RE: Bridgestone tires Something to keep an eye on...

[Gorminrider]

...surfing around I saw this,per BT45s and cold weather.... hopefully just a bad tire in a million, because it's odd that there hasn't been a rash of complaints. The OP WAS running a rear tire on front .
That said, apparently the company's response (something about not guaranteeing tires in freezing temps) has got riders quite animated ...

http://www.ironbutt.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8226

http://www.klr650.net/forums/showthread.php?t=110552

anyways, something to monitor and see if it pans out to a real problem, before you buy new tires

[Wayne]

Oops ! Just picked up a new set of BT45's within the last hour. Fortunately, Sydney in Australia is typically never less than about 40 degrees F.

Interesting though.........

[bwringer]

Yeah, this guy is lighting up the intarwebs.

The lack of response from Bridgestone is the worrying part. I think everyone understands that sometimes Stuff Happens with any manufactured goods, but it's just plain ludicrous to claim that their tires can't withstand mere exposure to temperatures below freezing.

An appropriate response would have been "We have no idea what happened. Here's a new tire -- please send the old tire to our laboratory".

I've worn out four sets of expensive Bridgestones on my V-Strom, quite often riding in temps well below freezing, and I've never seen anything like this. I've worked on racebikes in bone-chilling cold, and never once have I seen a tire get brittle and crack like this. That statement about cold is the purest BS.

All I can imagine is that maybe the OP just happened to spill a large container of liquid nitrogen in his garage and then tried to move the bike out of the puddle. And then just happened to forget all about the incident...

[Crankthat]

I have never seen that before!
The response from bridge stone is very non professional.
I run the Bt 45 all year long.
I had a year when all I had was a bike with the bt 45s to commute 45 min each way in temps below freezing.
I have never seen even the smallest crack, and I love my throttle.
I wonder if it is because he had the rear on the front?
There are many things not right with this, wonder what bridge stones position will be now that this is making the rounds on all the motor sites?

[LarryJ]

What BS! This will keep me off bridgestones!

[GregT]

It's odd all right - but I suspect any of the tyre companies responses would have been the same.
The point raised re the OP using a rear on the front is a good one - was he doing this because of carrying heavier loads ?
The ST honda fully loaded would be coming close to the top load limits of the BT45's surely ? Is this a partial explanation for the cracking ? How long had it been cracked ?

[sedelen]

It was a good thing he checked them before his ride as it surely was an accident waiting to happen.
Can't believe Bridgestone "dissed" him, just blew him off.
They should've sent a replacement tire out immediately.
Didn't Bridgestone buy Firestone? and wasn't Firestone the one with all those blow-outs on the Ford explorers some years back?

I've had Bridgestones in the past, and with a name like Bridgestone you'd think it was British, but was Japanese. They were good tires, but I neve drove them in freezing weather. These came standard on my Honda
65 supersport.
Bridgestone made motorcycles also, they were popular in my neighborhood, all two strokers up to the 350cc.

[Gorminrider]

The tire was fairly new. I did a quick scan and haven't found itthe lot number or date of the BT45s in question so:
Severe cracking found.."couple weeks ago while checking....tire was less than 6 months old and had a 2012 manufacture date" so, given date of the original post I read (22 March 2013) , I'd guess the tires
concerned were manufactured near 3rd week of October,2012 ...?
so date code would be near to ...4312 (43 being the week number)

added:someone has posted a guess at size as "130/70 18 63H"

[cableguy]

It was a good thing he checked them before his ride as it surely was an accident waiting to happen.
Can't believe Bridgestone "dissed" him, just blew him off.
They should've sent a replacement tire out immediately.
Didn't Bridgestone buy Firestone? and wasn't Firestone the one with all those blow-outs on the Ford explorers some years back?

I've had Bridgestones in the past, and with a name like Bridgestone you'd think it was British, but was Japanese. They were good tires, but I neve drove them in freezing weather. These came standard on my Honda
65 supersport.
Bridgestone made motorcycles also, they were popular in my neighborhood, all two strokers up to the 350cc.

The tire blowouts were from under inflated tires per Ford's specs. They were going for soft ride to try to compensate for being behind in suspension design, so they spec'd something ridiculous like 24 psi and that was mostly OK until you had a carload of people, and/or hot temps. Firestone got the short of that deal just because they had the OE contract. Any other tire would have been the same.

[themess]

Unless the owner of the tires did something really strange, the tire has a severe manufacturing defect.The cracks radiate out from one spot. The most likely cause is the combination of using the wrong rubber compound for the sidewall, combined with some combination of incorrect ingredients and/or poor mixing in the rubber compound. The testing for these defects is routine.

The purported response is a travesty. Any regular tire dealer would take the tires back and give a full refund. That is exactly the sort of tire that any tire manufacturer wants to get back and analyzed. They need to know which factory screwed up and when. It is important to use the other codes that are molded into the sidewall, that tell not only the manufacturing date, but also the factory, and often provide more detailed information that can be used to learn more about where in the factory the problem came.

The claim that tires are not warranted in below freezing temperatures is absurd. I can't imagine that the DOT would permit such tires to be sold in the US for street use.

Either Bridgestone is completely screwed up, of the author of the messages isn't telling all of the relevant details.

++++

Bridgestone bought Firestone in February or March of 1988. The problem tires were made in their Decatur, IL factory. Almost all of the blow outs came on the left rear (if I remember correctly) position. The same tires worked well on every other SUV, and other brands of tires worked well on Explorers. Again, if I recall correctly, Ford moved the wheels a slight bit further apart in the next generation of Explorers, and the problem ended. Air pressures had been set low for a softer ride. Blame part of than on the generally crappy condition of American roads.

The problem was still quite rare, the sort of thing that no testing regime discovers, short of selling millions of tires. Firestone eventually claimed that they had found something that might be the cause, but it was never made public as far as I know. I have been a member of a team or two trying to figure out causes for various tire problems, including one at the Decatur, IL plant. The final reports are often smoke and mirrors. At least when I was still in the tire industry, we just weren't able to find all of the causes.