Tire oddity damage

[Seaking]

Well here's a tale of caution for thems who ride.. We all know to inspect our tires and keep proper pressures for tire longevity and good handling.

 

Mid May while on a road trip down to the US I95 I hit such a huge divot in the road that it literally threw my assets out of the seat (no easy feat considering my size) but I was able to control the bike and carry on. Didn't see it coming due to the thickness of traffic and concentrating on not getting nailed by kamikaze drivers..

 

The incident left me with a Works shock that required re-adjustment, but the bike still rode a little dodgy for a while and I ended up getting used to it but doing the Dragon's Tail and BRP didn't feel 100% like it used to.. Checked the neck and all was good, suspension was good.. etc.. Oh well I must be getting old.. The bike still rode fine on the highway, and parking lots but it was that 30-40 mph windy roads that felt dodgy..

 

Now it's time to replace the front tire, the wear bars are showing, I got me my new replacement E3 tire and lo and behold, an odd looking imperfection or damage to the front tire caught my attention.. I'd not seen it before when inspecting my wheels but there it was.. About thumb sized depression into the tread, slightly off the centre of the tire, and a couple more smaller ones near it.. VERY odd looking and oddly enough never noticed it before. But it was readily visible this time. Luckily I was getting that tire changed!

 

My best guess is a broken belt or something from when I hit that huge divot in May.. and it's now almost July.. wow. Its not that I don't look at my tires or that the depression was 'slight', it simply never caught my eye before then.. (any ideas anyone what that is?)

 

Now with the new tire on the bike, I haven't been able to tackle any corners that gave me problems before (need to scuff them up on dry roads.. and we gots nuttin but rains here).. but already I can tell the bike tracks a lot better and handles a lot better (not just from the new from old tire feel you get after changing tires out).

 

I just wanted to share this with you to keep an eye on tires, feel them with your hands, by rubbing the dirt off the tire is how the depression showed up.. I wish I had taken a photo of it before getting it replaced though I don't know if it would have shown as well.

 

Cheers

[allwx]

Good advice, thanks.

 

You didn't by any chance look at the inside of that tire carcass when it was off the wheel?

 

A friend of mine, riding into the late day sun on a Wing, hit a piece of lumber laying in the road. It actually broke his front wheel, deflated the tire. He had his wife on with him, and was able to bring the thing to a safe stop even rolling on that deflated tire up front.

[Seaking]

No, I didn't.. When the mechanic deflated the tire and then had a look for the defect he had a hard time finding it.. Only when it was inflated that you could see it.. I was surprised I hadn't seen it any earlier..