armadillo tire blew off rim?



saturnsc2

New Member
Jul 14, 2004
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i'm running armadillo 27 x 1 1/4 125psi tires on my road bikes. i never had any trouble with them. never any flats or problems whatsoever. today the front tire decided to blow off the rim & blow out the inner tube. sounded like a bomb. i had the front wheel off the bike previously to have it trued up. i also had to deflate the tire to get it past the brake shoes while removing it. maybe it wasn't properly seated before i re-filled it? as i said i never had this problem before. i realize these are very high pressure tires & they must ber properly seated.

has anyone here had this happen? is so what was the poroblem in your case?
 
saturnsc2 said:
today the front tire decided to blow off the rim & blow out the inner tube. sounded like a bomb. i had the front wheel off the bike previously to have it trued up. i also had to deflate the tire to get it past the brake shoes while removing it. maybe it wasn't properly seated before i re-filled it?

has anyone here had this happen? is so what was the poroblem in your case?

I don't know about Armadillo tires, but this type of thing happened when I tried to put new Panaracer 700x28C (similar to current Pasela) on the Alex Rims (similar to current DF23) that came standard on a Specialized Sirrus. The Specialized Nimbus 700x28C tires that came with the bike worked fine. The Panaracers evenutally popped off every time before I realized that the problem was not with my installation. Everything about the tire sizes was supposedly the same, including the ISO specification (622). Sometimes, I had ridden the bike for a while, so the problem was very worrisome.

I asked around about possible reasons, and the only suggestion I got was that there was a bad match between rim and tire. The LBS measured the rim diameter and said it was within spec, though maybe a hair on the small side. They placed a new Specialized Nimbus on the rim, and it worked fine. The Panaracers also worked fine on Mavic rims, which I now use.

I never figured out the problem. The Panaracers felt easier to pull onto the Alex Rim, so maybe they are a bit bigger on the inside. Also, maybe there is something about the bead that does not hold well to this particular rim. I now think there are compatibility issues between certain rims and tires that appear compatible from just specs.
 
i never had this problem before. it was suggested that i might have pinched the inner tube between the rin & tire which might have caused this problem. the rims are sort of narrow & the tubes love to pop out when the tires are deflated. i'll have to watch out for this when i repair it...
 
yup that's what i think. when i first installed the tires the tubes are new & totally deflated to ther point where they are perfectly flat. when they are deflated the tube might stick out between the rim & tire if not checked...
 
To avoid the pinch flat you experienced, many people put a little air in the inner tube before mounting the tire. Also, after the tire is on, you can inflate first to 10-20 psi and check all around the bead on both sides to make sure the tube is inside and the bead is seated correctly on the rim. If all is good, then continue up to the pressure you prefer with confidence.
 
well after i took apart the rim/tire i don't think it's my fault now. the sealing bead where the tire blew off is damaged. there's an inch of the little lip that engages into the lip in the rim is torn off. & it's like that on the other end of the tire where it was blown off. if i re-use this tire it might come off in those same places. not only that the rim has damage also. it's bowed out in the 2 places where the tire was blown off. i tried to re-bend it in & now it's not perfectly straight in those areas it's rippled, so the rim might not be any good anymore now. what sucks is it's an old rigida rim which i probably can not find a replacement anymore...

i wonder if specialized will replace this tire like this? the bike store's reciept states no returns after 30 days. i just called them now & they might replace it, but they want to see it. also they want to see the damaged rim....

this sucks! i want to be riding now! this could just be a defective tire. i imagine it happens as i heard other cases where something like this happened. by the way the inner tube is blown open on a seam close to where the tire came off...
 
alienator said:
Time for a new rim. That's all there is to it.
i wonder if it can be straightened. the sealing surface is slightly rippled. do bike shops have tooling that can straighten out a rim like this? i would imagine the sealing surface where the tire seals to the rim should be pretty straight especially under such high pressure...

if necessary i will have a new wheel made with a new rim....
 
saturnsc2 said:
i wonder if it can be straightened. the sealing surface is slightly rippled. do bike shops have tooling that can straighten out a rim like this? i would imagine the sealing surface where the tire seals to the rim should be pretty straight especially under such high pressure...

if necessary i will have a new wheel made with a new rim....

For an old rim, I wouldn't bother.
 
this bike originally had a set of cheap wobbly steel rims on it. i found these in the rubbish, a set of nice made in france (not china) Rigida double wall aluminum rins. they are awesone! some people have no clue what they throw out! it's a shame the front one had to get damaged. you don't come by good rims like this anymore. these must be about 20 years old plus i imagine. oh well....

just had them both trued up also...