Tire Cracks-Anyone Else?

[wes0778]

I can see not putting it on the tread. But the putting it on the sidewalls shouldn't cause the tires to be "slippery", as Amorall says.

 

 

Can we say centrifugal force. My son in law in a "brain-dead" moment armoralled the sidewalls on his Busa, being extra careful not to get close to the tread. After a ride somewhat over the interstafe speed limit he noticed the bike was not wanting to stop as it should.

With the heat and speed the stuff had migrated TO the tread. I don't think he'll ever do THAT again!!!

[Red Ryder]

Cooper Tires (Avon) wrote me back, here is what they said:

Thank you for contacting Avon Tyres. Please bring your tires to your dealer

for inspection. Also, please reply with the pictures to this email. Your

pictures will help give us an idea of what kind of cracking has occurred.

 

We probably asked you before but do you use any tire cleaners or park next

to a gas can or fertilizers. These things can be absorbed into tires and

cause excessive cracking.

 

During your tires inspections, please have the dealer call us at the 800#

below. Let us know if you have any questions.

 

Thank you.

 

The Reason I Did This Post is to Make You Aware to Check Your Tires. Let me make this point, I am not ragging on Avon Tires. I like them, last year when we was loaded, two up, in Vegas (with a wind storm of 69mpr and 6" of Rain in 10 min that hit us so fast from behind we didn't have a chance or no place to pull over) the Avons handled Great. So paperboy don't go changing your mind on Avons yet. The front tire they replaced has no problems, it is just the back tire this time, but still a concern. Later-

[GOODWRENCH]

I have metzler tires with ,8,000 mile lots of thread and lots of sidewall cracks, only three years old. Dont know what tires to try now. Might have to go back to Dunlap.

[Freebird]

My Avon's are a year old and have no cracks. I'm very pleased with them. That being said, my previous tries were Michelin Commanders and I was very happy with them also. If anybody has doubts about the Avons, I would suggest either the Michelin Commanders or the Dunlop Elite 3. I've not tried the Elite 3's but have heard good reports on them.

[Bummer]

I'm certainly not trying to speak out against Avons, but rather, as Red Ryder said, speaking out on behalf of frequent and thorough inspections, particularly at the beginning of a season.

 

I replaced both tires with new Avons. I'm on my third Avon rear, second front. The rear in the photos is the only one that has cracked. The front, which was two seasons old, had very minor checking between lugs. It had no cracks.

 

The bike gets bagged up in a semi-enclosed carport during the winter. The tires are somewhat subject to weather, inflated, and bearing the weight of the bike - all basically wrong for storage. Still, none of the others have ever done anything like this.

 

Right now I'm suspecting batch issues.

 

So, regular inspections guys! One just never knows what to expect.

[PBJ]

Through out this whole thread I saw no mention of how to detect Tires age or manufacturing date. A tire may have been shipped to a dealer upon order but what you may not know is when the tire was bought by a warehouse.

 

A tire manufacturer can not be blamed if a warehouse distributor buys tires in bulk then sells the older tires first. I had this happen to me. I bought tires through Dennis Kirk only to have them fail for dry rot the begining of the next season. It turns out the tires were 8 years old. Most manufacturers recommend a shelf life of only 4 years.

 

On each tire there is an oval with three numbers The numbers respresent Month, day and year. This will give you an idea of the age of the tire,By checking this you can avoid a potential problem.

 

NOTE: Warehouse sellers usually do not garuantee tires, In order to get a replacement you'll have to contact the manufacture. I had the manufacturer, Contienital, send me a new set of tires. Checking the numbers is the key to whether a tire will be good or bad.

[Condor]

On each tire there is an oval with three numbers The numbers respresent Month, day and year. This will give you an idea of the age of the tire,By checking this you can avoid a potential problem.

 

Actually there are four numbers. The first two are the week 1-52 of the year and the second two are the year manufactured.

[ddoggma]

When I got my bike it had very old tires on it that HAD to be replaced because of that age. At first when I saw the bike I was like. "Tires look good" But the seller pointed out the cracks that were hard to see and told me..."You will need new rubber." When I saw the cracks I agreed, with him. I went with the Kenda Kruz tires. For the price, and they have been great,so far. The tires that were on the bike were Metz, and very old, plus the front was the wrong size for the bike....too thin.

