Tire Delamination

This is a new one for me. I have over 300,000 klms on various bikes and never had a tire delaminate before.

I was feeling a bit of a front wheel wobble at times for the last week, It would come at about 35 klms/hr during decelleration and dissappear, but I finally found the problem. There is a slightly raised bubble, about 1 inch across, on the running surface of my front tire. It is soft enough to push it in with my finger. I am definately ordering a new tire when the shops open on Tuesday.

The tire is a Avon Viper Stryke 120/80 x 14, manufactured date is 0718 I put about 5000 klms on this 2004 swing since I purchased it last August. The tire at that time was almost new, so I do not know the true miles on the tire.
There is still a lot of tread left on the front tire,

Has anyone had this problem before? Any recourse with the manufacturer?

I've posted a couple of times about a sidewall delamination blister on a rear Bridgestone Hoop tyre back when I owned a Silver Wing.

No real drama after I spotted it, ordered a set of Continental ContiMove tyres as replacements from the local Suzuki dealer. Then a few days later went for a coffee and a bacon sandwich while the workshop was fitting them.

Age is the death of tires. When I bought my Forza in 2020 the tires looked great, tons of tread BUT upon checking they were the OEM tires so 5 years old. Anyway, the next year the tires had loads of cracks and separation so replacement was necessary. So as your tires age keep a close eye on them and start thinking about replacement.

Age, incorrect pressure and heat can cause delamination so there might be some unknown history on that tyre.
I have ran a pair of Avon Strykes and found them to be good tyres wet or dry. The front lasted 7500 miles and the rear 3000, which is pretty much normal for me.

I remember that around the time I bought my first maxiscooter, a Piaggio X9250, there was a batch of tyres from a well-known manufacturer which were faulty and delaminated.
Fortunately, there were no accidents caused by this and the company replaced all the tyres without question or inspection.
I guess it doesn't often happen but can't be ruled out

Thank you for the updates guys. Have ordered a new tire, but it will not be here for two to three days. Not to many scooters in this area, so nobody carries inventory for 14 inch tires.

LarryD wrote:

Thank you for the updates guys.  Have ordered a new tire, but it will not be here for two to three days.   Not to many scooters in this area,  so nobody carries inventory for 14 inch tires.

Don't worry about ordering tires! I live in the US and even at the Honda dealers they have to order them for me... I guess there is not a call to stock scooter size tires.

Just an update. I took the tire off of the swing yesterday. The tire is in poor shape. There are five separate locations on the tire that have started to delaminate. Happy that I found this problem before I set off on a 900 klm run this weekend.

Note that my new tire is being shipped to my repair shop from Calgary Alberta which is just over 2000 klms from here. They estimate 2 day delivery. My shop ordered me a Shinko tire because they offer same day shipping. Some of the other brands offer 1 to 2 day shipping which means that it could take 5 days to get here.

I will have to get into the habit of checking my tires more often.

Ride safe guys.

steve_h80, only 3000 miles on a rear tire,sounds pretty poor. I just replaced a rear Contiscoot tire on my Swing at 5000 and thought that wasn't very good. You must ride must pretty aggressively. I ordered my Shinko from Cahapparal and was delivered in two days from California ti Tucson,AZ.

Who me? I would say with enthusiasm
5-6000 miles is more usual from a deep tread adventure tyre on the other bike, so taking into account 'Pi D' 3-3500 miles on a little scooter wheel is about right.
It is all to do with my riding style and territory, constant acceleration, braking and riding uphill will heat and wear a tyre much more than riding through town or cruising at a constant 70 on the motorway.
But I ride for fun nor practicality so it's a price I'm happy to pay.

Hi Guy's, changing mine sometime this week, 9,596 miles on this tire. I have always used Hoops and balance with balancing beads because I don't have a cone large enough for the rear rim to use my balancer. This is my 5th rear tire. I now have 41,343 miles total. Take care and God Bless, Dickie