When is a tyre cut too far?

portuguese mike

when i checked my tyres after the tour of wessex on saturday i found on really deep gash about 5mm long that went right down to the canvass on the rear tyre - is it ok to keep riding it or should i bin it? (only got about 550 miles on it)

thanks

wildmoustache

the safe thing for fellow forummers to say is "bin it" ... but it's not our ££

i think there's a lot to be said for riding good condition tyres. IT really cuts down the number of punctures and gives you more confidence.

but did recently get a piece of flint through a PR2 that just penetrated right through. I've superglued the cut and put a puncture patch on the inside of the tyre. And it's back up running fine. Probably wouldn't use it if I was doing a ride that really mattered to me though, but fine for training.

blorg

It depends- I don't think I would replace an Armadillo/Gatorskin-type tyre on a commuter due to a 5mm gash but for a racing tyre, for peace of mind I think I would replace. I have binned a (Schwalbe Stelvio) tyre thanks to this (blowout):



But I have also let a Specialized Armadillo go a bit long on my commuter until it got to this stage (this is just a section, it was like this pretty much all the way around):



Needless to say I was not comfortable cornering at high speed on this tyre ;-) But it had lesser gashes and stuff stuck in it for far longer before it got to this stage.

Monty Dog

If the cut is all the way through, then I'd probably bin-it reluctantly. Previous attempts at repairing tyres have never been successful, so I've given up trying

Tom Butcher

If it makes the tyre deform when pumped up I'd bin it, if the cut is all the way through and that long I'm surprised it doesn't deform it. Also if there is actually a hole where it looks like a bit of the tyre is missing as in picture 1 above I'd bin it.

DavidBelcher

wildmoustache wrote:

the safe thing for fellow forummers to say is "bin it" ...

Seconded. Last summer my Dad had a blow-out when cornering at quite low speed, and came out of it pretty badly - broken ribs, collarbone and fingers plus some very bad bruising - since when both of us have been very cautious about cuts & nicks in tyres.

David