BT45 tire cracking???

I went to go for my first real ride of the season and did a check over of the motorcycle. The rear tire was a few lbs. low (not as bad as I thought) and topped it off. Got to the front and saw what you see below. Pressure was very close- 38 lbs., which makes sense with the cold weather. I've never seen this kind of cracking of a MC tire before. On each side of the tire, in different spots, there seems to be centralized points with cracks radiating out from it- they are on different points of the tire, not lined up. Besides those spots, there are very long- well in excess of 12"- cracks running along the tire. These run from the sidewall to the tread.

This isn't an old tire- it was purchased and mounted late last season, and has roughly 5k miles on it. My last BT45 lasted over 21k miles. Anyone else seen this happen to a BT45? Or ANY tire?

Oh man that tire is a disaster waiting to happen! Looks like some type of damage to the sidewalls. I hope you have another tire to change it out? Maybe riding in that cold weather you have damaged it when you hit a pothole or two??

970mike said:

Oh man that tire is a disaster waiting to happen! Looks like some type of damage to the sidewalls. I hope you have another tire to change it out? Maybe riding in that cold weather you have damaged it when you hit a pothole or two??

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That is the only thing I can think of. I didn't hit anything, and the main damage centers on each side are in different places on the tire. I really can't see why cold would affect a motorcycle tire any more than a car tire. And no, I don't have another tire, so the bike is now parked until further notice. With every dollar going to the business, there are no funds for a new tire.

I do have last year's old tire, but its pretty worn out and I don't want to go through the effort of mounting it just to buy a little time. If I already had a tire changer, it might be a different story...but doing it with tire spoons on the kitchen floor is more than I'm willing to do for a very short term solution.

970mike said:

Maybe riding in that cold weather you have damaged it when you hit a pothole or two??

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That was my first thought, it's shattered like tile would shatter... never seen something like that before.

That's not very comforting. I have 14K+ on mine now and I think it's got a long way to go before being wore out. Let's hope age isn't a factor. Isn't there a way to check MFG date to see if you have old stock?

I'm no chemist but I think sometimes we outsmart ourselves with technology. The rubber compounds available today have progressed over yesteryear but there may be some detriment to these new compounds. The cracks would indicate heat, I think. Maybe it was made on a Monday and the poor schmuck at the clam shell oven had a hangover, too much saki.

It won't be long and someone will offer you a take-off tire with some tread left. I have two of them but they are getting thin and wouldn't be worth the postage to send it to you.

Dinkie Diesel said:

It won't be long and someone will offer you a take-off tire with some tread left. I have two of them but they are getting thin and wouldn't be worth the postage to send it to you.

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That is the problem. I wouldn't bother paying postage for a well used tire any more than I'd bother putting my old tire on. It probably has a thousand or so miles left in it, but for me that is a couple days of riding...LOL. Plus the old one is very cupped. Its early in the year, I can wait to get this resolved. I'm contacting Bridgestone with a link to the photos. Hopefully they stand up for their products.

I've worked with cage tires for decades, and have a fair amount of experience with MC tires, and I have never seen this happen. I've seen cracking- very minor from very old, dry tires- and a more consistent cracking than few, large cracks like this has. As Mellow said- it almost looks like it shattered. I might be more apt to believe some kind of damage to the tire if the center point of the damage was on only one side, but it happened to both sides.

Remember this is the second BT45 I have used, and the first one worked flawlessly. No complains or problems at all. I'll go check the date code.

Edit: Date is March of 12. Far from an old tire.

That's messed up! Talk to your supplier - there is a good chance that it could be replaced as defective.

WOW!!! I will check mine when I get home. Scary...

I am with sscharf, it could be a warranty issue. Good job contacting Bridgestone snd let us know what they say.

I sent out a message to Bridgestone (leaving out certain details...such as bike model, and that its run in "double dark" position). I also contacted my supplier...the one we all know and love. I gave him full honest info. I'll be upfront and say that I ran this tire as Double Dark knowing that could void the warranty. So if it gets covered...AWESOME! If it doesn't...no hard feelings toward my supplier, I took a chance and knew that going in.

Really what I'm seeing doesn't look like anything that could have been caused by the position of the tire, or using a different size than what was intended. While its something I've never heard of, the damage really does look like something that would have happened by running the tire on one of the very cold nights, and hitting the many bumps on our terrible roads. Its amazing the damage that can be caused at -20f (coldest I left the house was -19f for a reading of -14f in town). I've replaced enough broken springs and other parts that we get overwhelmed with when the cold weather hits, to know the damage extreme cold does. I've just never seen it with tires.

I strongly suggest that riding in -20F temperatures is what caused that especially with the roads you have. It would be interesting to see if there is a temperature rating for that tire.

From the Bridgestone website:

Care and Use at Low Temperatures:

High performance motorcycle tires may crack in the tread area from impact or deformation at low ambient temperatures. Handle and store the tires with care. Always ride carefully until the tires are warmed up, particularly in low ambient temperature conditions.

I've tried searching for temperature ratings and limits, but can only find the high temperature ratings...not low. If it is indeed temperature related, and there is no specification showing a minimum limit, then I would think it should be covered. Time will tell.

fnmag said:

Just plain ugly and scary. Glad you caught it before a ride.

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I have been using the bike all winter on and off...I used it last night to go to a meeting in town, and Tuesday to go to PT at the hospital. I just looked the bike over better before going on a longer ride. I wish I caught it sooner...but I still caught it "in time!"

Just looked at mine and no problem like that at all.

Wow.....

Tyres (tires) used in extreme cold conditions are normally subject to this kind of damage if not brought up to a usable temperature by driving very, very, slowly, like 3mph for a fair distance..... never seen this on a bike tyre as not many folks would ride in air temperatures that low...... never actually seen this level of damage due to cold as we don't generally get those temperatures over here....

There may be evidence of a minor penetration to the tyre right in the middle of that damage.
In seriously low temperatures flexion of the sidewalls is poor due to the rubber hardening up.... riding at any speed over a slow walking pace if the air temperature is that low would be highly inadvisable..... riding at all would not be recommended..... simply because of the low level of grip that might be available even after "warming" up the tyres....

I've seen many kinds of damage including wire strike (often thought to be lightning strike grounding through the tyres), brake overheating and various other modes involving poor fitting, delamination, internal structural failure due to water ingress, penetration damage.... and many more.... have read the theory and seen pictures of truck tyres that have suffered this but never, ever seen it on a bike.... would need to forensically examine the tyre to get more information from it though.....

Glad you didn't suffer injury through it....

I don't think the tire was rated for that cold a ride.

Nasty. Jim, I'm thinking the fact that your bike is out in the elements can't help. It is outside right? Cold is one thing but out in it when -20 is another thing. :tc1:

I had a pair of rubber boots that cracked like this... Is it possible you rode through some strong brine or chemical and it didn't get washed off right away? The boots I had was imulsed in a strong herbacide that took the flexible properties from the rubber, thus the rubber became very brittle. I could push my finger through the boot...

Bigmak96 said:

Nasty. Jim, I'm thinking the fact that your bike is out in the elements can't help. It is outside right? Cold is one thing but out in it when -20 is another thing. :tc1:

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That is the big difference between Dan's ride and mine- his was able to sleep in a heated store. Mine goes in an unheated open shed. There were some nights it slept in the driveway because the incline up from the shed in snow makes it difficult to bring it out if I'm planning a ride.

nhdiesel said:

That is the big difference between Dan's ride and mine.

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That's true Jim, mine is in a heated environment and taken out for the ride. I would think that the tires would cool down real fast when I leave the store. Still it must have something to do with it. PM me your address Jim.