Durano London plus - utter cr*p

gtvlusso

Less than 200 miles and split right through to the bed. I am not keen on riding much further on it as the bed could completely tear.



Schwalbe Durano London plus - a waste of money and not fir for purpose - mailing the manufacturer.....

stuaff

Nasty. Sounds like a warranty issue to me- on my recent LonJOG, a tandem on Durano Pluses had a problem with one, that looked like a manufacturing fault. My experiences with them have only been positive- killed my first rear on the Viner because I kept running it underinflated (having done something like 4,500 miles on it), front is still going strong. No issues with the set on the Condor either.

jeepie

Would recommend contacting Schwalbe. I ripped the side wall of one after only 50 miles. They provided a replacement tyre and I had very good service from them. Now done 1,000 + miles with no issues.

veronese68

Looks like a couple of other small holes in there as well. This weather certainly is washing all the crap into our paths.
Saw a bloke suffering a visit this morning.He looked quite bemused when I asked if he needed anything

gtvlusso

Thanks guys - I have mailed Schwalbe, see what comes of it.

I am annoyed about it for several reasons;

1, Made me very late for a very important meeting
2, It was raining and changing a high pressure tyre in the rain is always a bugger
3, So many people have recommended them and I bought them over my faithful Gatorskins.

TheStone

Mine last forever despite regularly picking bits of glass out of them. 8000km is not uncommon.

Might have been really unlucky. Would expect Schwalbe to replace. I really hope they've not compromised their quality on the newer tyres.

gtvlusso

I have had tyres cut up badly, but not within 200 miles.....this is more of a split. There was nothing in the split when I inspected it. I think that the tyre bed being broken caused the puncture. It happened on a relatively little used and newly laid road onto a new housing estate.

gtvlusso

More pics:

dav1

looks to me like you have been over something very nasty in the road. A piece of glass or a nail can do that kind of damage. 200 miles is very early for the bin though!

I just binned my rear durano standard tire, it had lasted two autumn-spring periods and must have done close to quoted 6000 miles. I will buy these again when I give up on waiting for summer and revert to winter set-up.

t4tomo

Pieces of glass don't discriminate between new and older tyres

gtvlusso

Dav1 wrote:

looks to me like you have been over something very nasty in the road. A piece of glass or a nail can do that kind of damage. 200 miles is very early for the bin though!

I just binned my rear durano standard tire, it had lasted two autumn-spring periods and must have done close to quoted 6000 miles. I will buy these again when I give up on waiting for summer and revert to winter set-up.

Not so sure, Usually you can find a nick of glass or something in the tyre.....just a huge gash. The road is pretty decent and there really was nothing that I cycled through or over, the split seems to have widened a little.....looks like the spare folding tyre may well get a day out again.

gtvlusso

From Schwalbe:

Thanks for getting in touch with Schwalbe UK, thanks for including the link to the image also, always good to see the issue up front. Firstly, I am sorry to see the condition of the tyre and the rather large area of the tyre which has been affected.

From this image alone however I would be inclined to say that you may have been very very unfortunate and ridden over something really quite nasty as I would not expect a ‘split’ as a result of a manufacturing defect to result in what seems to be a fairly clean cut/break through not only the outer layer of rubber but also the tyres smart guard protection belt.

As a user of these tyres myself sometimes you do pick up debris or ride over something really nasty and not realise at the time as the tyre does not fail immediately. This can lead to some big cuts in the tread but the tyre does not totally fail where a different tyre may. This results in these quite clean looking splits/cuts as opposed to seeing a completely shredded section of tyre.

However, the above comments are based upon seeing the one image only, without handling the tyre it would be difficult to comment further. I would suggest taking either of the following routes of action, taking the tyre back into the retailer who supplied the tyre and asking their opinion, or alternatively you can mail the tyre to myself in the UK for inspection.

I will send it back, when I have time. But, for the record, I have never seen a tyre suffer such extensive damage, ever, over 20 odd years on road and off road riding. I have ridden seriously cut up and squared off Gatorskins with shards of glass still in it without a huge gash appearing, same with Armadillos. Smart Guard protection, my fecking ar*e......

