Cut in sidewall - is the tyre dead?

lakesluddite
lakesluddite Posts: 1,337
edited June 2019 in Workshop
About 1km from the end of a local sprint triathlon, I turned a shallow corner and all of a sudden the loud whoosh of quickly escaping air was soon followed by steady braking and trying to keep the offending front wheel straight enough to avoid a crash. Then followed a 1km run back to transition.

So on inspection the next day, I found that not only the tube had a 2mm cut, but the tyre had a corresponding cut in the sidewall, a little larger at about 4-5mm. So I decided to try and patch over the cut to the tyre from the inside, with a small piece of inner tube - which has indeed stopped the replacement inner tube 'herniating' out of the tyre, but the pressure is still causing the split to bulge out.

So the question is..is it beyond repair - and if not, what is the best thing to do? I can't think of anything else other than the patch on the inside.

Thanks.

Comments

  • gabriel959
    gabriel959 Posts: 4,227
    Bin it, for your safety.
    x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
    Commuting / Winter rides - Jamis Renegade Expert
    Pootling / Offroad - All-City Macho Man Disc
    Fast rides Cannondale SuperSix Ultegra
  • orlok
    orlok Posts: 89
    Yes, recycle bin it.!
    There will be always a moment of tailwind.Pinarello F8/10 - Ultegra 8000 Di2 - Carbonspeed C50 UST - Tubeless
  • Matthewfalle
    Matthewfalle Posts: 17,380
    dead we are afraid......

    #timeforanewone
    Postby team47b » Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:53 am

    De Sisti wrote:
    This is one of the silliest threads I've come across. :lol:

    Recognition at last Matthew, well done!, a justified honour :D
    smithy21 wrote:

    He's right you know.
  • lakesluddite
    lakesluddite Posts: 1,337
    Cheers peeps. As I suspected. Ah well, I was intending to go tubeless on this bike sometime, so I’ll just have to do it sooner rather than later - would have preferred to get more than 100k out of them though!
  • Alejandrosdog
    Alejandrosdog Posts: 1,975
    i live in a place with lots of flint, side wall cuts can happen anytime. I use the the park plastic repair patches and theyre fine. The first one i used was a get home exercise but for one reason or another i couldnt be bothered to change it straight away and it was fine.

    Now i dont chuck a tyre thats not otherwise worn out or close to it. It doesnt appear to have any impact on tyre feel or grip.
  • mugensi
    mugensi Posts: 559
    LakesLuddite wrote:
    .

    So the question is..is it beyond repair - and if not, what is the best thing to do? I can't think of anything else other than the patch on the inside.

    Thanks.

    Bin it or put it on the rear as a temporary measure until you get a new tyre. If you have a wheel for a turbo trainer then you could possibly use it on it but I wouldn't use it on the road and especially not on the front.
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    for me - it depends - I use tyres with cuts in - on wheels/bikes that don't matter so much if I puncture - so not on the best bike and not on the TT bike - 4-5mm isn't a huge cut and a tyre boot may give you a good few more miles out of it - I would only run it on the back though (flats are less critical, but more of a pain to fix).
    I'd also look at where the cut is - away from the tread means it's less prone - then you need to keep an eye on the spread - it's not going to get any better, just bigger ...

    One thing I found with my more permanent fix - is that the edges of the patch rub through the inner tube over time - so you end up getting slow punctures - at which point I ditch the tyre!
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Slowbike wrote:
    for me - it depends - One thing I found with my more permanent fix - is that the edges of the patch rub through the inner tube over time - so you end up getting slow punctures - at which point I ditch the tyre!

    2 years ago I had 2 sidewall cuts in virtually new tyres within a couple of months. Dry roads in the middle of summer. Utterly random. I went through all the repair possibilities / materials / adhesives but none of them stopped the cuts bulging. And like you, I found that a Park tyre boot left in place for any time started to wear holes in the inner tube and led to more punctures.

    So suppressing my inner Yorkshireman, with a heavy heart they went in the bin. Looking at the bigger picture I've had decades of cycling without any sidewall failures. Maybe Pro 4 SCs were just too fragile for these crap-strewn lanes? I did notice as I binned a worn out GP4S a couple of weeks ago it also had weathered numerous sidewall abrasions.
  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    keef66 wrote:
    So suppressing my inner Yorkshireman, with a heavy heart they went in the bin. Looking at the bigger picture I've had decades of cycling without any sidewall failures. Maybe Pro 4 SCs were just too fragile for these crap-strewn lanes? I did notice as I binned a worn out GP4S a couple of weeks ago it also had weathered numerous sidewall abrasions.
    Like you - I hate wasting money - throwing away something that has a good few rides left in it ... ;)

    Mine were GP4seasons ... or the GP4000s ...

    I think it's more the case of the stuff on the road is a bit tougher than the tyre ... probably not helped by the fact that I run 23 tyres - obviously at higher pressure - and we all know it's easier to punch a hole in something held taught over something held loosely ... another reason to go wider/lower pressure?

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