Put on my 3rd PR2 rear tire before EOM after I FAILED installing a car tire.
The last PR2 still had a little life left in it (mostly in the middle <_< ) but I knew there would be a few miles of twisties being ridden in Kentucky. so...
Tire mounted with no problems at all and balanced well. Inflated to 42 psi and held pressure well. Rode on it a few times before doing 3k miles at EOM. On the way home on Tuesday I noticed that there was a crack in the tread that apparently aligns with the tire's molding line.
Here's a picture of the molding line that is present in both my and Mary Ellen's front and rear tires
You have to look closely, but it's a fine line that is slightly offset the same amount in each tire. This makes me feel that this is an artifact of the manufacturing process. I'm not sure exactly how it gets there, but I envision there being two pours of the liquid rubber into the mold and this would be where the two halves meet.
Now here is where my rear tire has developed a split in that seam.
It is impossible to tell how deep that split goes. The tire is still holding air just fine, and it may be able to continue through its full life, but as we were strafing high speed sweepers through Vermont at ~70 mph on the way home I had in the back of my mind: What would happen with a sudden pressure loss through a split that size?
The tire has been at optimum pressure (42 psi) and has not yet been overloaded or over ~90 mph.
I bought the tire from Jake Wilson and intend to send them these picture tomorrow to see how they will proceed. That tire has only 4300 miles which is well less than half of what I'd expect.
I must admit that I am a little disappointed, though I've never heard of this kind of an issue with the PR2's before and it doesn't yet seem to be any kind of a trend.
Maybe that CT isn't such a bad idea after all?
The last PR2 still had a little life left in it (mostly in the middle <_< ) but I knew there would be a few miles of twisties being ridden in Kentucky. so...
Tire mounted with no problems at all and balanced well. Inflated to 42 psi and held pressure well. Rode on it a few times before doing 3k miles at EOM. On the way home on Tuesday I noticed that there was a crack in the tread that apparently aligns with the tire's molding line.
Here's a picture of the molding line that is present in both my and Mary Ellen's front and rear tires
You have to look closely, but it's a fine line that is slightly offset the same amount in each tire. This makes me feel that this is an artifact of the manufacturing process. I'm not sure exactly how it gets there, but I envision there being two pours of the liquid rubber into the mold and this would be where the two halves meet.
Now here is where my rear tire has developed a split in that seam.
It is impossible to tell how deep that split goes. The tire is still holding air just fine, and it may be able to continue through its full life, but as we were strafing high speed sweepers through Vermont at ~70 mph on the way home I had in the back of my mind: What would happen with a sudden pressure loss through a split that size?
The tire has been at optimum pressure (42 psi) and has not yet been overloaded or over ~90 mph.
I bought the tire from Jake Wilson and intend to send them these picture tomorrow to see how they will proceed. That tire has only 4300 miles which is well less than half of what I'd expect.
I must admit that I am a little disappointed, though I've never heard of this kind of an issue with the PR2's before and it doesn't yet seem to be any kind of a trend.
Maybe that CT isn't such a bad idea after all?
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