Even if the tyre was penetrated by a shard of something, this kind of damage is still unprecedented. The tyre should not be in this state......

Luckily, I still have an Armadillo and a Gatorskin in the shed, both have covered over 3000 miles easily - I kept them as 'get me out of the cr*p' tyres, so, I will lob one of those on while the Durano is sent back.....

At the moment, Schwalbe and their Durano range are a fail, for me.....totally gash product.

roger_merriman

That is fairly poor, my bikes used to have marathon pluses, my wife's still does, they shrugged off glass with the od wee cut but nothing like that!

gtvlusso

Another mail from Schwalbe, looks like they don't want to know.....

IMHO - protective layer, yeah, right.......

Gatorskins - very few punctures - over 5000 miles on last pair, they practically fell off the rims when removed.
Armadillos - very few punctures - lord knows how many miles.
Durano Plus - less that 200 miles and tyre is written off

The Durano protective layer is cobblers.....

davis

Dude, you're judging a whole range of products on a single bad experience with a single tyre.

gtvlusso

davis wrote:

Dude, you're judging a whole range of products on a single bad experience with a single tyre.

Yes, I am. So many people have recommended it, my expectation was very high. However, the product, in this instance, compared to the competition products, is fairly abysmal - IMHO. I could do without the hassle of sending it back, but I will do when I have 5 mins.

I am not used to complaining about a product, I am a patient guy, but this takes the pi$$.....

davmaggs

It does look like something substantial pierced the tyre. I really don't see how wasting time and money on postage will get you a different result as it clearly isn't a manufacturing fault.

Sure, you can be disappointed and annoyed about the bad luck (I would be), but no compound perished or fell apart.

rjsterry

davmaggs wrote:

It does look like something substantial pierced the tyre. I really don't see how wasting time and money on postage will get you a different result as it clearly isn't a manufacturing fault.

Sure, you can be disappointed and annoyed about the bad luck (I would be), but no compound perished or fell apart.

This. I've had a nearly new Gatorskin ruined by a surgically sharp, but tiny piece of glass through the side wall. Deflated with a bang loud enough to make everyone turn and stare. Tried to repair it, but noticed the the tube bulging through the cut. Luckily I was near a station, but still ruined my evening. Sometimes stuff just happens.

gtvlusso

I had a good scan of the road on the way home - nothing seen to cause this damage. Nothing in the tyre and no initial puncture. If something penetrated the tyre, the protective layer has done sweet fa, except enhance the issue and make the tyre unusable. I have had gatorskins with shards still stuck in them working better and still useable. Maximum puncture protection seems to be bull......the protection has done nothing. The tyre has actually split down the centre seam now.......

Personally, I think that the tyre has split.....and the split is growing.

I have had my share of punctures and damage, most of it due to glass in the road or tyres that are badly worn out. But this much damage for one incident has never happened to me in thousands of miles.

Money wasted and I will get fa out of schwalbe. Never reported a tyre problem to a manufacturer before now......Back to gatorskins.

davis

gtvlusso wrote:

davis wrote:

Dude, you're judging a whole range of products on a single bad experience with a single tyre.

Yes, I am. So many people have recommended it, my expectation was very high. However, the product, in this instance, compared to the competition products, is fairly abysmal - IMHO. I could do without the hassle of sending it back, but I will do when I have 5 mins.

I am not used to complaining about a product, I am a patient guy, but this takes the pi$$.....

I see. Did you roll the competing tyres over the _exact_same_hazard_ that split the Schwalbe?

I do understand your frustration: I've had 150 quid fancy-pants car tyres puncture on me 6 miles after fitting, and brand new bike tyres puncture within 50 miles. It's incredibly annoying. The point I'm making is that you're condemning an entire model and manufacturer after a single specific failure when you don't know what caused it. It could've been a manufacturing fault, it could've been a piece of that nasty wire used to reinforce truck tyres, sliver of glass, thorn, whatever; you've had rather an extreme reaction to an annoying event.

