On the commute in this morning I heard the dreaded gun shot. I blew out the sidewall of my Vittoria Kevlar 700x23 tire. There is a 2" tear in the side. I have about 900 miles on this tire.

I assume not, but I'll ask anyway. Are failures on road bike tires common?



p.s.
Note to self: Carry a spare tire along with your spare tube.

On the commute in this morning I heard the dreaded gun shot. I blew out the sidewall of my Vittoria Kevlar 700x23 tire. There is a 2" tear in the side. I have about 900 miles on this tire.

I assume not, but I'll ask anyway. Are failures on road bike tires common?



p.s.
Note to self: Carry a spare tire along with your spare tube.
a catastropic blowout such as this is almost always the result of an improperly installed tube that gets pinched between the rim.

Note to self: Carry a spare tire along with your spare tube.

Or, for commuting, get some brutally strong tires like Specialized Armadillos and you can pretty much leave the spare tire, and spare tube, at home...

When tires are defective, you know it right away. You put it on and it isn't round or has a bubble. I've returned tires that when mounted and remounted even on different rims with different tubes, they weren't round.

Just about anything is user error. It's most likely that you hit something or the tube was installed improperly. A tube that is twisted or pinched under the tire bead can create some nasty results.

Just about anything is user error.

Or a road hazard...

Whenever I've had a sidewall failure, it's been because of a sharp rock, the tire rubbing something on the rack or some other physical, non-defect cause. It doesn't take much to cut the sidewall on a skinny, high pressure road tire.
FWIW, I commute on bigger tires at a lower pressure, but they'll fit on bike. 23 or 25 is as big as you can go on a lot of modern frames.

a catastropic blowout such as this is almost always the result of an improperly installed tube that gets pinched between the rim.

Not sure how you figure a torn sidewall is caused by pinching the tube under the bead in mounting the tire. A torn sidewall, IME, is due to hitting some road debris that cuts through the casing. Inspecting the casing will show the cut (as opposed to the ragged edges that would result from a disintegrated casing).

If you have not touched the tire recently (such as replacing the tube) it's a good chance, as Cory said, you hit something with your sidewall and damaged it. Sidewalls are pretty fragile on racing type tires. I blew out a sidewall on a 700x23 Conti 4 Season, replaced it with another tire, then was cleaning my bike about a week later and noticed I had another small tear on the front tire ( a 4 Season). Hence, I stopped using those tires (lots of gravel and small rocks on my roads). You should consider riding with a beefier tires, such as the Conti Gatorskins. I started using 700x25 tires and I seldom have flats (knock on wood) and my rear tire lasts twice as long. I try to watch where I am going, but if you ride in the dark, you don't have that option.
Anyway-things could have been worse, so consider yourself lucky...I crashed and burned bad, four years ago, because of a blown front tire while descending. It was my fault, I hit a couple of rocks and should have slowed to check to see if I had damaged my tire....sharp rocks can do a lot of damage.....

[QUOTE=Anyway-things could have been worse, so consider yourself lucky...QUOTE]

Thanks, I consider myself very lucky. I was in a slight uphill grade between two short steep downhill sections where I hit up to 50MPH.

After further inspection this morning, it turns out I have a cracked rim. Not sure if this contributed to the blow out, but the extra close inspection due to this problem now may have saved me from great bodily injury later.

As far as the rims, they are Mavic Open Pro. I try to watch what I ride over and minimize my curb hopping. I was hoping that these rims would be a little more durable.

After further inspection this morning, it turns out I have a cracked rim.

Could you describe the rim crack? If it is a failure of the rim sidewall (like wearing through from braking) then that could cause tire failure. If it is cracked at the spoke nipples (common failure mode for rims and MAVIC rims in particular) then it didn't have anything to do with the tire sidewall blowing.

Could you describe the rim crack? If it is a failure of the rim sidewall (like wearing through from braking) then that could cause tire failure. If it is cracked at the spoke nipples (common failure mode for rims and MAVIC rims in particular) then it didn't have anything to do with the tire sidewall blowing.


I have disc brakes, so rim wearing is not an issue. Not sure where it started, but the crack is from the rim edge to the nipple hole. There is a bit of a sharp edge on the inside of the rim edge, so this may have caused abrasion to the sidewall. If I was thinking, I would have noted where the damage on the tire was, relative to the rim, for later analysis.