My front wheel after 10 months. Only 6 of them outdoors, and mileage is maybe 2-3k… its like this all the way around. Can i ride them or fix them?
Is this normal? Have i been storing them wrong? They have been below freezing and a little bit humid a couple of times but bike and other parts are completely fine..
by oke111
16 Comments
Probably old stock tyre
In my experience yes. And I wish I could make tires last that long
Ozone, which can also come from in-home air purifiers or electronics, will age tires quickly too.
I would say that’s not normal wear for 10 months, and likely due to them being stored outdoors for 6 of those months. I have gp5000s with about 2000 miles and do not have that dry rot. I’ve seen GP5000s with less miles with that kind of dry rot and it was because of storage conditions.
You prob continue riding them, but I would rotate that front tire to the back and put the better tire up front. If something were to happen, a rear tire failure is less catastrophic than a front
It’s not *abnormal*, I think everyone has seen this exact type of wear from GP5000s before. That doesn’t mean it should happen or you did something wrong, though.
Continental offers a one-year warranty against manufacturing defects. I’d press the case with them.
I had a ride tour tire on my city bike which rotted and cracked after just months, i was refunded for that but it never actually failed. My gp 4 season are absolutely flawless after just over a year and roughly 5000 km. I keep them out of the sun as much as possible though, that rots tires.
Same happened with mine too. This, and couple of wobbly Terra Speeds made me lose trust in Continental’s quality control, so I switched to Schwalbe.
that is dry rot where did you store the bike/tires? this happened to me when i left a bike 6 months on a balcony..
you can ride but you will lose grip..
I was uncertain, but seeing this I’m glad I ordered the Goodyear ones instead.
That kind of damage is caused by ozone exposure. They could be older than you realize and had just been hanging in a warehouse or a bike shop somewhere or the other highly likely possibility is that the bike or tire tires were stored somewhere near electrical heating equipment over the winter, which is the number one producer of indoor ozone air pollution
Everything degrades. Use it or lose it.
Not unusual. Just keep riding it.
Tyres degrade with age it’s a pain but its an inescapapble fact.
Another inescapaple fact is that you say it’s a 1 year old tyre but all you know is how long you have had the tyre you have no idea how long it was sat on a shelf in a warehouse somewhere before you got it. It has been known for a tyre to be so old when bought by the end user that it doesn’t have much useable life left. It doesn’t look bad just keep an eye on it.
Something else that you should keep an eye on are the pressures you are running the tyre at. On the sidewall there are faint diagonal lines forming this is an indication that you are running the tyre below it’s minimum pressure for your circumstances. Every tyre has a recommended pressure range, For example 40 – 80 psi. This does not mean that you can run it at 40 psi the actual pressure you should use is based on a combination of factors including the tyre size, type of riding & rider weight so a lighter rider commuting might be fine at 40 psi but a heavier rider riding more intensely would need to use higher pressures. Running tyres below pressure damages the carcass of the tyre and leads to early failure which if tubeless can come even earlier.
Have a look at this calculator https://silca.cc/en-gb/pages/pro-tire-pressure-calculator?srsltid=AfmBOoqjTLbhY6vlxvXCBTnv9uNkHVDc7M64YZAmE8G4_suzJyAT79Vv
3k miles is about as long as I expect a race tire to last.
That looks weird. I’d try to warranty it
Where do you store the bike? If you store the bike on concrete for long periods of time, the concrete will suck the moisture out of the tire. When it does this, it’ll dry rot only in the area where the tire was touching the concrete. If you only have one patch of dry rot, this may be the case. Regularly rotate your tires or put wood/carpet underneath the tires.