fishboy_chris

Hi Everyone,

I just got home from riding and found this bulge/tear in the rear tire of my city bicycle. I bought it a bit over a week ago at a flea market, and though everything seemed fine I had it checked out the LBS across the street 2/3 days later. They charged me 25 euros for an inspection, said everything was fine, and now I've got the following issue.

Is there any chance that I can fix or patch the tire, or should I just get a new one? Can I try to reuse the same tube? It's still got plenty of pressure, regardless.

I'm a bit worried about changing it myself because I've got a internal 7-speed shimano hub with a coaster brake on the rear wheel, and I'm sure that I'll have to remove the gear change cable if I need to change the rear tire. I looked up some information on the hubs, but there wasn't a guide to removing the gear shift cable.

Any help would be appreciated!

See the attached picture!
Chris

jimc101

That tire needs to be replaced, no chance any repair could save it; would be looking for a new LBS, as they should have picked up that the tire was worn out, as seen by the cracks in the rubber, which would have been there long before the tear.

Not sure what the pictures of the Peugot are for, as we can't see any details of the hub you have, if it's Shimano, it will have a name / number printed on it, google this, and you will find instructions on-line for it.

fishboy_chris

Thanks for the reply, I will probably look for another place. This one's convenient because it's just across the street from my house. I wanted to upload pictures of the peugeot for another thread, and I couldn't figure out how to get the off of my initial post.

LeeG

That tire is toast

FBinNY 

I wouldn't automatically blame the shop. This kind of damage can often appear very suddenly in an old tire. The tire might have been old and dried but necessarily to where it was obvious, and the tearing happening only after hitting a sharp bump like a pot hole.

Also, put yourself in the shop's position. If during the inspection they suspected that the tire was near the end of it's service life, and told you you needed a new tire, or maybe two - since odds are the other is similarly brittle - you might felt they were hijacking you for more dough on an unnecessary repair. Since it wasn't a safety issue, they might have felt the best thing is to take a wait and see approach.

It would be different if you had the inspection done before buying, or as a prelude to a long tour, but as it is, I'd give the shop credit or at least the benefit of the doubt for erring on the side of trying to save you money. As it is you're now no worse off than if they told you you needed tires 3 days ago.

Kimmo 

To be fair to the shop, that failure isn't something that can easily be predicted.

Plenty of tyres with such perished rubber are perfectly okay to use; to say you definitely needed new ones would've been verging on a hard sell, IMO. I'd actually consider that a definite plus for the shop, if they turn out to be competent.

If it was me, I'd have said the tyres might be alright, but possibly not. I guess this failure is a result of the bike sitting on a flat for long enough to permanently crease the plies.

The condition of the rubber doesn't say much about the important part of the tyre - the carcass.

Edit: Hah - FB beat me to it. Great minds ; )

fishboy_chris

Ok, that's a very good point, I wasn't sure how obvious that kind of old tire damage would have been a few days ago, and I did put in a lot of riding the last few days (about 50 km) while I'm waiting for delivery of an adjustable stem for the peugeot above.
The bike was pretty cheap (for German standards, certainly). It's about 10 years old, an "Alu-Steel" frame city bike from Hercules, called "Airliner". The tires are certainly on the older side, though the front looks better than the rear. I guess I'll just change out the rear and keep an eye on the front tire as well.
Thanks for the advice!

Kimmo 

What's with the Peugot?

lungimsam

I, for one, am glad you posted the Peugeot pics. That is one sweet looking Peugeot!! Do you know the year it was made?
Definitely replace the tire. Its gonna blow-out any moment now, and you don't wana be on the bike when she blows.

fishboy_chris

The peugeot is a 98 or 99 Cyclocross Competition . . . Columbus thron tubes and shimano rsx 14 speed components. The cantilevers aren't that great, so I might replace them with standard road bike brakes at some point. I'll add a few more pictures of it here. It rides really nicely :-)

lungimsam

Looks great. Thanks for the pics!! I saw a white Peugeot last year and ever since, I have been into their looks. For some reason they look better to me than the usual traditional style road bikes.

Makeitso

If I were you I'd put the new tire on the front and the current front tire move it to the back. I want my best tire on the front.

Kimmo 

Good call.

Wolfwerx

If you can, replace both tires and be done with it. No sense in waiting/wondering when that front tire is going to follow the rear.

Jed19

Agree with FB that this is most likely what happened. I once bought four Continental car tires at a great price, only to find that they developed bulges/lumps on the sides after about a month of use. Contacted Continental, was told the tires were manufactured a long time ago and stored improperly. They gave me brand new tires, and was told they were going to "fire" the store that sold me the tires. Apparently, rubber/tires has to be stored in certain specific ways.

Homebrew01

Yes

If you decide to replace the front tire, and it still seems fine, you could keep it for a spare in case you need a tire and all the shops are closed