Shinko 777 My tire is separating!

[Squidley]

Hey Folks,

I wanted to come on here and tell you about something I discovered this morning on my RSV. I have been a big proponent of the Shinko tires, I've ran a few sets on various bikes. I looked at my front tire this morning after I got to work and saw it cupping badly, at closer inspection, as seen in the 1st picture, the tire is separating. This tire has somewhere between 7 and 9K miles on it and has a lot of tread depth left. I'm obviously going to replace this tire, and also not purchase anymore Shinkos. It's unfortunate as I've had pretty good luck with running them, but I will not promote this brand any longer. Some of you will remember when the Metzler 880's were doing this, this reminds me exactly of that. Just wanted to give y'all a heads up so you can make better informed decisions when ordering tires for your bikes.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Squidley

[saddlebum]

Not that I disagree with your decision Mr @Squidley. but keep in mind any brand of tire is capable of having a bad one in the batch. My wife's car started shaking real bad and would bunny hop at slow speeds. turned out all four tires had broken and shifted belts resulting in bulges in the tires. These were Michelin tires a brand many us pretty much consider top of the line tires. So one bad apple should not condemn the whole basket, where as the Metzler 880's, had a whole rash of tire separation failures and Avon not so long ago had a rash of side wall cracking, related to a certain batch and yet both before and after they have been one of the highly recommended tires except for 1st gens were they tended to cause a rear end sway at highway speeds.  I would get the batch number off the tire and contact Shinko and see what kind of feed back you get. They may have had a bad batch and if so may be willing to provide a new tire. there may even be a recall on that batch. None of this is to say I disagree with your decision just some food for thought. At the end of the day you gotta do what makes you feel safe.

Edited July 25, 2021 by saddlebum

[circa1968]

I'm running Shinko tires right now too and will go inspect mine.  Can you let us know the batch #?

[Squidley]

I don't necessarily disagree with you Ben, I just remember the Metzler debacle and them ultimately blowing many people off. I will get a batch number for y'all so we can see if they did indeed have a bad run.

 

[RDawson]

I need to look at mine, I have the same front. 
I don’t want any issues on the Vogel trip. 

[Marcarl]

Just a good reminder!!! CHECK YOUR TIRES OFTEN!! no matter how good the reputation.

[SpencerPJ]

I have always been good with the Shinko 230 tour masters.  As you said, his has left a bad taste left.  I had similar experience with Firestone Destination tires on SUV, I'll never buy another Firestone, although they certainly make some good tires.  Glad you caught the problem before it potentially failed you.  

[BlueSky]

1 hour ago, SpencerPJ said:

I have always been good with the Shinko 230 tour masters.  As you said, his has left a bad taste left.  I had similar experience with Firestone Destination tires on SUV, I'll never buy another Firestone, although they certainly make some good tires.  Glad you caught the problem before it potentially failed you.  

I'm running Firestone Destination ATs on my 2002 F150.  I was leery of buying Firestones but Brigdestone bought the company the last I remember and they had a C load rated tire that was two sizes larger than my stock tires (265/70x17) that I felt I needed for driving on the beach.  Most of the tires in 285/70x17 that I wanted were E load rated and I thought they would ride too hard.  They are wearing a little faster than the Michelins I had on it before but they are running quiet and smooth so I'm pleased with them so far.  I have shinkos on my 07 RSV.....

[Squidley]

The tire was manufactured in the 40th week of 2018, so basically the 1st week of October.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Squidley

[SpencerPJ]

I'd send them an email with pic, and express your disappointment. https://shinkotireusa.com/contact

 

[Squidley]

2 hours ago, SpencerPJ said:

I'd send them an email with pic, and express your disappointment. https://shinkotireusa.com/contact

 

I'm fixin to do that momentarily, thanks for the link.
 

I just sent them a message Paul, we'll see what comes of it.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Squidley

[Leland]

Is this the 130 or 150 front tire?

[Squidley]

1 hour ago, Leland said:

Is this the 130 or 150 front tire?

It's a 150/80 Leland

[skydoc_17]

Hey Squid,

As always, I respect your decision to not indorse Shinco tires any longer. I was caught up in the Avon debacle many years ago, and had to eat a few tires because of it. No one likes to get ripped off when making a major purchase like a tire, me included.

Because I work on molds for a living, I wanted to shed some light on a few of the reasons this happens. Tiny rubber pellets, (balls) of rubber are fed into a mold that has been heated with steam, or induction heating. As the pellets enter the hot mold, they melt and flow from one side of the mold to the other side into a cavity called the "Sprue". The mold opens, and the tire is ejected by the ejector pins. The sprue is then remelted and used for another tire later. Because Shinco tires have become so popular, the manufacturer is constantly looking for ways to increase production. If you elevate the temperature of the mold, the pellets will melt faster, flow through the mold faster, and this reduces the cycle time of the mold. Less cycle time equals more tires per hour. In the trade, we call this "Hot Boxing The Mold". A slight increase in the temperature of the mold will increase productivity, but elevate the temperature too much, and the rubber compounds will solidify in layers instead of a consistent fusion of the rubber pellets. When a tire is constructed properly, the weight of the vehicle causes the tire to flex when it comes in contact with the road surface. If the tire has been "Hot Boxed", the layers flex at different rates, and this unequal flexing tears the tire apart. This is the separating condition you are seeing on your tire. Overheat the mold even more, and you "cook" the flexibility right out of the rubber, and this manifests itself on the tire as the little square stress cracks on the sidewalls we saw on the Avon tires.  In the beginning, Avon was willing to replace the tires I submitted with the stress cracks. As time went on, more and more tires were being returned for the stress crack issue, and Avon stopped replacing the tires. At that point, I stopped selling Avon tires, and I stopped promoting the use of them. Like I said earlier, I did eat a few Avon tires, but they didn't get replaced with an Avon tire, and it soon came to an end. 

