I was about a mile into a ten mile MUni ride when my inner tube popped out of my 26 x3.0 Gazz. Upon closer inspection I saw that the metal bead had ripped out for about four inches. Has this happen to any one else? I had a problem once before with this tire coming off the rim, so I have always been a little distrustful of this tire (eBay). ). Could this have been an air pressure problem? I had recently increased the air to about 2 bar.
The good news is that after the mile walk back to the truck I decided it was to nice of a day to cry over a ripped (almost new tread) tire so I pulled out the Coker with the long cranks and did the up and over and down the hill on “The Big One” it was a awesome ride and I didn’t have to walk hardly any of the up hill (just some short steep technical spots).
Sounds like a defective tire to me. I had a tire bead break and the tire became unseated on my dirt-bike once. I took the tire to my local motorcycle shop and they got the manufacture to warranty it. You may want to check with your local bike shop and they may help to get it warrantied for you. Offer to pay them a little cash for their trouble since you didn’t buy it from them. Also, they can probably look at the tire and decide if it is defective
im surprised it lasted so long after after the first event and you turned it around…the same thing happened to the used Gazz i got only i think the bead stretched instead of braking through.
i also think that some of the Gazz’s out there are to tight and the bead gets injured by the tyre levers…
at least it happened localy instead of a the Cal Muni event.
Here is a picture of my Gazz from a year ago. I had lots of trouble with it not seating properly and always having at least a 1/4" of wobble to it. I think the problem was that the bead was actually smaller than the diameter of the rim. Becuase of that it finally cut through the rubber and the sidewall blew out. Amazingly, the tube didn’t blow, it just stuck out and rubbed on my frame. I lowered the pressure and rode home on it. Uni.com warranteed the tire.
Scott thanks for the reply, I think it is great the Unicycle.com was albe to help you out. My tire has four bands in the bead it looks like yours only has one.
