Bubble, bubble, tire and trouble!

[3Phase]

When I was getting ready to go for a ride up in Santa Cruz with Ed and Diver Ray I spotted what looked like a cut in the rear tire. We all assumed that I had run over something on the freeway.

When I got back home and did my post-ride inspection it actually turned out that the left-hand side of the tire appears to have been made out of Cheese Wiz. I'm returning the tire to Metzeler to let them scratch their heads over it and determine if it's a warranty issue or ... what, exactly.


Rear ME88 with bubbles and splits in the left-hand side of the tire tread. There are no bubbles or splits in the right-hand side.

Only 6,000 miles on the tire; pressure always maintained between 40 and 45 PSI; never overloaded, raced or even just ridden in circles like NASCAR; 2.5 mm to 3.9 mm of tread depth.

[natemoen]

That's weird! Glad nothing bad happened!

[3Phase]

That's weird! Glad nothing bad happened!

Thanks, Nate! Me too!

While I have the wheel off I'm checking the swingarm alignment. After I get it put back together I'll check the front to rear wheel offset/alignment/spacing to make sure it's not been dog-tailing or something equally weird.

Oddly, the tread is worn evenly, it's not worn more on the left than the right. The bike runs straight and true on the highway and I can ride mild twisties at low speed using the throttle lock and my legs like it was a giant bicycle (provided there are no stray bits of fallen tree branches in the road!), no hands on the bars. I think the alignment is good but I need to be sure so I don't ruin another tire.

[lee_dutcher]

definitely say warranty... looks like the compound in the rubber had an air pocket an popped out leaving u with cuts.....just an assumption
oh an i am also glad nothing bad happened to yea.

[GARTHXS]

Looks like it dried out prematurely did you ride through any gas or spray it with any thing by accident like wd40

[fredintoon]

Hi 3phase,
only ~6,000 miles OK but how old is it?
Tires deteriorate as they age and if it's more than 6 or so years old it's starting to lose it's elasticity.
Mind you, if Metzler will give you a new one, you are golden.

[3Phase]

Lee: Thank you!

Garth: No, I haven't ridden through or sprayed anything on the tire except rain and road oil during the ride through Washington, Canada and Oregon last summer. The rubber in the grooves just looks like microwaved Cheese Wiz on one side. Other than that, the tread and the rest of the tire is fine.

Fred: The DOT stamp says 4409 so about two years old.


It's possible the swingarm is bent but the nothing strange has ever happened to the rear tire before now.

There has always been a space between the torque plate and the swingarm, nothing has changed there since I got the bike, but after doing some searching on the site today I found a decent discussion thread with pictures:- Rear Wheel Installation


My 1980 XS1100G rear wheel, axle, collars and swingarm. There is a little parallax error in the picture, the swingarm and torque plate are actually even and not twisted.

[3Phase]

Solved

I _really_ hate to write this but I found the problem yesterday and it is 100% my fault: my tire pressure gauge was bad.

I went to the store yesterday to get a new tire pressure gauge to carry on my bike instead of the expensive gauge I've been using. The readings on the new gauge were higher than I expected so I tried several more new gauges. The new gauges all agreed that my old gauge reads 10 PSI LOW.

I wasn't keeping the tire at 40 --> 45 PSI for ~6,000 miles, I was keeping it at 50 --> 55 PSI. The ME88 is only rated for 50 PSI max and I've been overinflating the tire. Metzeler is not responsible for anything except saving me from my own stupidity by making a really good tire that can take a lot of abuse.

My old, expensive, tire pressure gauge has been replaced and it has been recalibrated with an old, inexpensive, sledgehammer so it will always read 0 PSI from now until some time shortly after the sun explodes.

[fredintoon]

Don't beat up on yorself too bad.

I _really_ hate to write this but I found the problem yesterday and it is 100% my fault: my tire pressure gauge was bad.

I went to the store yesterday to get a new tire pressure gauge to carry on my bike instead of the expensive gauge I've been using. The readings on the new gauge were higher than I expected so I tried several more new gauges. The new gauges all agreed that my old gauge reads 10 PSI LOW.

