Originally Posted by FROSTY
Agreed x 2
Unexpected Spanish inquisition
Agreed x 2
Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that, who cares? ...He's a mile away and you've got his shoes
Rider in training
I don't know anything about this apart from what was in the news article in the first post. They showed a tyre beng made exactly how you describe. They also say that the Brutish Tyre Association (or some similar name) has issued a public warning. They also said Ford has asked the US Government it also put in place a restriction.
I can't see these companies asking for these things, and giving out those warnings if there is nothing to it.
ABC can be a bit "sensational" at times, so perhaps the story is something minor blown out of proportion.
Long Haired Yobbo
Never!?!?!!?
Heinz Varieties
Unexpected Spanish inquisition
There's definitely been some dodgy goings on in the US with retailers selling very old tyres as new which that article pertains to, though from what I can tell it's much more of an issue over there than anywhere else in the (civilised) world, probably due to stockpiling etc. And you're right ABC do tend to sensationalise things, so there's definitely some spin in there
And you won't get any disagreement from me regarding a 'sell by date' for tyres, in fact I'm surprised that this hasn't been put in place earlier.
I don't think we have quite the same level of dodgy retailers in the tyre industry as they do in the US (if you've ever travelled there you'll know what i mean) and the distributors have nothing like the stock holding here that US ones would. We also have the protection of the CGA.
But I don't want to detract from the fact that it's good that people know more about their tyres (and their vehicles) - that can't be a bad thing!
FWIW the (car) tyre dealer I use gives a 500km replacement guarantee that I think is pretty damn good, if you aren't happy with the tyres you've bought and return to him within 500km he'll swap them over for something else, no questions asked!
Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that, who cares? ...He's a mile away and you've got his shoes
The instructions are simple...
Great news! Those tyres I saw on your bike were just waiting to kill you. It would have been the front that let go. Ask McJim about 'Road Winners'...
You are unlikely to outride the Dunlop's abilities, but you will pay for that in wear.
Do you realise how many holes there could be if people would just take the time to take the dirt out of them?
BogOff-Cant you see I'm busy?
Agreed, but anyone who rides a motorcycle with inappropriate tyre pressures is putting themself in danger and any resulting accident could be reasonably explained by thier foolish missadventure.
Whereas someone riding a bike with 8 year old regularly checked and correctly inflated tyres with full tread that has a serious accident due to the age of the decaying rubber disintegrating beneath them.............................................. ............
Everyone knows to check their tyre pressures and the tread depths.
Not many know that rubber compound their tyres is made from has a finite life expectancy regardless of road wear.
IMO - Being able to check the age of your tyres is yet another critical safety check and more important for two wheel vehicles than it is for four.
Unexpected Spanish inquisition
Aha! BUT if they were regularly checking and inflating them, surely they'd notice that the rubber was decaying?(p/t)
In all seriousness though, the last sentence in your post is something we can all agree on
Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that, who cares? ...He's a mile away and you've got his shoes
BogOff-Cant you see I'm busy?
I think the point here is that the decay is not obvious to the untrained eye.Aha! BUT if they were regularly checking and inflating them, surely they'd notice that the rubber was decaying?
I am curious to whom whether environmental conditions contribute towards more rapid decay. e.g. Extreme cold or heat.
I suspect that the extra special discounted new tyres you are being offered from your tyre traders are not as new as you would expect.
PHEW.....JUST MADE IT............................. UP"
Unexpected Spanish inquisition
Apparently it's sunlight, temperature cycling and for some reason that I'm not sure, coastal climates that are listed as the main factors. I wouldn't have thought salt laden sea air would affect rubber...but hey, I'm no scientist!
And I certainly don't have any concerns over the age of my tyres as I've known about the marking codes for years, plus I wear the fuckers out too quickly.......
But yes folks, 'tread' carefully if being offered cheap tyres......
Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that, who cares? ...He's a mile away and you've got his shoes
Stealth Sonic Orchestra Remix
Yeah,others have also said to get rid of those tyres,so I did.
Yeah them Road Winners aye..
In the riders seat
The fact that other brands had a higher failure rate than Firestone and that Explorers had failures with just about every brand fitted would point to it being something other than a tyre fault
Around 2500 of those tyres on Explorers in NZ but not a single recorded failure of the type they had in the USA but we don't run our tyres at 24psi
I saw a tyre failure last year on a tyre that had done around 200km from the time it was fitted to the vehicle (Honda CRV), the tyre had been on the spare unused for 12 years before hand and did about $1200 worth of damage to the vehicle when it came apart
In around 30 years of riding and being around Motorcycles I have seen one tyre failure due to tread seperation on a Yokohama fitted to my brothers RZ250
"If you can make black marks on a straight from the time you turn out of a corner until the braking point of the next turn, then you have enough power."
Unexpected Spanish inquisition
I would tend to agree, but there's so much debate over the whole Explorer/Firestone issue I doubt we'll ever know the real cause. Explorers certainly seem to have more than their fair share of 'issues'.... and as you point out, we don't run our tyres at such ridiculously low pressures and we don't have mile upon mile of straight freeway where we can get the same sort of sustatined high speeds.
And likewise, having spent a similar amount of time riding/being around bikes I can't recall ever seeing a motorcycle tyre failure due to tread seperation.
Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that, who cares? ...He's a mile away and you've got his shoes
Rider in training
Forgive my ignorance. What sort of sustained high speed are we talking about here?
Bouncy...bouncy..
If I remember correctly, the Firestone/Explorer issue was far more apparant in hot enviroments, where the tyres were generating alot of heat, due to the low tyre pressure. Also IIRC Fords solution to the problem was to get the tyres Overinflated to try an alleviate the problem. Thus causing more problems. Also, once the ford claim was thrown out of court, then Firestone counter sued Ford for defamation, and I think they won. I think Firestone were able to prove that it was a Vehicle fault not a tyre issue.
"No matter what bike you ride. It's all the same wind in your face"
Unexpected Spanish inquisition
It's not high speed as perhaps us motorcyclists would tend to think of, but average freeway speeds in the US tend to be 10-15mph over the posted limit (at least in CA!) so anywhere from 60-85mph.
The tyre pressures were more the issue, Ford advised ridiculously low pressures in the owners manual, something like 24 or 26psi. The same vehicle here (remember this is a large SUV, probably quite heavily laden) would be running at least 10-15psi more as a rule of thumb.
And remember in the US there are mile upon mile of freeway and generally quite high ambient temperatures, so the combination of all these factors would allow a major build up of heat in the tyre.
Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that, who cares? ...He's a mile away and you've got his shoes
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