Schwalbe Marathon Plus Failure

Matt wrote:

Cycling home the other evening I suddenly experienced a front tyre
deflation. This is partcularly un nerving on the bent and even more so when
you're in the feeder lane on to the A3!

Still made it to the verge to rectify what I assumed was just a normal
puncture caused by road debris.

When I removed the tyre I found a long strand of thin metal wire had come
lose inside the tyre and the end of this had punctured the tube. At first I
thought that somehow this wire had worked its way into the tyre from the
road - although a couple of seconds thought made me realise how ridiculous
this was. What appears to have happened is the metal strengthening in the
bead of the tyre had become uncovered. I am naive enough to not even
realise cycle tyres had steel beads!

I've not used a lot of Schwalbe tyres but this seems a very unusual failure.
Has anyone elese experienced this sort of thing with a Schwalbe or any other
make?

It proved quite tricky to break the wire so as I could replace the tyre and
minimise the risk of re puncture from a sharp wire stub. Unfortunately I
didn't think to photograph the failure in all its glory.

I'm guessing the tyre is useless now so have ordered another.


Matt

By the way no less than 4 cyclists passing by my stricken machine checked I
was OK - one even offered me a spare tube. Restores your faith....

had a punture on friday, on the rear, marthonplus, a screw that had
pentrated though,

first in a year though.

but my word the tire is so beaten up, parts of the bead and the side
wall look pritty bad, the bike is very heavy, 50lb by time all my gear
is added and the sit up and beg postion, the rear's side wall takes a
pounding...

roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com

On 2008-08-30, Roger Merriman wrote:
[...]
had a punture on friday, on the rear, marthonplus, a screw that had
pentrated though,

That's a real coincidence-- I had exactly the same puncture also on
Friday. Marathon plus, and a nasty little 1cm long self-tapping screw
that appeared to have tapped itself into the tyre.

I actually unscrewed it with a Philips head screwdriver to get it out.
But I got it while riding so it can't have been screwed in manually by
some malicious *******.

Ben C wrote:

On 2008-08-30, Roger Merriman wrote:
[...]
had a punture on friday, on the rear, marthonplus, a screw that had
pentrated though,

That's a real coincidence-- I had exactly the same puncture also on
Friday. Marathon plus, and a nasty little 1cm long self-tapping screw
that appeared to have tapped itself into the tyre.

where abouts? i picked it up twickenham/st margarets, i noticed after
that, i saw some others around...

I actually unscrewed it with a Philips head screwdriver to get it out.
But I got it while riding so it can't have been screwed in manually by
some malicious *******.

that though did ocour, it has to be said.

roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com

On 2008-08-30, Roger Merriman wrote:
Ben C wrote:

On 2008-08-30, Roger Merriman wrote:
[...]
had a punture on friday, on the rear, marthonplus, a screw that had
pentrated though,

That's a real coincidence-- I had exactly the same puncture also on
Friday. Marathon plus, and a nasty little 1cm long self-tapping screw
that appeared to have tapped itself into the tyre.

where abouts?

Cambridge.

The good news though is that the tyre went back on the rim easily. When
it was new it was very difficult to get on and I thought it had better
be "unplatbar" because I'm not going to enjoy changing it by the side of
the road in the rain.

But after it had been on there for a couple of years it seemed to have
softened up quite a bit.

Roger Merriman wrote:
but my word the tire is so beaten up, parts of the bead and the side
wall look pritty bad, the bike is very heavy, 50lb by time all my gear
is added and the sit up and beg postion, the rear's side wall takes a
pounding...

What size is the tyre, and what pressure do you inflate it to?

Under-inflation will cause durability problems with any tyre.

~PB

Roger Merriman wrote:
Pete Biggs wrote:

Roger Merriman wrote:
but my word the tire is so beaten up, parts of the bead and the side
wall look pritty bad, the bike is very heavy, 50lb by time all my
gear is added and the sit up and beg postion, the rear's side wall
takes a pounding...

What size is the tyre, and what pressure do you inflate it to?

Under-inflation will cause durability problems with any tyre.

~PB

38mm and 80psi, it's just the loads that the tire is subjected to, the
bike is very heavy, plus all my gear, with a sit up and beg postion.
so all the weight in all weathers on the rear tire.

in that time i've gone though a few rear wheels, so the tire is doing
well.

