Tyre blow-out, on my R1100RT, not the Commando!

Hi all,
I recently had a rear tyre blow-out on my R1100RT.
I was in lane 3 of the M3 between junction 5 and 6, travelling at 70mph and suddenly heard a loud bang, there were no control issues, in fact I first thought it was mechanical, (thrown a rod for instance!) there was some vibration and being in the outside lane all I had to do was move to my right a few feet onto the little bit of hard shoulder on that side. What I found was a hole in the rear tyre about 4 inches in size, not a "hole" as such but 3 cuts radiating outwards from the centre of the tread area with lots of broken wire strands sticking out and 3 flaps of tread flapping Immediate thoughts were that i'd run over something but I don't think that's likely, partly because I think I would have spotted it and steered around it and if I hadn't I would have probably gone over it with the front first!
Carole Nash were excellent and recovered me whithin an hour or so and got me to a local tyre company who fitted a new tyre.
The tyre was an Avon Storm, been on there for around four years, done around 3000 miles, tread was still very good and i'd checked pressure the day before as I was doing a journey from Kent to Exeter.
I had Puncturesafe in there, installed it soon after I fitted the tyre.
When I inspected the inside of the tyre I found that in the area surrounding the damage the rubber was very "soft and squidgy", i'm wondering whether because the bike was unused for the first few months of this year could the Puncturesafe, laying in a pool at the bottom of the tyre have caused some degraging of the rubber?
The only other thing I can think of is whether I had got a puncture at some time which the Puncturesafe had sealed and had left a weakness which now caused the failure?
Any comments most welcome and apologies for this long post.
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Is there not also an issue with tyres being left in one position on concrete floors?

I've been using Avon Storm sport touring series tires on my 748 for a long time, lost track of how many sets. I like them a lot. Only had one flat, a fairly slow leaking rear puncture. I never liked the idea of the internal puncture sealing goop and have never used any. Avon has good technical support, and I suspect they would be rather interested in what you found.

I can’t help you Dave other to second pantah_good in the contacting Avon is something I’d do.

But my Main comment is to say “you lucky, lucky bast***”! I know it probably didn’t feel very lucky at the time, but to suffer a blow out in the fast lane of a UK motorway could easily have much worse.

A friend of my Dad’s suffered a blow out on the motorway whilst he was two-up with the wife. They were both hospitalised and he sold up his biking stuff after that for good.

I had a simlar thing happen to my rear tyre on my Thruxton last year when traveling to Bundaberg 400 ks from home I was crossing a river on a bridge I hit a expanction gap that had a metal peice in the joint the front tyre hit hard but the back tyre hit harder with a big bang but the tyre didn't go flat I was about 50 ks from my distanation, the back of my bike was fully loaded with my saddle bags and another bag on top of it, I made it to just around the corner from my friends place when the tyre went flat, my tyre was on its last legs anyway but I made it there, had to catch a bus with the rear wheel after the weekend to get it fixed, while the shop was fixing it my mate and me went to the pub for a few beers they phoned me up to tell me the tyre was stuffed and need a new one but it had to be order from Brisbane over 400ks.
What they found was 2 slits one on each side of the tyre where it , must have hit the expantion joint and inside the same spot is where the damge was done broken wire belt that caused the tyre to go flat, at some stage in your tyre life could have had some damage with a big hit on something or it happened when it blew as what gook you put in your tyre would not have caused it to blow and damage the steel belts inside the rubber, I was also sitting on 120 ks when this happened, I have had a few rear tyre blow outs in my life time of riding and all ended up safely.

Ashley

I had a blowout on the left rear of my AC Ace coming up I5 at about 60 mph. First thing was it scared the jeebies out of me because the wheel is inches away from your arm resting on the door. It went off with a real boom. Second was the chuckle I had a bit later.As I pulled over there was a guy with a flat stopped in the same spot. He was just popping his trunk to get his spare. I pulled over, jumped out, keyed the boot open, got the scissor jack and handle, hammer, and spare. In about two minutes, I had the spare on and the stuff back in the boot. The guy up ahead was amazed as he had not even gotten his spare out as I drove away. Love that British machinery.
In actuality, the car was so light you that you could drive it quite easily even with no air in any of the tires.

My experience some years ago may be beneficial to some here...?
I was riding my Suzuki 850GN (shafty) back home from Easter Bathurst races - some 1700km
About 400km from home, at dusk, I hit something on the road (near Thangool) that I didn't see that slammed the front wheel pretty hard but seemed to feel/handle OK afterward.
I stopped at the next town (Biloela) to inspect under lights and have some dinner - couldn't see any damage
Started north again after about 1/2 hour - only got about 30km uptake road when things felt a bit "funny"
The bars didn't feel quite as steady as usual to the extent I could move them left/right a bit without effect
I was worried and buttoned off to coast to a stop when "BANG", the front tyre came off the rim and up over the headlight
The next 30sec felt like ages in slow motion as, without control, I left the road, went between a few trees then, miraculously, back on the road
I remember aluminium spraying up from the wheel turned to full lock before I finally fell over at only about 30-40km/hr
I was shaking like jelly and considering how lucky I was to came out of that

To sum up - inspection showed the impact had fractured the front tyre cross-wise so it pinched the tube
The Suzuki wheels were made with grooves to hold the beads in place - which they did marvellously - until the tyre got hot/soft enough to come off
The stupid rider just didn't react to the signals fast enough - I know now though!
I've had 2 or 3 rear flats while riding - simply a bit of a walz up the road - not nearly as exciting/scary as a front flat
Hope this waffle helps at least one rider avoid a front flat disaster
Cheers
Rob

Many thanks for all the replies chaps, I will contact Avon technical just to see what their thoughts are,

regards,
Dave Parry

Check the born-on date of the blown tire. You said it had been on there for four years. If the tire was more than a year old when you mounted it, it could have outlived it's useful life, which is normally about 5 years. I just replaced a tire on a Kaw Concours 1000 that should never have been sold and mounted. Although it had very little mileage (same as the rear which was replaced at the same time) but was totally shot and getting to the point of being dangerous.

Another thing to consider; when bike tires approach the point of needing replacement, they can look ok but deteriorate very quickly. Older tires go to hell at an even faster rate.

In the RV world, where vehicles don't get out much, the advice is to change tires at 7 years. Our RV only covered 5600 miles in the 4 years we owned it. It had done 12,000 from new in 8 years with the original owner. I changed all 6 road tires on the way home after picking it up. It still had the OEM Good-for-a-Year tire on the spare wheel, but it had never touched the street and we never needed it.

Danno said:

Check the born-on date of the blown tire. You said it had been on there for four years. If the tire was more than a year old when you mounted it, it could have outlived it's useful life, which is normally about 5 years. I just replaced a tire on a Kaw Concours 1000 that should never have been sold and mounted. Although it had very little mileage (same as the rear which was replaced at the same time) but was totally shot and getting to the point of being dangerous.

Another thing to consider; when bike tires approach the point of needing replacement, they can look ok but deteriorate very quickly. Older tires go to hell at an even faster rate.

Click to expand...

Yes Danno, the date stamp on that tyre was 2010, so it was seven years old although I only bought and fitted it four years ago. I will always check the dates on new tyres in future!

I replaced the front tyre yesterday, had a good look inside the old one for any signs of damage but all looks fine so I can't blame the Puncturesafe for causing any deterioration of the rubber in the recently blown-out rear one.
There is still the possibility of course that there had been a puncture in the past which had been sealed by the Puncturesafe which then failed so I won't be using it again.
Thanks for all your replies chaps.