I wasn't keeping the tire at 40 --> 45 PSI for ~6,000 miles, I was keeping it at 50 --> 55 PSI. The ME88 is only rated for 50 PSI max and I've been overinflating the tire. Metzeler is not responsible for anything except saving me from my own stupidity by making a really good tire that can take a lot of abuse.

My old, expensive, tire pressure gauge has been replaced and it has been recalibrated with an old, inexpensive, sledgehammer so it will always read 0 PSI from now until some time shortly after the sun explodes.

Hi 3Phase,
it ain't your fault the gauge read 20% low, and who thinks to calibrate a pressure gauge, eh?
Alas that your sledgehammer tune-up has spoiled any hope of a warranty claim against the gauge manufacturer although perhaps the guaranteed glow of vengeance is better than the forlorn hope of a freebie gauge replacement.
FWIW, I run routinely my rear tire at 50/55 psi due to the added weight it has to carry due to the sidecar and it don't crack and bubble.
Nor should have a mere 5psi overinflation have wrecked your Metzeler.

[3Phase]

Thanks, Fred, I do feel better now.

I might have gotten away with running the tire slightly over (or under) inflated up in Canada but a couple of thousand miles last summer were out in the Mojave Desert. When the tire got hot the pressure started to separate the belts.

Now I have to go check the air pressure in the front forks/rear shocks, then take a nice, long, ride to coast to finish seating the new rear tire and toss my old gauge off a cliff into the sea.

[natemoen]

Even if you had been running the tire at 50psi, as long as the tire is rated for it, it should not look like that.

[3Phase]

The old gauge was off by somewhere between 10 and 15 PSI, depending upon which new gauge I believed. Naturally, I bought the shiny chrome gauge that showed I was only off by 10 PSI.

When the tire was new I made the first 1,000 miles of my ride up the west coast to Canada at what I thought was 50 PSI but the ride seemed a little harsh and it was squirrely in the rain so I dropped the pressure down a little and kept it there.

Since day one I have been very carefully and meticulously overinflating the tire by 5 or 10 PSI and refilling it when the pressure dropped to somewhere around the max inflation pressure.

[stevestrom]

I just had a similar problem with one of my tires. I rolled my bike around in the garage so that I could do a valve clearance check and noticed that it didn't roll smoothly. This is what I found:





A quick visit to the dealer where I bought the tires and they replaced both of them that day (even though the other one seemed fine). Seems that there was some sort of delamination problem with some of the tires.

Good luck with yours!

[bikerphil]

Yep, I just went thru a front tire (Shinko) defect problem. The defect was visible on the inside of the tire. I bought it over the internet, so I had to eat it.

[3Phase]

I just had a similar problem with one of my tires.

Yikes, Steve!

I bought it over the internet, so I had to eat it.

Yes, that sucks. I got nailed on the Elite II I bought on eBay to replace the ME88. I should -neg the seller.

The folks in the Oregon online store
<shameless plug mode>
Motorcycle-Superstore.com
</shameless plug mode>
called Metzeler and Metzeler mailed a FedEx label to me so I could ship the tire to them for inspection.

I sent an email to Motorcycle-Superstore yesterday to cancel and I just got off the phone with Metzeler's customer service. I wouldn't have had to eat the tire and if I had payed more attention to the tire pressure gauge I'd still be riding on it.
<smiley-head-hitting-brick-wall>


After a nice ride yesterday to start seating the new Elite II I've noticed that it has a very different tread than the ME88.

As you can see in the third picture I posted above at the beginning of the thread, after 6,000 miles on the ME88 I never did manage to get the bike over far enough to wear the edges of the tire and it still has some rubber sprue (chicken strips) left on it.

I've already put the Dunlop all the way to the edge of the tread with just 50 miles of medium acceleration and a gentle canyon cruise. The chicken strips are all gone.


Dunlop 491 Elite II after 50 miles