Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Me and my wife have just returned from a week long trip into Scotland, Oban area this time, and on the way back my wife suddenly had a rear flat on her XRV750, we managed to struggle into the Costa coffee car park though :laugh:
No problem I thought, remove panniers and wheel, then pop the bead and out with the tube only to find no sign of a puncture from the tread area :huh: so I looked round the tube and found the texture from the Michelin tyre had worn into the tube in two rings on each side and this wear had got deep enough to break through in one spot causing the flat.
Quite a difficult area to patch and the patch wouldn't have full support from the tyre as it was in the transition from the tyre bead to the rim, no spare tube so a patch was applied, tube refitted and the tyre blown back onto the bead with the help of a bottle of water and shampoo and the little compressed gas canisters I carried (more on them later). A slow trip to the next garage to check the pressure and off we go again. 2 miles later it's going flat again so pull off the road and sure enough the patch has been scuffed by the movement and has come away, fortunately we are just outside Ayr and the local bike shop was still open so I pop off to get a new Michelin airstop tube and more canisters, get back, fit the tube and all good with a new quality tube fitted and the tyre blown up to the correct pressure using a pump that a kind local lends to us. All's good now and I'm happy that it's got a new tube in so no need to change it now we're home.
My conclusion from this is that the canisters aren't worth bothering with so I'll be buying a small electric pump or a good cycle pump.
However has anyone else seen this type of wear on a tube?
The tube was new and fitted at the same time as the tyre some time around the middle of last year and they have only done a couple of thousand miles since, always been run at or near the correct pressure, I do check it regularly as it's my wife's bike and she'd ride off on a near flat tyre and wonder why it was handling funny.
The tyre is a Michelin Anakee 3, tube was a V rubber and didn't feel thin compared to the Michelin and I've used them with no problems before, I've heard of seams splitting etc but this was definite wear from the texture inside the tyre. Unfortunately she threw it away as we were a little tight on space and I didn't think to take a photo at the time.

Steve

Ive seen a story written of an inside tyre label wearing a tube away causing a puncture.Is the surface you talking about any rougher than the rest of the tyre?

Greetings,

Might I for safety reasons suggest that you do take the tyre and tube off for further closer investigation.

I have known similar failures caused by, as already mentioned, a label on the inside of the tyre but also the tyre sidewall was internally damaged presumably after striking a rock.

There were no visible marks on the outside of the tyre carcass but following a closeer feel of the sidewalls by hand a weakness was felt about the size of an egg and so the tyre was replaced.

I always apply plenty of french chalk, well actually baby powder , to the inside of tyres when replacing them and/or the tubes. I also mark the alignment of my tyres to their rim with 'tippex' for identification of side and to notice possible slippage on the rim despite using rim locks.

TTFN

Hugh.

Might be worth taking it off and checking it again but I did check it twice, 1st time while I was waiting in the sunshine for my coffee and cake to arrive back. Michelin tyres have a texture inside the whole tyre (maybe it's only tubeless ones?) and it was worn into the tube in distinctive bands in the same place on each side, the depth of the wear varied from barely visible to all the way through but it was all the way round so I presume there is a tiny bit of movement there.
I've used Michelin tyres with the same pattern inside with tubes before and not seen any type of wear on the tube when changed, even on my supermoto running low pressures.
Maybe the tyre is faulty and the bead is moving more than it should? It didn't come off easily or go back on easily so I'm not sure of that one.

On another note the Motion pro bead breaker tyre levers are very good and certainly made taking the tyre off the bead a lot easier than I was expecting.

Steve

Some good advice there Gents, thank you (thumbs)

Change the tube. Had the same issue happening to me when I had tubeless bridgestones on my old honda. The ridges wore into the tube, until the thinnest one gave up at 11pm on friday in Clapham High street. Drunk aussies had some entertainment. Some tubeless tyres have ridges inside and wear through the tube.

V_King wrote:Change the tube. Had the same issue happening to me when I had tubeless bridgestones on my old honda. The ridges wore into the tube, until the thinnest one gave up at 11pm on friday in Clapham High street. Drunk aussies had some entertainment. Some tubeless tyres have ridges inside and wear through the tube.

I've fitted a new Michelin airstop tube so I'm happy with that, when I get chance I'll investigate the tubeless/tube type texture thing a bit more but it sounds like you had the same problem, if tube type tyres don't have the texture then it means I'll have to be more careful with tyre selection in the future.

Steve

Putting mousse lube inside the tyre can help prevent this sort of wear, IIRC on the tubes of Michelin lube it does actually say this is a potential use for it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/?iid=272273816 ... t=0&chn=ps

A cheaper alternative is to buy a tub of plumbing lubricant (designed for push fit waste pipe) from Screwfix, it's silicone lube so essentially the same thing, I've been using it with my Michelin Desert Mousses as an experiment as seems to work just fine

http://www.screwfix.com/p/floplast-lubr ... 0wodSCcLZg

Thanks for that idea, I'll give it a go.

Steve