Tires Good Tires That Turned Bad On Me - Pics

MikeJ

Member
Local time
3:36 AM
Joined
May 5, 2009
Messages
351
Location
Colorado Springs
Hi All -

If there were a section in this forum entitled "Believe It or Not!", I would post this writeup there. What happened to me tonight is so unique, I just had to record it and ask "What happened here?".

I was prepping a Garage Queen to be a useful ride once again. The Queen: A Specialized Rockhopper purchased from a pawn shop.

Study the pictures. I was adjusting brakes on the front shocks. The original rim was wobbly to all getout, so I got a spare rim and tire that was still under some small amount of pressure from my parts bin. I deflated the tire to get the tread past the brake shoes. The bead seal was broken all the way around. I mounted the wheel and tire. I went to air up the tire. It is a Kenda 2.125 inch 26 inch tire. Age is unknown; it came with a donor bike frame that was assembled in 1995.

I was passing the 35 psi mark, not yet 40 psi, when a quick rupture sounded and the doggone inner tube popped out like an intestinal hernia!

Nobody would believe my words describing this, so I had to take picture and post them. I could not have deliberately done this if I tried.

A quirk, maybe an hour before: I inflated the rear tire and tube. Tire age is again unknown; I purchased it on the Garage Queen frame. The tube is a Bell inner tube, purchased brand new from a bike shop mid-afternoon today. I know everything fit well. I inflated to 60 psi and set to the side. An hour later, I noted some crackling sounds, like an ice sheet stressing. A few seconds later, BOOM! That tire ruptured out of its bead. That time, the tube simply let loose like a high pressure balloon! I was ten feet away, no injuries. But my ears are still ringing.

Noted: Both tires were old, kind of dried out. When the bead seal was broken, they both seemed to fit a bit more sloppy than if the tires were new.

Do tires and beads stretch with age? And if the bead is broken, does the tire not seal its bead well anymore?

Any comments are welcomed. I ride a 15-year-old Haro with an engine I almost tossed away as a lost cause because a cylinder stud stripped out. But I rebuilt it and call it Frankenmotor. I use quarter-inch diameter steel rod to lock the engine to the downtube because the bottom studs sheared off a long time ago. I use 14-gauge wire and turnbuckles to lock the engine to the bike frame seat post to control runaway vibrations. The shift kit is anchored the same way to the bottom bracket. It is a royal pain to start.

But it runs great and smoothly when it is running.

Yes, motorized bikes are an adventure.

MikeJ
1,248 long distance miles with Frankenmotor and a shift kit. Half a dozen rides each over 100 miles.
 

Attachments

  • TireBlowOut1.jpg
    TireBlowOut1.jpg
    108.7 KB · Views: 570
  • TireBlowOut2.jpg
    TireBlowOut2.jpg
    116.7 KB · Views: 524
  • TireBlowOut5.jpg
    TireBlowOut5.jpg
    94.3 KB · Views: 426
  • TireBlowOut6.jpg
    TireBlowOut6.jpg
    128.8 KB · Views: 419
  • TireBlowOut3.jpg
    TireBlowOut3.jpg
    126.3 KB · Views: 426
  • TireBlowOut4.jpg
    TireBlowOut4.jpg
    112.1 KB · Views: 437
Assuming you have the correct tire size, when seating the bead for the 1st time while airing it up theres a fine line that runs along the bead. You need to make sure this line is uniform in distance drom the edge of the rim all around the circumferance of the rim. This distance might be say 1mm or 2 maybe 3 even. Im guessing here that maybe this is the problem that the bead wasnt seated properly. Only other thing I can think of is the tire size might be off, say if you using a fractional size and you need a decimal size......if the bead is broken that tire is dangerous and should be thrown away.
 
Hi Darwin -

Your words echo the same comments I received from a retail bike seller. He said the same thing happens once every few months to one or more of his assemblers. He said the same events happens to him once a year or so. I will be looking more carefully for that line you wrote of in the future. I also purchased two new tires and tubes, the tires made by Michelin. The shop owner told me the bead sits tight with those and I may have to put forth a bit more effort than normal to put those tires on.

I am throwing those old tires away.
 
interesting.

has anyone noticed how the tires on a new bike say from walmart or any 80-140$ bike are not true. 2 times ive had to buy new tires off the shelf and replace the wobbly ones on the new bike.

is this common in the cheaper bikes?

I dont have the money to buy a $500 bike and put kits on them.

Steve aka tango
 
I have noticed on about a 1/3 of the cheaper bikes the bead takes some finessing to stay put or the tread/ casing is wobbly. And thats even when the lines are even all the way round on both sides.
 
When mounting bicycle tires I always use Johnson's baby powder.

Joke? Nope. When I worked on agricultural equipment which used tubed tires of all kinds, we used to go through cans of "tire talc" every week. Talc is a naturally occurring soft mineral milled into powder form which, when applied liberally to the inner tire casing, allows all the kinks, twists and knots in the tube to easily straighten out as you slowly inflate the tire after you've finished putting it on the rim. Talc is a natural dry lubricant that is harmless to baby's bums. And inner tubes.

After putting a couple of psi pressure in, center the rim in the tire so the outer ring of the tire bead is the same distance from the rim edge all the way around. Then slowly complete inflating to the recommended pressure. The talcum powder will puff out in little clouds.

I like Johnson's baby powder in my tires because it smells better then regular tire talc.
 
Good stuff...

Yep, cornstarch works just as well and is also fairly cheap. Odorless too!
 
Last edited:
I like Kenda tires. They are good for mountain biking (light, with soft flexy casings, and not too heavy. Tread patterns are average all around types).
I bet you just had a dud or it came from sitting in a garage (hot and cold changes can ruin tires that just sit around).

The talcum powder seems to be a good idea to me, but I usually skip it.

Try "Swiss Army" Tires from www.niagaracycle.com I've been using a set of 1.95 tires that I got $10 each, with good results. http://www.niagaracycle.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=swiss+army&x=0&y=0 The fat ones work good for mountain bikes also. They roll quietly.
 
Interesting.......Not that your tube had a hernia, but that you had the same problem I have been experiencing recently. In the last month or two I had a couple tires that fit well before remounting, that did the same thing. I also was having a spate of flats....but always with the more expensive tires and with the thick tubes. Finally I just mounted up some old Walmart cheapies and called it good. Flat problem over. :eek: Of course, now I get to watch the tread pattern wobble all over the place. :mad: Actually, I can't complain about the cheapies too much. They don't ride as nicely as the more expensive tires, and they certainly aren't near true, but they hold air and go round and round.

Who ever posted the idea of fractional tires not fitting properly on metric rims may have something. I ruined a wheel, and when I mounted the 2.125's to another rim is when the tube came out to say hello. Well, the last week or so has been uneventful, so maybe my luck has changed.

Re: the baby powder......count on another Minnesotean to come up with that. Helps your tires stay up, and......relieves the chafing if they do go flat and you have to push the bike home.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top