Why did the tyre pop?

[Sara_H]

OH had quite a scary off last night.

Going reasonably fast down a steep hill the front tyre just blew out with a loud bang, sending OH flying across a very busy main road.

My tummy lurches every time I think of what could have happened. Luckily he's got away with some nasty grazes and a sprained wrist.

Quite keen to prevent this happening again, but have no idea what caused it in the first place. Any ideas?

 

[ScotiaLass]

^^^
that

 

[ianrauk]

Was it puncture repaired before the ride?

 

[jefmcg]

A front tyre popping is much more serious than a rear, as you nearly learnt. Always put the new/best tyre on the front.

Glad the damage wasn't worse

 

[ColinJ]

I have only seen (and heard - very loud!) one tyre go bang and that was on a friend's bike when we were kids. It turned out that his tyres had perished and were falling apart.

I have spotted badly seated tyres starting to come off, but deflated them and sorted them out in time.

Another friend over-inflated his MTB tyres and one came off as a result, but that was putting 100 psi into something designed for about 50!

 

[Sara_H]

There's a massive jagged tear along the side wall, near to where it meets the rim. Difficult to know if that's cause or effect though.

Tyres were in good condition, not over inflated. At a complete loss really.

 

[jefmcg]

I've had a tyre go bang. It was caused by the brake pads touching the tyres rubbing through the sidewall. Worth checking.

 

[nickyboy]

There's a massive jagged tear along the side wall, near to where it meets the rim. Difficult to know if that's cause or effect though.

Tyres were in good condition, not over inflated. At a complete loss really.

A couple of years ago I had a sidewall failure on a tyre. Split and the innertube poked through. Innertube then caught on brakes, loud bang and that was that (thankfully not going too fast). Sounds quite similar

 

[glasgowcyclist]

There's a massive jagged tear along the side wall, near to where it meets the rim. Difficult to know if that's cause or effect though.

Tyres were in good condition, not over inflated. At a complete loss really.

My guess is a faulty or damaged sidewall on the tyre. I had such a failure on a brand new Schwalbe Marathon Plus last year, thankfully while parked in the bike shed. Schwalbe agreed it was a faulty sidewall and replaced it. You can see from the pics that the sidewall had split just above the wire beading, the inner tube expanded rapidly through the gap and exploded.

GC

 

[Sara_H]

Some damage to rim, but looks fresh, probably caused in the big bang last night.

 

[Andrew_P]

Some damage to rim, but looks fresh, probably caused in the big bang last night.

What make and model of tyre?

 

[Sara_H]

[QUOTE 3308020, member: 45"]What kind of damage?[/QUOTE]

What make and model of tyre?

I'll put a couple of photo's up in a minute. The tyre was a Kenda K West which was the tyre that came with the bike, but as I said, seemed to be in good condittion. The bike's a couple of years old, t was my OH's folding bike, only gets used approx once a week or so, shouldn't have been too worn.

 

[Andrew_P]

I had one blow at the sidewall this time last year right in a fast right hander, it was a Michelin same symptom long split, loud bang. I fractured and dislocated my shoulder :-(

They do say if you hear a bang, which I and your OH did then the tube was already out of the tyre, as opposed to a rapid deflation the tyre had given way and the tube was exposed and out of the tyre when it went.

 

[Sara_H]

Rim - not very cleat but there's a long silvery coloured graze and then two round silvery coloured splodges, these are all new damage I reckon,

Tyre:

 

[Ian H]

I've seen similar for various reasons. 1) Braking causing rim to overheat on a descent. 2) Under-inflation meaning the sidewalls flex to the point of failure. 3) Brake block mis-adjusted so that the top of the block touches the tyre - this gets worse as the block wears and develops a raised edge at the top.

Could also just be a faulty tyre or damaged in fitting.