Bulge on Front Tire (Conti)

Conti Trail Attacks on my VFR, front, after about 6k mi. Showing nice firm bulge, kinda jealous. Does not mean it's happy to see me, though. Felt like a flat, especially when cornering right. Thank God it failed without blowing. As an engineer in semiconductors who has done business with Conti on electrical projects, I can say with certainty they are obsessed with quality, so don't take this as a dig at Conti -- more of an FYI if you're on these or similar tires. Quick search showed others have this problem, so it may be a batch issue or something I hope they have addressed. In any case, working with the shop to contact Conti and see what can be done. With luck, I'll get a free new tire before the first Southern freeze! Urgh, right in the middle of prime North Texas riding weather, too. If I have to pay, though, gotta run it through the wife (wish me luck, I just bought brake pads and used up my bike points).

Also, no loss of air, and I rode home safely from work today (keeping it low and slow). I took the tollway this morning hauling arse into work, and wondering if I didn't dodge a trip to the ER slash morgue... thankful in any case!





- Eric

 

I had that happen on a van front tire in the Tennessee Smokies. Made for a rough ride....
And fortunately it did not blow out either. I don't recall ever seeing it on a bike tire before, a scary thing for sure.

Giving thanks for such an escape is the right thing to do, for sure. You might want to try and play the "Doncha want me to be safe?" card with the wife, if you think it would fly.....

 

Link to another Conti bulge from 2013. I think this was the one I found on my quick search, looks just like mine, front tire and same brand, but different model (possibly just a different tread). So if you have Contis, might be worth a look-see (spin and feel for cupping/bulging) every time you air up. I'll let you all know what the dealer says. Like you mentioned, I've never seen this before, either, on car or bike, except in sidewall maybe, and that had to have been back in the '80s. Good news is this was a benign failure, so they did something right. I am not an aggressive rider, so I don't think it's something I did trying to drag on a gnarly twistie, braugh (how do you spell the California bro-bra thing they say out west when they do that finger thingy and tell people to hang loose or something?)

http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/look-at-my-bulge-conti-motionpro-fail.878204/

(PS) I did have some Michelins fail similar on a Tahoe. The internal tread came loose, which may be something very much like what happened on this tire. Guy said he'd never seen that before, and this was about two years ago. But no bulge on that one. Just felt like I was driving on a flat, no loss of air, wildly unbalanced and wobbly.

 

The hand gesture you are referring to is called a Shaka, brah! The gesture and phrase actually are more commonly seen and heard in Hawaii or by the So Cal surf culture. http://www.e-hawaii.com/pidgin/brah

 

Here is a bulge. On a Carlisle trailer tire that was on my boat trailer. I now run Marathons. Belts separated and the tire was properly inflated.

 

^^ Thanks! ^^