Bike tires
Nov. 24th, 2007 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnridleyOdometer: 12343 miles
I put the Nokian Hakkipeliittas (studded tires) on today. I got a rude surprise; the rear tire I was taking off was in HORRIBLE shape. The tread is separating in at least a half dozen places around the tire.
I was about to get all uppity about this, because it doesn't seem like I've had these tires that long, but looking back, I bought these tires on April 1 of 2006, at 5250 miles. That means I got about 7100 miles out of it, so I guess I can't complain a whole lot. From the looks of it though I should have taken it off probably 1000 miles ago.
The tire that was on the front still seems OK. I'll probably put it back on in the spring, but I'm going to keep an eye on it; the manner that the rear tire failed in sort of looks like there may be some issue with the bonding of the tread to the belts. There are several places where I can pinch the tread area with my fingers and pull it up and away from the belts. The rear also has several gashes on it, which surprised me. I didn't think I had a lot of road hazards, but clearly this tire has saved me from at least a couple of serious flats.
I picked up a cruddy gumwall tire from Nashbar closeouts last time I ordered from them, for $3, just as an emergency replacement; I bought these tires even though they weren't what I wanted, because I had a wear-through and I NEEDED new tires that evening. I'll start looking for tire sales online. I think this time I'm going to look for a Schwalbe marathon; lots of commuters seem to like that.
One of the studded tires is missing about 8 or 10 studs (out of 96), so it's going on the back. I guess I'll probably need a new studded tire by next year. Schwalbe has a new winter commuter tire out that may be worth investigating. The problem is, there are only about 3 or 4 studded tires on the market per size, they're all made in Europe, and they each only import a couple hundred pairs into the US per year. I know I can get a replacement Nokian, not sure about the Schwalbe; apparently they only imported 70 pair this year.
I put the Nokian Hakkipeliittas (studded tires) on today. I got a rude surprise; the rear tire I was taking off was in HORRIBLE shape. The tread is separating in at least a half dozen places around the tire.
I was about to get all uppity about this, because it doesn't seem like I've had these tires that long, but looking back, I bought these tires on April 1 of 2006, at 5250 miles. That means I got about 7100 miles out of it, so I guess I can't complain a whole lot. From the looks of it though I should have taken it off probably 1000 miles ago.
The tire that was on the front still seems OK. I'll probably put it back on in the spring, but I'm going to keep an eye on it; the manner that the rear tire failed in sort of looks like there may be some issue with the bonding of the tread to the belts. There are several places where I can pinch the tread area with my fingers and pull it up and away from the belts. The rear also has several gashes on it, which surprised me. I didn't think I had a lot of road hazards, but clearly this tire has saved me from at least a couple of serious flats.
I picked up a cruddy gumwall tire from Nashbar closeouts last time I ordered from them, for $3, just as an emergency replacement; I bought these tires even though they weren't what I wanted, because I had a wear-through and I NEEDED new tires that evening. I'll start looking for tire sales online. I think this time I'm going to look for a Schwalbe marathon; lots of commuters seem to like that.
One of the studded tires is missing about 8 or 10 studs (out of 96), so it's going on the back. I guess I'll probably need a new studded tire by next year. Schwalbe has a new winter commuter tire out that may be worth investigating. The problem is, there are only about 3 or 4 studded tires on the market per size, they're all made in Europe, and they each only import a couple hundred pairs into the US per year. I know I can get a replacement Nokian, not sure about the Schwalbe; apparently they only imported 70 pair this year.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-24 11:40 pm (UTC)It's still an unusual failure. Usually, you either kill tires, have the sidewalls fail, or just plain wear the tread rubber off. 7K miles, however, is a goodly amount of miles, given how little rubber is involved -- esp. if you're riding slicks, and IIRC, you had the Bontanger Race Lites, right?
no subject
Date: 2007-11-25 03:22 am (UTC)http://www.hauntedfrog.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=4965
After looking at it, what happened is that it seems like there are a HECK of a lot of little slashes, way more than I got on my cheap Kendas. Everywhere there was a slash, the center rubber had separated from the belts for an inch or three. More than half the tire was affected. It's also possible that the separation happened first and the slashes were due to the rubber bunching up as the tire rolled.
I've changed my mind about it; I'm buying a pair of Marathon Plus tires, and saving the non-destroyed Race Lite as an emergency backup tire.
Here's a photo. Dunno if you can tell but there's a slash at the left side of that bubbling. The slashes all seemed to happen at the same end of the bubbling.
If you zoom in to full size on some of the photos you can get an idea of how truly rough some of the rubber looks. You can also probably recreate my fingerprints :-/