Woke up to a flat tire...

[OKstate311]

Had plans to adjust, clean, and lube the chain and then head out for nice early afternoon ride today, but all was de-railed. When I went to go move the bike I noticed it was leaning a little far over on its sidestand and sure enough, rear tire is super-low. Not flat to the bone but pretty damn low...

I put it up on the center-stand and couldn't find a puncture or a slash, so I wheeled it over to the air compressor and got it back up to spec PSI. As soon as I get it full I can hear a faint hiss of air escaping. I started spinning the wheel and found the leak. The air is coming from where the sidewall mounts up against the wheel, and there's a smallish-skinny strip of rubber protruding from inside the wheel at a perpendicular angle.

Have no idea how this could have happened... These are brand new Metzeler M3's with less than 200 miles on them, did I get a bad rear tire, or were they mounted incorrectly? Did something happen to my tire inside of the boundaries of the rim? I will try to get a picture but it's hard to get my camera to focus at such a close angle.

 

[OKstate311]

Here's a pic of said rubber hanging out of the wheel...

 

[Evitzee]

Looks like a bit of rubber got trapped between the rim and the tire when the tire was installed. If you can't ride it to the dealer to have it fixed you'll have to dismount the wheel and take it in to have it fixed. Looks like a freak occurence, but the tire should be salvageable.

 

[Reed]

I would go back to where you bought and got the tire installed from, and get them to fix it!! It must be something wrong with the tire, or the installation.

 

[McLovin]

You may have seen or used it before. That tool they use at bike shops to get the tire on the rim, applies a good amount of pressure on the inside edges of the rubber. It rotates 360 degrees while rubbing against the inside edge, putting pressure. Maybe the material was already weak at one spot and the installation just peeled the rubber. Definitely ask the guy who installed it.

 

[CHEMIKER]

It looks like they ripped the bead installing the tire. If it is, there should be little doubt how that got there and that they did the damage installing it, so they should replace it.

Don't take it somewhere else, take it to the guy who put your tire on. If you have it removed by someone else, it will be hard to argue who caused the damage.

EDIT: McLovin beat me to it but I 100% agree with what he said.

 

[FinalImpact]

It looks like they ripped the bead installing the tire. If it is, there should be little doubt how that got there and that they did the damage installing it, so they should replace it.

Don't take it somewhere else, take it to the guy who put your tire on. If you have it removed by someone else, it will be hard to argue who caused the damage.

EDIT: McLovin beat me to it but I 100% agree with what he said.

^ +1

Looks like there was not enough lube and the tool used peeled up some of the bead.

Damage lies in the hands of the installer. As said, take it back to them. It could be that the tire is fine and the chunk needs removed but I'd want to full inspection of the dismounted tire before I accept it and walk away.

 

[OKstate311]

Thanks for all the replies! The leak took several hours to completely escape, do you think it would be safe to ride 10 miles to the shop that did the install? I could take the tire off, but I'd rather just present them the bike as-is, without me touching anything and say "ok guys, open it up so I can see what you did".

It's doubtful that I could get it over there today, so it looks like I'm S.O.L. until Tuesday...

 

[CHEMIKER]

I would play it by ear personally. I'd fill the tire and check how slow the leak really is for a period of time before riding it, but if the leak was slow I'd have no problem riding it 10 miles (assuming city speeds right?). If you can't ride today, it's a perfect chance to put some air in it and check how fast the leak is.

Good luck!

 

[dxh24]

If I could hear the air hissing, if it's 10 mi on back roads where you can take it easy, sure... highway speeds definitely a no.... no telling what that's doing to the structural integrity of the tire. Either way, take it easy! :thumbup:

 

[OKstate311]

UPDATE:

Got the bike over to the shop today, had only lost about 10 psi by the time I got there, not too bad. They got the tire pulled off and it looked like just a bad cut from the factory with a little excess rubber. Got me mounted up with a replacement and sent the other one back to Metzeler. Fizzer's good to go!! :Flash:

 

[Reed]

UPDATE:

Got the bike over to the shop today, had only lost about 10 psi by the time I got there, not too bad. They got the tire pulled off and it looked like just a bad cut from the factory with a little excess rubber. Got me mounted up with a replacement and sent the other one back to Metzeler. Fizzer's good to go!! :Flash:

Glad to hear that you got the FZ6 ride-able again!!! :thumbup:

 

[greg]

was going to say i wouldn't trust the tyre if it had been ridden flat, as it could have hidden damage to the sidewall, glad to hear they replaced it