Cycling UK Forum

I am building up a Jack Taylor frame for the L'Eroica. I bought some period wheels that came with rather nice whitewall tyres. There is a split in the sidewall on the rear tyre, Is this OK to ride?

Grateful for any advice.

Steve

Glue it together and put a boot inside for good measure. Plastic banknotes work very well e.g. HK or Aussie.

I wouldn't trust a tyre with a split in it, especially one of unknown age and history. I don't expect the rules prevent new tyres being used

Buy some new tyres

they look realy rotten to me

They look like Hutchinson `U` tyres to me, so not really that old - I wouldn`t trust anything with a split in it.

Do not ride. The tube may escape out of the split and burst unpatchably. I've seen it on group rides when a split happened.

Repair or ideally replace and recycle.

mjr wrote:Do not ride. The tube may escape out of the split and burst unpatchably. I've seen it on group rides when a split happened.

It won't happen if you put a boot on the inside. That only happens if a split occurs while you are riding and without a boot in place the inner tube can poke through it (and open it up)

I have repaired and ridden tyres that are worse than that. I am happier with such repairs on lower pressure tyres but have done similar for 95psi tyres.

My safety requirement is that I always put such repairs on the back wheel, never the front.

Back in the day, puncture repair kits used to include a piece of heavy canvas, rubberised on one side, that you could use to reinforce such a split by sticking it on the inside. I've still got some, though it is so covered in dust and chalk powder that I doubt if the glue would grip. You could easily bodge something similar and then use it on the back wheel. Also take some more with you on the Eroica just in case....

I'd put a boot in and keep riding.
If you are nervous, move it to the back wheel. That would mean that any blowout would have a less severe result, but also makes it difficult to spot any pre-blowout bulge that may happen.
I use sections cut from old (road) tyres for the boots. I've used them for up to about 1500 miles, until the tyre wore out. If the boot is too thick and you don't chamfer the ends, it can wear though the tube in time.

I've had the side wall of a tyre split on a rear tyre as I was banking around a corner at some speed. There was a load bang as the pinched tube failed completely, a lot of sparks from the rim and somehow I manage to get my foot out of the pedal did a speedway style maneuver to come to a halt facing at 90 degree just off the carriage way. I don't know how I managed it as it happen very quickly. So lucky not to come down and be run over by the car behind.

I would not use that tyre, they were always pretty poor anyway. I have used a tyre boot to get home but at relatively low pressure and took the corners and down hill extremely cautiously.

There seems to be an assumption about the nature of the split in some of the other posts. I'm not familiar with the tyre in question, but it looks like the flaw is at a mould join. Note the blue stripe follows the flaw, which you would get at a join.

Also, the side wall looks to be made of a thickish layer of rubber - I can't see any carcass threads that you'd get with a thin sidewall. So could it be that the rubber at the join has peeled back, rather than any threads being cut? In which case, integrity might not have been compromised.

Perhaps the OP can tell us whether any carcass threads have been cut?

This is only my speculation, but there is usually a tendency whenever someone asks about a damaged component for most answers to be overly conservative in judgement. Not saying that it isn't sensible, but it's not objective. So no real insight gained. Sorry to sound critical.

TonyR wrote:It won't happen if you put a boot on the inside. That only happens if a split occurs while you are riding and without a boot in place the inner tube can poke through it (and open it up)

The bit of my message which you cut said that repair is one option - and it seems you agree that riding a split tyre without a boot is a bad idea!

I bought a barely used 1980s touring bike a few years ago complete with what I belive were the original Nutrak tyres. They were OK for a few weeks then the rear tread started peeling at the edges slightly, which I ignored for a few weeks more, then one day on a steep bendy descent the bike felt rather wobbly and vague and on inspection at the bottom I found large strips of tread on the rear tyre were becoming completely detached from the caracass and the front tyre tread was just starting to lift at the edges. I then concluded that it was time to replace them, having satisfied myself I had got as much use out of the originals as possible.

So yes on a back tyre I would bodge a repair until such time as it looked likely to fail completely next time I used it, unless I was doing long audax rides or going away on tour. Incidentally I replaced with Panaracer Paselas, which with the amber sidewalls would suit your Jack Taylor quite well I think.