Torn Sidewall of NEW tyre

josh_1871

Hi

I have recently bought some new Continental Gator Skin tyres and within the first 100 metres the back wheel popped and burst, causing a tear about 2 inches long in the sidewall of the tyre so when pumped the inner tube bulges out the side of the wheel.

Can anyone give me advice on what to do?

Shall I try to return the tyres or is it a fixable problem?

Cheers

MountainMonster

Most definitely return the tyres as they are certainly faulty!

andrewjoseph

Not fixable, take it back.

majormantra

Almost certainly mounted incorrectly, not a defect. If you trap a little bit of the tube under the bead then it will burst as you describe once you put weight on it. I once ruined a new Michelin PR3 this way after mounting it in a hurry.

Suck it up and move on, no shop will take it back under these circumstances.

josh_1871

this is probably what happened...is there a way of checking that the tube isnt trapped because I double checked to make sure, thought it was all ok then bang, its popped.

can the levers rip the sidewall or is it ok to be a little forceful at times with this?

gozzy

To check the tube isn't trapped you just need to work your way round the rim, pushing the tyre inwards a little and looking to see if the tube is visible, if it's visible it's trapped. Remove tyre and re-fit. If it's not visible then blow it up and ride.

You shouldn't need to use levers to put a tyre back on, as long as you use the "work it round both sides of the rim" method, most tyres should pop on fine. Park tools or Sheldon or a google video search will reveal all.

amaferanga

Pump tube up a little once tyre is mounted before you do as recommended by Gozzy. If you then go round the wheel pushing the tyre away from the rim slightly then you'll remove any pinches so there's no need to remove the tyre again.

dee4life2005

Sounds like it's a case of a trapped inner tube when mounting the tyre ... but tears in the side wall can also be caused by incorrectly aligned brake pads (unlikely in only 100 meters) but it's worth a quick check just in case, as you wouldn't want the same to happen with another new tyre.

Gazzetta67

Think there is a thread on another Conti tyre GP4000 - same happened to me, both now ruined after only 4 months use. wont be buying conti's again will stick to my trusted Michelin's and Vredstein Fortezza's.

pkripper

so you could have / would have ridden for a short time on the sidewall? Every chance that in a catastrophic tube failure that trapping the tire sidewall between the road and rim tore it sufficiently.

bigpikle

lots of explanations above but its weird that IMHO I've only ever had this happen on Conti 4000s rubber. First ride on a new set had a similar split within 20km yet the tube hadnt burst, and just last week, after riding the tyre a few hundred miles I had the same thing Weird that my Schwalbes, Michelins etc have never suffered such a failure.