continental tire going bang

scarthie99

has any one had one of this tyre blow out Continental Grand Prix 4000S II Folding Road Tyre i will put picture up soon when my brother bring the tire to show us the damage to the tire.just need some info :shock:

Shuggy76

Yep, this happened to me a few months ago, sidewall blew out, couldn't figure out why, no brake rub, just a loud pop going around a corner (fairly slowly thankfully!)

scarthie99 wrote:

has any one had one of this tire blow out Continental Grand Prix 4000S II Folding Road Tyre i will put picture up soon when my brother bring the tire to show us the damage to the tire.just need some info :shock:

Mantas

Yep, this happend to me a 8 month ago. Downhill, good speed, corner to the left, and then... That was a new tire, less then 500 km

cycleclinic

Something has to cut the sidewall for this too happen. The tyre just does not pop by itself. You won't know what did it and you never will. If you want a tyre with better sidewall protection then pick another tyre. I have holed brand new tyres (4 seasons) in the first 20 miles. You can get unlucky just because it is newish does not mean it can't happen. You could blame the tyre manufacturer and the retailer but really it is bad luck. You buy another tyre and move on.

On forums you find folk thinking such failures are manufacturing faults but there is no evidence I have seen for this.

bompington

You could try this thread. Although they couldn't spell tyre either.

fenix

And wasnt at least one of those operator error - his own brake blocks wearing the tyre out ?

I've used these tyres for years and 1000s of miles with very little drama. Are you sure you haven't pinched the innertube in the tyre ? That can do it.

sungod

i thought pretty much all in that thread were either operator error, the result of going over something sharp, or, in one case, looking rather like it was worn out and knackered

conti 4000s/4000s ii seem to be very popular tyres, i've used the 4000s for years with no issue

if there are a lot in use, reports of failure, for whatever reason, will be more numerous; whether they fail more or less often than other tyres of comparable weight is another matter, i've not seen any evidence one way or the other

prhymeate

bompington wrote:

You could try this thread. Although they couldn't spell tyre either.

haha, that was my thread. One was definitely my own fault with the brake rubbing the rim, lesson learned. The other was totally random whilst I was just pumping the tYre up and showed no signs of wear like the other one had.

Garry H

Possibly a tear on the inside.

I had a mysterious exploding tyre a few years ago while the bike was inside my flat, resting against a wall. I think it was a Conti Sport something or other. It happens.

hypster

Garry H wrote:

Possibly a tear on the inside.

I had a mysterious exploding tyre a few years ago while the bike was inside my flat, resting against a wall. I think it was a Conti Sport something or other. It happens.

Well it's never happened to me in over 30 years of cycling, but then again I don't use Continental tyres...

Garry H

Happened to me just once, in over thirty years of cycling...

Tiesetrotter

see it happen on rare occasions on club rides, the last three I remember are all GP4000's.

Anonymous

bompington wrote:

You could try this thread. Although they couldn't spell tyre either.

Tyres don't go bang, tires do!

perfectmark

Happened to me too, with a 2 month old tyre. I suspect I know what caused it, there is a road on the way to work where the road surface has worn away so much in places that you see the old victorian cobbles. I have had punctures there before with gatorskins, so suspect the GP4000 just couldn't cope. However I decided to stick with the GP4000 on the front and a harder wearing GP 4seasons on the rear, so it is less likely to have a side wall blow out in future.

the_hundredth_idiot

Happened to me with Schwalbe One. Possibly was just bad luck but ...

Corbin

Had one go out with a bang last week. If you do a google search you will find many threads (some here) talking about gp 4000's blowing out.

Mine had 2-300 miles on it and popped doing about 18mph. Patched the tube and it held for the ride and then the next day blew out again after filling and setting bike on ground.

Lots of people use these for years and get thousands out of them with no problems.
A lot speak of user error? What exactly is this user error that we only experience with these tires?


I read somewhere of someone saying conti admitted to problems. These threads go back several years. I think I saw on from 2010.
I guess these sidewall just aren't strong enough.

sungod

user error: nipping tube between rim an tyre, eventually BANG

user error: brake pads too high, eventually BANG

gp4000s are lightweight tyres, sidewalls are thin, if they get caught they can fail, and go BANG

but this is clearly a popular tyre, we know stuff fails, we know that for an identical failure rate the more popular thing will have more reported failures than a less popular thing

what counts is failure vs. total population operating hours

anyone claiming they fail more or less often than any other comparable weight tyre is spouting uninformed nonsense if they do not have the population data to back up their claim