greggsnider
G Spot
On my way home from a Blue Ridge Parkway trip, I discovered that my rear Road Pilot 3 was effectively trashed: the left sidewall was showing white cord all the way 'round, with deeper flat patches showing through the cord. I got heart palpitations when I saw that - we could have had a major failure, and likely on the interstate.
It had been starting to cup, but had plenty of tread. I check pressure every 2-3 days when touring. I run 41 lbs rear; it never lost more than 1-2 lbs, and the sidewall looked fine the day before. Fortunately, we were a mile from a BMW dealer in Wilkes-Barre who replaced the tire in 2 hours. Glad we caught it before spending the day on I-84. I should have taken a picture before the dealer scrapped it.
So, two questions:
1. I run Road Pilot 3 front/rear. The dealer only had an RP-2 rear in stock, so I went with that. Anyone know whether the RP-3 front with the RP-2 rear will be an issue? It seems somewhat less smooth, but I don't know if that's due to 'combining' tires or just that the RP-3 rear was that much smoother. Wondering if I should suck up the $ and get an RP-3 rear or not.
2. Any idea what could have caused that kind of sudden, dramatic wear, bordering on imminent failure? The tires had around 9k on them. I got around 10k on the last PR-3s, and replaced them due to tread depth - they were otherwise normal for 10k. My RT is definitely heavy, but no more than on previous trips. We rode on some cement-type interstate the previous day, wondering if the surface might have trashed the tire. Or could the tires just be defective in some way?
Thanks for the input, o tire gurus.
It had been starting to cup, but had plenty of tread. I check pressure every 2-3 days when touring. I run 41 lbs rear; it never lost more than 1-2 lbs, and the sidewall looked fine the day before. Fortunately, we were a mile from a BMW dealer in Wilkes-Barre who replaced the tire in 2 hours. Glad we caught it before spending the day on I-84. I should have taken a picture before the dealer scrapped it.
So, two questions:
1. I run Road Pilot 3 front/rear. The dealer only had an RP-2 rear in stock, so I went with that. Anyone know whether the RP-3 front with the RP-2 rear will be an issue? It seems somewhat less smooth, but I don't know if that's due to 'combining' tires or just that the RP-3 rear was that much smoother. Wondering if I should suck up the $ and get an RP-3 rear or not.
2. Any idea what could have caused that kind of sudden, dramatic wear, bordering on imminent failure? The tires had around 9k on them. I got around 10k on the last PR-3s, and replaced them due to tread depth - they were otherwise normal for 10k. My RT is definitely heavy, but no more than on previous trips. We rode on some cement-type interstate the previous day, wondering if the surface might have trashed the tire. Or could the tires just be defective in some way?
Thanks for the input, o tire gurus.