Flat Tires?

Has anyone here recently purchased race tires that went flat or lost large amounts of air through the sidewall almost immediately after they were mounted - as in within minutes or a couple hours?

 

Are you talking about take offs you bought from somebody that were blue and cracked?

 

Brand new, never used, right off the truck, at the track.

 

What kind of tires and what rims are they on?

 

Slicks, stock rims. And the tires in question were re-mounted on different rims - that's when the sidewall leaks were discovered. Not through the bead, through the actual sidewall.

 

Did you put a little soapy water on to see if any bubbles were appearing in a specific area? Any cracks?

 

Through the date stamp. On both tires.

 

That's a first - unless somebody stuck a pin in there or something.

 

The only reason I'm asking is that I thought it was just extraordinarily bad luck for me to get two bad rear slicks back to back - then this weekend I ran into another racer it happened to.

 

I don't know about on slicks, but many types of tires have bleed holes in the side wall to allow air to escape the layers in the carcass of the tire after it is initially inflated. On aircraft tires this usually stops after 12 hours and the pressure should be stable after the tire has stabilized. It would not go flat though.

 

I've tried a lot of ways to save money when racing, but never tried aircraft tires ...

I did talk to the vendor, who apologized. But my concern, to be honest, is that the other racer who had this experience bought the same model tire I did from the same vendor - three months before I had the same thing happen. He thought he was the only one; I thought I was the only one. Wondering if there's anyone else.

 

Perhaps if you mentioned the brand and model the mystery would unfold like a lotus blossom?

-jim

 

Don't want to slander if it's not warranted, nor draw the haters out of the woodwork.

 

I'll break the ice for you then...

I had a Dunlop split from freezing.

There thats easy isnt it?

 

You wouldn't save any money.

 

But he could race on a treadmill.

-jim

 

I thought about the temp thing. But the other guy this happened to - a friend of mine - races in SoCal, and it happened to him in October. Not exactly freezing here then ...

 

No, the tires freeze during shipment or storage. Mine was in July in Utah, about 100 degrees. Tire had frozen either in shipment from UK or during storage before I got it.