Cracked Tire - should I be concerned?

[garrett01]

My rear tire (aka the bad luck tire) is cracking. I know all tires crack from old age and wear, but this tire is cracking in a weird spot.

Most of the tires I've seen crack are in the sidewall, almost never on the tread part. There are like 5 cracks near the edge of the sidewall, where it and the tread meet.

I don't want to have a blowout or bulging.

I don't pay attention to the crack when pumping the tire up. Tomorrow (or whenever I check for the rust in my front wheel; see the post for that in the Wheel section) I will deflate this tire as well and check the crack out and inflate it and see if it gets larger. If it gets larger I have a problem on my hands.

I'll report back here tomorrow (or whenever) with the results.

[Painkiller]

When in doubt, swap them out!

[RobAR]

(11-19-2012, 11:28 PM)painkiller Wrote:  When in doubt, swap them out!

You're a Poet. I didn't know it.

Bob. Please address his concern before I get to slicing tires on u StingRay.

[garrett01]

Thank You.

I don't have the money to swap them out. But could I possibly do a tire-rotation much like what they do on automobiles? That way, there is equal wear on both tires. I run the front at lower pressure so if that crack does get bigger or possibly pops the tube out it won't be as bad.

Yet, if I have a blowout on the front tire, I'll loose control and that won't be good.

Both tires are the no-name Chinese "Quangshin Rubber Products Limited" tires installed at the tire. Quangshin is not the name of the company that actually made the tire, I was just making that up.

I would change the tires but I don't have the money right now to put towards the bike. When I do get a new tire, I'm more than likely going to get a new set of Inner Tube so I can torture the paper-thin Kenda inner tube in the front (I know it was from Kenda's "Ultra-Lite" product line or something like that, it's a super-thin and cheap inner tube.) and use the "Ultra-Thick" Hutchinson Inner Tube in the rear as a spare tube. I'm more than likely going to replace them with a pair of Continental Inner Tubes.

[Joe_W]

Tyre swapping is not really a good idea, as far as I know. Crakcing _usually_ comes from riding with too low pressure, don't know if this applies there. I'd probably keep the tyre in the rear, look at the cracks when I top up the tyre and replace it once it starts bulging.
Oh, and you could place some sort of shim under that area inside the tyre. Some smoothed down pieces of old tyre should work.

[DaveM]

+1 to most of Joe_W's remarks.
Keep the worse tire on the rear, NOT on the front. And put something under the tread of the tire where it's starting to crack to reinforce. This may keep it from blowing out if the cracks suddenly widen. A couple layers of duct tape is actually not a bad solution.

Cracks in the rubber of the tread is not that big a deal. But splits in the casing underneath is what will let the tire blow and it can be hard to tell the difference.

[Bill]

Dave not trying to correct ya but just to advise garret don't put the duct tape on the outside of the tire as I saw this once!

[DaveM]

(11-20-2012, 01:35 PM)Bill Wrote:  Dave not trying to correct ya but just to advise garret don't put the duct tape on the outside of the tire as I saw this once!

I hope they put the sticky side out so they got even better traction!

[Bill]

Ahahahaha yea maybe to hold the air in too

[bobtravers]

Way too dangerous to ride on... Save some money and buy new ones!!!