My better half’s Brompton just suddenly punctured while riding. We took a look at it and were pretty sure that this was just the brake pad having been poorly aligned. It seemed like it was worn only on the side where the brake looked too close. We’ve only ever got the LBS to adjust our brakes. Unfortunately we didn’t get pictures before taking it in.
I’ve seen this before when I’ve done it to my own bike, but they were insistent that this was just wear and tear or some act of god. They said that because it tore below where it’s seated in the rim that it could not have been the brakes.
He paid for the replacement of the tire and is pretty upset because he’s quite broke right now. The pads look to be clear of the tire now, but then it also had a general tune up and brake adjustment at the LBS when it was in. It seems ok now but they will have possibly adjusted the brakes as part of a tune up anyway, so how it looks now isn’t necessarily a good indicator of what actually happened.
by DuckDuckSnoo
4 Comments
Yes – thats the brakepad against sidewall.
It’s probably just something that was run over. It it were the brakes it would be along most of the tire all around.
No rubbing any where else on the sidewall so I don’t think brakes are the culprit. Maybe a pinched inner tube or low tire pressure.
Hard to tell – doesn’t look obviously abraded. Are the brake pads on the affected wheel still in their original location? If so how do they look relative to the new tyre when the brake is applied?
This sort of failure can also be caused by running insufficient tyre pressure – what pressure has been used in this? Was it front or back? What’s the rider’s weight? Is / was the pressure checked regularly? Has the tyre ever been run / pushed flat or nearly flat?
One problem might be that you’re using the frame pump rather than a dedicated track pump.. I could only get around 40psi out of the Lezyne frame pump that came with the bike; while at 80-something kilos I’ve found 70psi front and 100psi rear is pretty optimal.. you can go a bit lower but this accounts for natural leakage. Check your pressure at least weekly.
I think Bromptons could be particularly susceptible to this sort of sidewall fatigue failure as their little wheels do nearly twice the revs of typical wheels over the same distance covered..
Doesn’t look like it’s covered a lot of mileage 🙁
If this has shaken your faith in the bike shop, perhaps time to start doing the work yourself? Should give peace of mind and save some money..