Sidewall Blowout

[kerrfunk]

Yes, it happened.
Fortunately it didn't happen while riding.

My buddies and I planned a longer 100-200 mile ride today.

Enjoyed breakfast, had a nice route picked out, gonna hit the Delaware River.

Not everything went as planned.

Barry (GW) picked up a nail in his back tire somewhere along the way, so we stopped at a guy's house along the road. The guy had four HD's in his stable (plus a Stingray) and an air compressor. He noted that it's always good to ride with an HD because they carry tools because their bikes need fixing

So Rusty (HD) patches Barry's tire with some tire patch goo, we pump up with the local guy's compressor, and hit the road.

About five miles later, Barry has no air in his back tire, and this time we're at the side of the road.

Fortunately Rusty also has a bicycle pump, and a different kind of tire patch goo.

We hand-pumped it up to 27 pounds, and then were able to ride slow to a gas station and pump it up to 45 again.
Next station we topped it off and this happened.

I was in the gas station when it happened, but Rusty, who is deaf, heard the pop.

Thank goodness it happened at the station.

And thank goodness for AAA.

 

[chuck hahn]

Glad that happened while stationary ..I must say that in over 30 years of cycling and being involved in cycles in one form or the other thats the first sidewall explosion i have heard of or seen..that would have SUCKED BAD had he been doing 60 or so!!!!

 

[SqDancerLynn1]

That's from riding on a flat tire

 

[earlfor]

Every motorcycle tire I have seen has been stamped with a maximum recommended air pressure of 42psi when hot. That would be around 38 psi cold. 45 psi cold would likely result in about 50 psi once warmed up and that is too much.

Earl

 

[TheCafeKid]

Goldwing tires are pretty specialized. Those are some heavy heavy bikes and require tires that can handle the weight. And from the looks of that is it possible that an apparently common problem on goldwings occured? For whatever reason wings tend to develop bubbles on the sidewall of the tire and then become large enough to smack the swingarm as they pass by. Dunno why it happens, but I've ridden with wingers enough to have seen it happen quite a few times. In the last three years I've attended a wing gathering down in west va. At least one wing has had this problem crop up.

 

[earlfor]

Goldwing tires are pretty specialized. Those are some heavy heavy bikes and require tires that can handle the weight. And from the looks of that is it possible that an apparently common problem on goldwings occured? For whatever reason wings tend to develop bubbles on the sidewall of the tire and then become large enough to smack the swingarm as they pass by. Dunno why it happens, but I've ridden with wingers enough to have seen it happen quite a few times. In the last three years I've attended a wing gathering down in west va. At least one wing has had this problem crop up.

That would tend to keep me off a Goldwing. Blowouts on motorcycles are not funny.

Earl

 

[kerrfunk]

I think Lynn hit the nail on the head, actually.

1) The tire was getting old. Barry was going to be replacing it within a few weeks.
2) It had been run on about 5 miles at 25 PSI -- really stressing the walls. We didn't get too fast on it, but that tire got a workout.
3) The puncture precipitated everything.

 

[Guest]

Part of a former job was diagnosing tire failures.

The photo doesn't provide enough detail to really tell what happened. Were the tire cords broken under the torn area?

If the tire was run flat, that might have damaged the sidewall enough to cause the problem. Perhaps this happened when the tire flattened after the first, failed attempt at patching.

Running the tire 5 miles at 25 psi would not cause a sidewall blowout. The tire would get warmer than desired, but not dangerously so. The sidewall could be pushed out far so that something sharp on the road could damage it.

42 psig isn't nearly enough to cause a blowout, even after the tire warms up. Tire companies test that. 142 psig might do it.

 

[gregr]

My friends that ride 'Wings tell me that Elite III's seem to eliminate the sidewall bubbling problem. I have no experience with them so that is strictly second hand.

 

[BentRod]

send the photo to Honda and dunlop with a little note saying something along the lines of

"You call this Engineering?"
or
"Is this really the best you can do?"

Cause a stir in the ol'pot

 

[makenzie71]

That's from riding on a flat tire

Are we the only ones who saw that? If I let all the air out of my BT010R and ride around for half an hour the same thing will happen.

 

[Steve]

Every motorcycle tire I have seen has been stamped with a maximum recommended air pressure of 42psi when hot. That would be around 38 psi cold. 45 psi cold would likely result in about 50 psi once warmed up and that is too much.

I have never seen that it was a "hot" pressure limit.

I have always seen that it was the maximum COLD pressure and it did not matter what it got to when it was heated. :-k

My friends that ride 'Wings tell me that Elite III's seem to eliminate the sidewall bubbling problem. I have no experience with them so that is strictly second hand.

I would say that I have ridden with a few Wings over the years, and I must say that I have seen more bubbles at the edge of the tread due to belt separation than I have on the sidewalls.

I had one on the sidewall myself, back in 1983, that put us down on I-40, just east of Knoxville, Tennessee. It was rubbing on the swingarm and finnaly broke through. I was on my way to a tire shop whose owner was going to open it for me to get a new tire. Never made it there.

By the way, although the Dunlop E3s may have elimated the sidwall bubbling problem, they are certainly masters at sawtoothing the thread. After just a few thousand miles, they make enough noise to make you think you are in Bubba's truck with the Monster Mudder tires.
You are now thinking, "OK, after a few thousand miles, there's not much life left, so they will be changed soon". WRONG. I had three sets of E3s on my Wing. They went between 20,000 and 23,000 miles on each set. The set that went 'only' 20,000 would have gone longer, but I was leaving for a month-long work assignment, during which it is not uncommon for me to put on 4-5,000 miles, so I changed them early.

.