[Bummer]

The middle pic in my first post in this thread shows the manufacture date as 3207. I put it on during the last week of 0608. I removed it with cracks 0309. Aside from the cracks the tire looks almost new.

[T.J.]

This was a good post to remind us to check our tires. On the Dunlop tire sight this is what they stated, Sidewall Treatment

http://www.dunlopmotorcycle.com/tiretips/sidewall.jpgUse a mild soap solution to clean sidewalls, white striping or lettering, and rinse off with plain water. Never apply any other material, cleaners or dressings, to enhance sidewall appearance. These may degrade rubber and remove inherent ozone cracking/weather checking resistance.

I have Avons on the front and back. I just inspected my tires after reading this post. The front tire I put on in May of 07. It was manufactured in Aug. of 06. I have 13,850 miles on it with not (1) crack. The rear was installed in June of 07. manufactured in June of 05."Older that the front" I have 12,000 miles on it. No cracks not (1) The tire tread looks great.

[hdroyer]

Went and checked my Avon and sure enough cracks.

Called Avon aka cooper tire and they said to take it to dealer and have them call them.

Date 4307

[cecdoo]

I have avons on my suzuki and rsv, suzuki set is 3 years old no cracks front or rear, rsv set has 12k on them no cracks front or rear. Must be a bad batch or something?? Craig

[cecdoo]

Just thinking, my bikes are always parked in a dry garage, wonder if where they are parked or stored has anything to do with it?

[Guest HdHtr]

I replaced my tires with a set of Venoms in March of 08. First time I have ever used the brand. MFG date was 32/07 and 39/07. I never put any kind of dressing on tires, rarely even wash them other than a rinse off with water, bike is garaged, normally ridden daily unless the temp is under 20 degrees. I normally run at or close to the recommend psi on the sidewall, in my case, 50 psi cold.

 

When I saw this thread I went out and checked my tires closely for a change! I found the rear to be cracked on both sides toward the middle of the sidewall, not universal but in patches all the way around the tire on both sides. The front tire is cracked and also has like very heavy weather checking, more towards the rim all the way around both sides.

 

I contacted Avon, sent them pics of the tires. They are replacing both when I can find a dealer that'll work with Avon on it. Although they did not admit to a problem it is fairly apparent that mfg dates in the last quarter of 07 had a problem.

 

What was odd is that the Avon rep told me not to run the tires at max cold psi (50 on mine) but based on one up or two up, weight of riders and gear etc. This is what Avon sent me on tire pressure:

 

I have copied our recommended fitment below showing air pressures for solo and two up riding. Let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing from your dealer.

 

Thank you for supporting Avon Tyres and ride safely.

 

 

Avon Fitments For Yamaha

 

XVZ 1300 T D Venture Royal (1986 - 1993)

 

Front Tyres

 

» Venom AM41

Size 120/90-18 71H

2.5 bar (40psi) solo 42-psi two up.

 

Rear tyres

 

» Venom AM42

Size 140/90B16 77H

2.9 bar (44psi) solo 46-psi two up.

 

 

 

[jryan]

I just went out & checked the Avon Venoms I had installed last Sept...only have 300 miles on them...no cleaner used...stored in garage during winter.

 

The rear tire (right side only) has cracking. The date code is 0308.

The front looked fine (for now)...the date code is 4107.

So now I'm pissed too! Guess I'll be calling my dealer tomorrow.

 

04/24/09 update - I called then emailed pics to my local dealer and he had never seen this problem at all, not with the Avons or any others he's mounted. He's done a ton of Avons including his own bike. He contacted his Avon rep. They are sending a replacement @ n/c and he'll install @ n/c. Luckily I didn't even have to take the bike in for him to see.

 

However, the Avon rep wouldn't commit to any reason for it. He said they track all warranty issues in their database and if something is a chronic problem it will be flagged for all reps as a "problem" for all to see, and he said this issue is not considered a "problem" within the Avon company (although a number of us sure think it's a problem)! He acted like mine was the first & only one he's heard of having this problem!

Edited April 25, 2009 by jryan
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[Leadwolf56]

I too found over the weekend that my rear tire is cracked on the sidewall, left side down by the rim. Date code of 2406. Front shows no problem and was manufactured 1107. Only 3500 miles on the tires, installed last summer by the PO.