Sidewall splitting

Happy Jack

Calibre Two Two about 3 months old. Hydraulic disc brakes. Mainly used on canal tow paths easy bike trails

I have had two sidewalls split on the rear wheel in the space of a few weeks. They have spilt right above / on the bead. The tyres were the original WTB Bronson and a Nobby Nics Performance. I am running slimed tubes at about 35 psi. Tyres are 26 x 2.1"

The splits are pretty impressive between 4-6 cm long and the tubes went with a fair bang

Is there anything that can cause this before I shell out another £20 for tyres and tubes?

The rim of the tyre is smooth

Tyre pressures too low?

LimitedGarry

The length of the tear could suggest it's indeed caused by the rim cutting into the sidewall, as it's around the size of the contact patch of 26" wheels.
Might be too low pressure. 35PSI is what I put into my 29x2.25 rear Ardent with EXO casing. Now I'm a heavy rider, but either way I'd probably be looking for a slightly higher pressure on a smaller wheel with lower volume tire, especially with a cheap and light tire.
Or it might simply be too cheap a tire for your demands.

Happy Jack

I have had another close look and I can't see any signs of rubbing or a rough rim so you may both be right.

I think a more robust tyre is in order. I will get my LBS to have a look as well. I don't really want to go back to Go Outdoors. They guy there is pretty good to be fair but they don't have a huge selection of tyres.

Happy Jack

I phoned Go Outdoors and spoke to the mechanic who fitted the tyre. To be honest he wasn't very forthcoming and didn't offer any reasons why this could have happened - just that I was unlucky - and there wasn't a warranty on tyres. I felt that this was just a "don't blame us" conversation. I explained that I wasn't that bothered about getting any money back I just wanted to know if there was any underlying issues. He said the best thing to do was to bring it in later in the week when the more experienced mechanics were in. One of them had been working with bikes for a full 8 years! I decided I would cut my losses as I felt I would just end up going round in circles with Go Outdoors and to be honest my confidence in the people I was dealing with wasn't so high. The other issue was that the choice of tyre they had in was quite small and I really wanted to fit a more puncture resistant tyre.

I took the wheel to my LBS (Bicycle Smithy in Hazel Grove) and he says the bead hasn't been pushed into the rim correctly when it was fitted by the mechanic at Go Outdoors he showed me the line of wear along the tyre where it had been rubbing on the rim. He reckons this is partly due to the poor quality rim rape used. The wheel bearing nuts were also completely loose (despite these being checked and serviced three weeks earlier)

Anyway he replaced the tyre with a more durable tyre which he recommended for the riding I do so I will see what happens now.

Just debating whether to get on touch with Go Outdoors or just let things lie for now. It may be better to keep them sweet in case of future warranty claims. Not decided yet.

LimitedGarry

Fitting a bead? How do you even eff that up? Serious question. Fitting tires is something I could do literally when i was 13 years old.

Happy Jack

It does all seem a bit strange but I will see how I go on. Hopefully the matter is put to bed now.

swod1

LimitedGarry wrote:

Fitting a bead? How do you even eff that up? Serious question. Fitting tires is something I could do literally when i was 13 years old.

yes it is straight forward but some tyres just don't go on properly first time and you have to inflate them a little and work the tyre on the wheel otherwise your wheel will look buckled.

LimitedGarry

If you're getting a bad spot, it's imho a problem with the bead. Wonder if a warranty would cover that. Of course, you'd probably need to catch that prior to the sidewall getting cut. I've got 29" TLR Ardents and they're tighter than let's not say what. After inflating them, some more wiggling was required to get everything to "pop". If the bike shop didn't check that, it's neglect level 9000. As long as we're not talking about a bad tire.

I know that it's a common problem with OEM and cheap Contis - beads not seating properly. But it's down to poor quality.
Also, I thought that wrongly seated bead makes the whole wheel kinda wobbly or jumpy. Or at least something that would be apparent to the rider.

I don't know. This whole thing just seems fishy to me. Especially since it happened twice on two different tires. Anyways, at least I'm reminded why I don't skim on tires.

Happy Jack

I went out tonight for the first time with the new tyre (Schwalbe Marathon Plus MTB) and I have to admit the bike feels tighter and smoother then before. It is certainly quieter somehow.
I don't really know enough about bikes to really make any comments so time will tell

Happy Jack

There have been other issues with the rear end ...

On the 8 week safety check

Bearings needed servicing. They were full of water
Rear brake fluid was replaced but then it was found out that the brake pads had completely worn which seemed very odd after 200 miles or so
Rear gears weren't working very well and it took sometime to get them right
Plus the first tyre split the day it went in

Is there a connection somewhere?

ade555

My best advice would be to learn how to service your bike your self, plenty youtube video about also lot of information on here or just ask question if you still not sure, in all honesty is very easy and there is nothing complicated on there, this well could be that your bike hasn't been put together right or had the required time spend getting that bike ready for you, so some components could come lose, all can be easy managed and checked by your self. Pads are ware and tear so can't give you idea how long they should last, gears needs to be adjusted and after few weeks I would say they need it done again due to cable streach.