If you complain to Shinco, I am pretty sure they will replace the tire at this point. As time goes on, we will see just how well Shinco stands behind their product. Because so many of the forum members run the Shinco tires, I hope for everyone's sake that this was just a fluke, and not the beginning of another tire debacle!

Earl

[djh3]

So the tire is a little more than 2.5 years old. Has it been used all winter or set for months?

[larrydr]

I do know that at at least in my range of riding in 95000 kilometers on my XV1100 Virago up to April 2020 ,  I always like the Dunlop Elite series is a strong tire. and I rode the one set for 4 years  and the second set for another 5 years ..$$$$$$$$  .....Since I purchased 83 Venture I have installed the Bridgestone .to save money.....I found that by installing one size over gave me more rubber on the road for better mileage /distance as in more miles traveled   , but the only problem I have not been out on the road with it ..Maybe next season I can .

[Pasta Burner]

Thanks for the heads up!  I just put the 777 front and rear on July 2020.  I’ll check my date code later in the week when I get back home.  I think I remember them being a year or so old when they were delivered.

 

@Squidley did you notice some ride difference that made you look at the tire when you got to work?  Just wondering what prompted you to look at it at that point.

Edited July 26, 2021 by Pasta Burner

[N3FOL]

@Squidley I am sorry that your front tire is showing some deterioration, but as mentioned here...contact Shinko.  That will be my first order of business and hopefully you can get a good answer from them.  As for the brand, I am also running Shinko on my '07 with rear having about 12000 miles and the front has about 4K miles.  Both tires are so far looking fairly good.  Good Luck and keep posted.  

[saddlebum]

23 hours ago, Squidley said:

I don't necessarily disagree with you Ben, I just remember the Metzler debacle and them ultimately blowing many people off. I will get a batch number for y'all so we can see if they did indeed have a bad run.

 

I remember well Also Brad and yes it is a frightening thought when you have only two wheels. Now I may be wrong about this but I seem to recall at some point it was determined that the Metzler failures were confined to the ones made in Mexico. If they were not made in Mexico they were apparently Ok.

[circa1968]

I see some consistent microcracks in the recessed channel area around the side blocks.   The main channels that go diagonally across the tire do not have these tiny cracks.   Not sure what to make of it, but will keep an eye on it for sure.  The tire has 5k miles on it and date code is 2420. 

[saddlebum]

It is not uncommon to see some slight hair line checking in the grooves known as weathering of most tires but I would definitely keep a close watch just the same

Edited July 26, 2021 by saddlebum

[Squidley]

Ok,

Here's the skinny, I did receive an emailed response back from Shinko, which was fairly quick. This is what they had to say...

Hello Brad

Thank you for reaching out to Shinko Tires USA.

All possible warranties begin with the original selling dealer. Please reach out to the point of purchase and they will work with us to get the proper information and inspections done. Please let us know if you have any further questions!

Thanks!

Aly Clark

Support Specialist –Tire & Wheel Division

 

I purchased the tire online, from I believe Dennis Kirk, I would have to try and research that out. I had my local Yamaha dealer install and balance it. So unfortunately it appears that I have to do a lot of legwork and time to get it to the point where they will look at it and determine if it's a warranty issue. I'm not sure I'm going to waste my time to do this on a $100 tire. I believe that I'm just going to try a different brand, perhaps something that I haven't tried before like a Pirelli. If i do decide to spend the time jumping through the hoops, I'll let y'all know what becomes of it.

Edited July 26, 2021 by Squidley

[Squidley]

14 hours ago, djh3 said:

So the tire is a little more than 2.5 years old. Has it been used all winter or set for months?

I live outside of Houston Texas and I ride all year long.

12 hours ago, Pasta Burner said:

@Squidley did you notice some ride difference that made you look at the tire when you got to work?  Just wondering what prompted you to look at it at that point.

I have been noticing the cupping and could feel it buzzing in the handlebars. It just happened that the bad spot was right in plain view at the perfect angle for it to really catch my eye yesterday morning after I got off the bike.

 

 

Now I'm going to fill y'all in on something here, I run darkside as I have a 15" Nexen car tire on the back of my RSV. I've been running it for about 2 years. Now I know some of you are shaking your heads as you would never think of doing it, and that's cool, I just wanted to run one for myself for an extended period as a lot of my riding these days is 1 up and on the freeway. I'm fairly confident that running the car tire on the back should not have made any difference on this tire. I still get into the twisties, and even though my chicken strips aren't to the complete edge of the tire, I still ride it how I want to. The only thing I wonder about is the Shinko on the front is a bias tire and the back is a radial, I've heard about not mixing the 2, but not sure what the "side effects" are with running it this way. 

[Marcarl]

I don't see anything correlation (big word for me) between the cracks in the front and what's on the back. No way should a tire crack like that under any circumstances. (another big word, but this one I've spelled before)

[SpencerPJ]

49 minutes ago, Marcarl said:

No way should a tire crack like that under any circumstances. 

On auto tires, Firestone claims that is normal and acceptable. I agree with you, just sharing my experience with car tires.  Firestone says sidewall cracks are a problem, but the rubber between the treads is very thin and does not impact the treads stuck to the belts.