The weight is irrelevant when the tyre is pumped up hard enough. 38mm @ 80
psi should be enough, though, so I don't know why you're having the
problems. M+ is normally a very tough durable tyre. I happen to know
someone also uses these tyres with a sit up and beg position and a hell of a
lot of weight - without problems.

~PB

Ben C wrote:

On 2008-08-30, Roger Merriman wrote:
Ben C wrote:

On 2008-08-30, Roger Merriman wrote:
[...]
had a punture on friday, on the rear, marthonplus, a screw that had
pentrated though,

That's a real coincidence-- I had exactly the same puncture also on
Friday. Marathon plus, and a nasty little 1cm long self-tapping screw
that appeared to have tapped itself into the tyre.

where abouts?

Cambridge.

The good news though is that the tyre went back on the rim easily. When
it was new it was very difficult to get on and I thought it had better
be "unplatbar" because I'm not going to enjoy changing it by the side of
the road in the rain.

But after it had been on there for a couple of years it seemed to have
softened up quite a bit.

was nice and sunny here so i just sat and changed the tube, came of
fairly easly, and back on, at least with some nice tought steel tire
levers.

roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com

Pete Biggs wrote:

Roger Merriman wrote:
but my word the tire is so beaten up, parts of the bead and the side
wall look pritty bad, the bike is very heavy, 50lb by time all my gear
is added and the sit up and beg postion, the rear's side wall takes a
pounding...

What size is the tyre, and what pressure do you inflate it to?

Under-inflation will cause durability problems with any tyre.

~PB

38mm and 80psi, it's just the loads that the tire is subjected to, the
bike is very heavy, plus all my gear, with a sit up and beg postion. so
all the weight in all weathers on the rear tire.

in that time i've gone though a few rear wheels, so the tire is doing
well.

roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com

Pete Biggs wrote:

Roger Merriman wrote:
Pete Biggs wrote:

Roger Merriman wrote:
but my word the tire is so beaten up, parts of the bead and the side
wall look pritty bad, the bike is very heavy, 50lb by time all my
gear is added and the sit up and beg postion, the rear's side wall
takes a pounding...

What size is the tyre, and what pressure do you inflate it to?

Under-inflation will cause durability problems with any tyre.

~PB

38mm and 80psi, it's just the loads that the tire is subjected to, the
bike is very heavy, plus all my gear, with a sit up and beg postion.
so all the weight in all weathers on the rear tire.

in that time i've gone though a few rear wheels, so the tire is doing
well.

The weight is irrelevant when the tyre is pumped up hard enough. 38mm @ 80
psi should be enough, though, so I don't know why you're having the
problems. M+ is normally a very tough durable tyre. I happen to know
someone also uses these tyres with a sit up and beg position and a hell of a
lot of weight - without problems.

~PB

maybe they are slower less distance? my partners bike of simular though
not as heavy, tires are fine.

i can don't tend to slow for potholes/speedbumps etc, quite happy to use
the odd bridleway if it connects, ie i'm fairly hard on the bike. it was
intended as a simple knock about town, but it gets use a lot more heavly
than that.

even at 80psi there will be a fair amount of give, i had some simular
sized landcruisers which pinchflatted all the time, as the sidewalls
just didn't have the support.

ie the bike is workhorse so gets some horrible treatment...

roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com

Roger Merriman wrote:
i can don't tend to slow for potholes/speedbumps etc, quite happy to
use the odd bridleway if it connects, ie i'm fairly hard on the bike.
it was intended as a simple knock about town, but it gets use a lot
more heavly than that.

Perhaps the sidewalls are coming into contact with some of the rough stuff
you ride. That can happen. Otherwise, I reckon the air should protect them
from damage.

even at 80psi there will be a fair amount of give, i had some simular
sized landcruisers which pinchflatted all the time, as the sidewalls
just didn't have the support.

Again, air pressure should prevent pinch-flats (there needs to be some give,
but not too much). I don't know of a bicycle tyre that has enough
enforcement to prevent pinch-flats when the pressure is low. (Tubeless
tyres are used by mountain bikers using very low pressure).

~PB