Weird bubble poking out my tire

[Croglet]

Sup Bikehub, 

I noticed a bubble on my front tire after a ride today. The tire is a Maxxis Rekon, tubeless at about 20psi.
Any ideas how that happened? Certainly not normal wear and I've never seen it before on other tires. Must have happened quite suddenly too. 

I couldn't find much online but I did see a few comments saying that it's no big deal, stick a pin in it and it's good to go. Is that good advice, especially considering it's on the front? 🤔
It's not the end of the world if I have to ditch it but I'm not going to toss it if I don't have to since it's only a few months old and these tires seem to be hard to find. 

[SwissVan]

It’s an air bubble, air has got in between the rubber ply’s of your tyre.

Not sure what effect a pin prick would have, I wouldn’t take the chance to carry on riding with it… suppose it depends on what kind of riding you do

 

[openmind]

The tread is delaminating, possibly in reaction to the sealant, but I've only ever seen that in really old tyres. What sealant do you use? 

Regardless, if it's only a few months old, take it back to the shop and show them. That should be a warranty replacement. 

[Croglet]

9 minutes ago, openmind said:

The tread is delaminating, possibly in reaction to the sealant, but I've only ever seen that in really old tyres. What sealant do you use? 

I usually just use Enduro or Dr Sludge but the sealant in there atm is whatever the LBS put in when I had a service a few weeks ago, so most likely Stans I guess.

[FirstV8]

As said , take tyre back to the shop you bought it from and let them consider a warranty replacement . Failing that i would put pin marker in it ,take it off the rim , clean the sealant off at that spot and put a decent thick patch on it . The sealant will do the rest for you . 

[PregoRoll]

All the cracking on that spot looks like the tire is rotten, wonder if it sat in the store under direct sunlight for some time before you purchased it, 

 

[Robbie Stewart]

3 hours ago, PregoRoll said:

All the cracking on that spot looks like the tire is rotten, wonder if it sat in the store under direct sunlight for some time before you purchased it, 

 

I also thought that tyre looked vrot. How does a new(ish) tyre look like that?

[Underachiever]

15 hours ago, Croglet said:

Sup Bikehub, 

I noticed a bubble on my front tire after a ride today. The tire is a Maxxis Rekon, tubeless at about 20psi.
Any ideas how that happened? Certainly not normal wear and I've never seen it before on other tires. Must have happened quite suddenly too. 

I couldn't find much online but I did see a few comments saying that it's no big deal, stick a pin in it and it's good to go. Is that good advice, especially considering it's on the front? 🤔
It's not the end of the world if I have to ditch it but I'm not going to toss it if I don't have to since it's only a few months old and these tires seem to be hard to find. 

I've had plenty and I normally let out the air with a Leatherman blade cut.  My current Maxxis Crossmark had like 5. Slime seeps a bit and then seals again.  I will not go race with such a tyre but works perfectly good for dirt road/gravel riding, and tar of course. 

[PregoRoll]

1 hour ago, Robbie Stewart said:

I also thought that tyre looked vrot. How does a new(ish) tyre look like that?

being exposed to lots of UV over time. causes them to perish. 

@Croglet are these 26" tires or 29er?

[Spinnekop]

16 hours ago, SwissVan said:

It’s an air bubble, air has got in between the rubber ply’s of your tyre.

Not sure what effect a pin prick would have, I wouldn’t take the chance to carry on riding with it… suppose it depends on what kind of riding you do

 

This.  

Happens to car tyres a lot (potholes)

Small cut on the inside of the tyre that does not go right through and thus the air gets trapped between layers.

 

[Iron]

Seen this a few times on tires that are exposed to the heat of a cars exhaust pipe, it heats up and gets the same perish signs as this and delaminates the carcass of the tire .

 

put your bike on your caddy and take a look if your cars exhaust is blowing on it when you driving .

 

if not then this does not apply to you 🙂

 

 

[Croglet]

Just been to speak to the guys at Cycle Lab... 
He reckons it's fairly common with Maxxis tires (Crossmarks in particular) when you're sealing them with Stans which delaminates some layers of rubber. He said the tire would have been covered by the warranty if it's less than a year old and had been sealed with Joes, but they won't replace them if you're using Stans. Didn't mention other brands.
I usually use Enduro or Dr. Sludge with no issues but I think the place that recently serviced my bike probably did use Stans. 

He also said that I could poke it with a blade and let it seal up and it should be fine, which I did and it looks okay although I have noticed quite a few very small spots of moisture all around the tire which can only be sealant and probably means that it's on its way out. 

There were few comments about the tire looking a bit knackered - looking back through my records I see that I bought the tire from Cycle Lab 10 months ago, so not sitting in the sun at the shop, and it has about 3500km on it now, mostly trails and a bit of road.
That might explain it?
Bike isn't exposed to the sun when not in use. 

26 minutes ago, PregoRoll said:

are these 26" tires or 29er?

It's 29". 
 
I'll probably ride this one a bit more but I ended up buying another Rekon while I was there. Never had issues with the first few I had and I find them to be really good front tires, although I will have to remember to ask the LBS not to put Stans in it when I get a service.  

Anyways, thanks for the comments and suggestions, much appreciated 👍

[Croglet]

1 minute ago, Iron said:

Seen this a few times on tires that are exposed to the heat of a cars exhaust pipe, it heats up and gets the same perish signs as this and delaminates the carcass of the tire .

Yup, I've done that before 🤦‍♂️
Mauled a brand new tire in one road trip, but that lesson was learnt and I did not make the same mistake with this one. 😁

[Rudii]

6 minutes ago, Croglet said:

Just been to speak to the guys at Cycle Lab... 
He reckons it's fairly common with Maxxis tires (Crossmarks in particular) when you're sealing them with Stans which delaminates some layers of rubber. He said the tire would have been covered by the warranty if it's less than a year old and had been sealed with Joes, but they won't replace them if you're using Stans. Didn't mention other brands.
I usually use Enduro or Dr. Sludge with no issues but I think the place that recently serviced my bike probably did use Stans. 

He also said that I could poke it with a blade and let it seal up and it should be fine, which I did and it looks okay although I have noticed quite a few very small spots of moisture all around the tire which can only be sealant and probably means that it's on its way out. 

There were few comments about the tire looking a bit knackered - looking back through my records I see that I bought the tire from Cycle Lab 10 months ago, so not sitting in the sun at the shop, and it has about 3500km on it now, mostly trails and a bit of road.
That might explain it?
Bike isn't exposed to the sun when not in use. 

It's 29". 
 
I'll probably ride this one a bit more but I ended up buying another Rekon while I was there. Never had issues with the first few I had and I find them to be really good front tires, although I will have to remember to ask the LBS not to put Stans in it when I get a service.  

Anyways, thanks for the comments and suggestions, much appreciated 👍

Been riding Maxxis with Stans sealant for years and this has never happened to me. But have a friend that had the same bubble issue on the last two sets of Maxxis Forekasters he had, not sure which sealant he's using.

[Headshot]

New tyre day! Yay!

[RobertWhitehead]

It's an alien trying to break through the egg