirely out of materials preprocessed in our plant in Great Britain. Who knows where the compounds came from!
I used to be involved in bearingsā¦ a lot actually, the bulk of my career. Our customer in the US made the outer race for a bearing for Chrysler and shipped it to their facility in Canada who sent it out for heat treatment and then, after receiving it back for a bit more processing, forwarded it to us. We worked our proprietary magic on it and forwarded it back to their plant in Canada for some further processing. Then it went to another supplier in Canada for integration into their assembly. They then sent it to China for final processing before it was returned to them for forwarding to a North American plant for assembly into minivans, although one quarter of these were forwarded to Europe for assembly there. We did this to the tune of about 14 million pieces a year. These things had more mileage on them and had passed though more hands before they hit the vehicle than makes any sense but somehow everybody made money on it. My point isā¦ where is it really made these days. Most people donāt know.
I do know Iām happy to be a semi retired guy who builds bicycles part time at the local shop, so much more pleasant.
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