I purchased two brand-new Continental Kryptotal Downhill tires, and I'm wondering if I received defective or old stock.
I previously posted about this tire leaking Stan's NoTubes Tire Sealant quite heavily, and I was told that was normal during the initial setup.
Then, after several weeks the tire finally held presssure. Went for ride and the tire blew off the rim after less than 30 miles of riding on a gravel path at 28 PSI.
The tire has numerous deep cracks throughout the sidewall. In my experience, if I saw this kind of cracking on a car or motorcycle tire, I'd replace it immediately. Is this really considered normal for a mountain bike tire?
Then I decided to inspect the other new tire that I have not installed yet but, could find any cracks.
I've attached photos of both tires, including the sidewall markings. I'm not sure if the numbers on the tire indicate the manufacturing date or batch number.
Has anyone experienced this with Continental Kryptotal DH tires?
- Do these cracks indicate dry rot or aging?
- Could the tire have been stored improperly?
- Is there a way to determine the manufacturing date from the markings?
- Would you consider this a warranty issue?
The tires were purchased new, not used, so I'm pretty disappointed. They aren't cheap, and with this amount of sidewall cracking, they don't seem safe either. I purchased them from Amazon back in May.
I'd appreciate any thoughts or similar experiences. Thanks!
by Offroad_bro
13 Comments
That’s nuts. I run these specific tires exclusively and have put hundreds of hard miles on them, they still look relatively new and barely lose air as tubeless tires. If you bought them from a reputable shop, I’d contact continental and show them these pics. They would probably like to know and also will maybe hook you up. In the meantime perhaps buy another set from a different place? I get mine at REI (in the US).
I have NEVER seen any conti tire fail this bad. I run exclusively conti on my enduro and dh but nothing like this has happened ever. Reach out to conti cause this isn’t a normal thing
Just like one of the other posters – I’ve put hundreds if not thousands of miles on this exact tires over the last 3 years, and just recently replaced with the enduro version (I ride a trail bike, they were always great but a little heavy). I never had a single problem with mine. I’d guess old stock rather than defective, but just a guess. Good luck OP
I had a Michelin tire fall apart like this but I stored it in an unconditioned garage for a long time. Turns out tires don’t really like that and have a shelf life when they’re getting roasted/frozen for years.
Hey I have a front Kryptotal enduro tire that had a delam on the logo. Reach out to Conti customer support they were really helpful
If the tire literally blew off the rim then it’s the rim and that tire is probably spent too. I had a couple tires explode (sounded like a gunshot) off the rim of my daily rider and ended up talking to a local wheel guy and got a new wheel and pit my old tire on it an it exploded off. Got a new tire and rode 3000 miles on it since.
Amazon is notorious for offloading old stock tires, that looks like dry rot to me for sure
Continental will replace it no questions asked if its new
My buddy keeps his bike outside year round on a covered balcony. His contis developed similar cracking towards the end of the winter, roughly 3-4 months after first installing them.
He kept riding his for another few months and didn’t have any issues. I personally would’ve been in contact with the manufacturer ASAP.
There should be a date code on the sidewall that will answer your old stock question
it looks like the softeners in the tire are gone. might be an indicator that the shop where you bought it didnt store the tires right. sunlight, heat, cold… has to be one of those.
Amazon is a place where you can end up buying counterfeit products, so me personally feel better purchasing something from Aliexpress instead because then I at least know that it is fake. I don’t see why you feel the need to buy tires off Amazon though when there’s plenty of bike shops who sell this brand and I’d rather buy through them instead to increase the likelyhood of said products being real.
Amazon and Ebay are both trash in my eyes, it’s just far beyond point of no return…
Warranty it shit happens had this happen on maxxis tires too within 2 months it was cracking