Miele Man

Hello there.

I was riding the other day and noticed what felt like a light thumping on my rear tire. I rode again tonight and noticed that the wheel was dragging at one spot when I was walking the bike along the hallway. I thought it was a brake pad rubbing on an out of true wheel but it wasn't that. It's a side-to-side deflection on the tire. Here are two images of it. ANy idea as to what would cause this?




Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks and cheers

darkhorse75

The carcass the tire has been compromised in some way causing the bulge. Bin it before it explodes.

DOS

A hard hit on a curb or other bump. Time for a new tire

Miele Man

Yes sirs. I know the tire is toast. I'll be cutting it in half before tossing it. I do that to all scrap tires so that some unsuspecting person doesn't try to use it. We used to taco damaged wheels at one of the shops I worked at and we also cut damaged tires so they couldn't be used. There are a surprising number of people who scavenge the garbage at bicycle shops in the hope that they'll find something useful. Unfortunately many of those scavengers don't know what to look for to be sure an item is safe to use. I figure if it's in the garbage it's there for a pretty good reason.

Cheers

dsbrantjr

I work in the electronics industry and do the same thing with bad cables, cut off the ends or crush the connectors. It is surprising how many times people will take something out of the trash and try to put it back to use; it never seems to occur to them that it is there for a reason.

Miele Man

Or they don't have the money to buy the item and hope they can scrounge something to make do with. One bike shop that I know of here in town also destroys unwanted stuff so it can't be taken from the garbage and used. They do that to avoid potential lawsuits in case someone has an accident with a scrounged item.

Cheers

Cheers

Eric S.

I call this tire affliction "the dreaded S-bulge". Happened to me once at mile 80 of a century on relatively new tires. Made it the final 20 miles and finished with the cords starting to show.

mpetry912 

yes, the cords in the casing have broken / sheared off. Early Grand Bois tires which were very nice would develop a bulge after about 500 miles.

Mark Petry
Bainbridge Island, WA USA

KraneXL

On the other hand, they likely evoke the old adage: "one man's trash, is another man's treasure."

Miele Man

Or "One man's garbage is another man's salvage and accident waiting to happen". LOL VBEG

Cheers

TakingMyTime

I've had the same thing happen with Performance Forte tires that were virtually brand new. There were the cheapest tires I could buy at the time and I guess they proved it.

Homebrew01

I have a brand new Vittoria tubular with the same problem
It's my spare.

Ronsonic 

I like when someone brings in something for repair and the power cord is cut off and the fuse cap missing. "Oh, just replace the cord and the cap, I'm sure that's all that's wrong with it."

JoeKahno

I wasn't going to comment. I'm a life long, hard core, dumpster diver. What I can't get my head around is the notion that somebody would retrieve a lump of discarded technology knowing they weren't competent to evaluate or repair it, then consider paying a tech to do that for them. That's like going to an insurance auction for "total loss" vehicles, then paying a mechanic to bring it back from the dead.

thumpism 

That is my experience with friends who went to police auctions to buy their bikes. Very popular in the '70s. They'd bring them to me or to the shop I worked at and were shocked to learn what it would take to make them right. My favorite was the Falcon road bike with a fork whose steerer was held to the fork crown by one blob of braze at the front; nothing for about 300 degrees of arc around the rest of the bottom of the steerer.

JoeKahno

My last three cars were bought off the impound lot. However, I made my bids fully aware that the person most familiar with the vehicle thought it wasn't worth the storage charges. I was buying raw material, not reliable transportation.

FolderBeholder

In automotive tires thats whats known as a “broken belt”. Damage is usually the result of a hard, offset impact.

In bike tires there is typically one, thin belt and this may also be the result of an in-service impact, or even damaged initially when it was installed (folded, twisted, creased, stretched, mis-stored etc.) and now thats its gotten quite thin, the symptom is allowed to exhibit itself.

In any event, broken belt or not that tire is certainly used up and due if not overdue for replacement.

leob1

When my kids where younger, they had quite a few bikes that came home with the 'EVIDENCE' tag still attached. Of course they where all striped down and refurbished before they rode them.

Mad Honk 

Well Joe and Ronsonic,
I have been to more auctions in a university setting than I wish to recall, and I sometimes live in a junkyard world, but I still can find a bargain or two. Last week it was a wheel that needed four spokes to be reconstructed, into a usable item. What you decide to retrieve is up to you but a knowledgeable purchase works quite well. I think that a good eye in dumpster diving, and junk yard scrounging, can work to your favor. Smiles, MH

okane

Neither tire had more than 400 miles on them