First.Aspect

Dude, let it go. I had a puncture on a mtb tyre the other week, went right through the rim tape. Turned out to be a floorboard nail in the middle of a track through a regional park. Not proximal to any floorboards. You really have no idea what you rode over and no chance of finding it the following day.

dunnnooo

^ Basically that. Unless you know what pierced it, you can't comment on the quality of the tyre.

itboffin

Not durano's but schwalbe ZX lovely tyres but split on the sidewall after less than 100 miles

Of course i've just glued it and ignored :roll:

gtvlusso

Yes, I am condemning a range of tyres, my experience has been bad. My expectation was set high - marketing and recommendations. The failure appears to be minor, yet the tyre is completely fubar and has now split further....I am expecting better support from schwalbe than "bad luck old boy" without even seeing the tyre (I.e they have made up their minds that this is my problem based on a couple of pics - it is unlikely that sending thf tyre to them will change this opinion)..Other tyres have handled far more damage and maintained usability over longer periods - simple. Like I say, I do not believe that I have rolled over anything, there are no indications of this at all. I believe that the tyre has split. There was no puncture until the tube was exposed - the split in the rubber was noticed by the noise made on a wet road. I was only when I stopped that I saw how exposed the hole was and that it was expanded.

If I simply had a puncture straight out or was on a glass strewn path, then I accept that this is simply a case of bad puncture - sh*t happens. Nothing found in the split in the tyre...

Rare that I have had issue with a product.

gtvlusso

Fair points above - it is only £20. I am more pi$$ed that the messing about this morning caused me to be late for a very important meeting

My experience with schwalbe tyres is sh*t.

Let's call that the end, you are right - there is more to life!

bam49

gtvlusso wrote:

Fair points above - it is only £20. I am more pi$$ed that the messing about this morning caused me to be late for a very important meeting

My experience with schwalbe tyres is sh*t.

Let's call that the end, you are right - there is more to life!

£20 is a good price for Durano Plus - where do you get them at that price ?

fwiw I have use the DP's commuting in London for the last 3 years or so ( they had diff name before ), and found them to be very good - still get the odd p*cture, but I found them to be much better than Armadilloes..

I was always v keen on Michelin Pro3 on my good bike, liked the speed & grip.. Been using Conti 4000's the last year or so, which are more resillient than Pro3's.. Got some cheap Pro 3's, put them on and sliced the front sidewall with 60 miles covered on them.. I don't now believe that all Michelin Pro 3's or 4's are rubbish, just that I was v unlucky..

rolf_f

You aren't being logical. It is entirely possible to ride over something that will make a hole that big. The fact that you've never done so before is irrelevant. There are people who have never had a puncture at all but that doesn't mean that punctures don't happen.

As for the meeting - the puncture didn't make you late for your meeting; your lack of contingiency planning made you late for your meeting and that's hardly Schwalbes fault.

gtvlusso wrote:

Not so sure, Usually you can find a nick of glass or something in the tyre.....just a huge gash.

I clean out the glass from cuts in my tyres regularly. I'd say that more often than not the gashes are empty. Not a big majority but the absence of anything in a cut really doesn't mean anything.

Paul E

I wrote off a krylion on the back going through the blackfriars underpass, god knows what I went over but it put a slice literally right through the rubber and right through the puncture protection, I had to bin it as it was bulging badly after changing the tube but it got me home

mudcow007

i will post up pictures of my marathon pluses

they are cut to shreds - you can see the blue protective strip in about 6 places, still holds ok though

davmaggs

Woke up this morning to find my Marathon+ deflated. Did my post on this subject cause one of you to come round and teach me a lesson?

Jay dubbleU

davmaggs wrote:

Woke up this morning to find my Marathon+ deflated. Did my post on this subject cause one of you to come round and teach me a lesson?

Sounds like your comments have hacked off the p*f*

I had a problem like that on the Kendas that came with the Duster - flint (I assume because there was nothing in the tyre) made a clean cut that went through the knob on the tyre, through the tube and into the tape - looked as though a knife had gone through it