Road Tubeless Bubble or Zit?

hagerfoot

hagerfoot

Member
While riding today, I noticed a bubble or what looked like a zit on my front tire (Fusion 3's.) I stopped to check it out and tried to snap a photo when it burst and shot sealant in all directions; the hole wouldn't seal. Had a tube and was able to finish my ride.

Anybody seen this before? How is it caused? Seems like it can be dangerous as the tire deflated quite quickly...

Matt
 
Never saw this on a bike, but working on cars I see bubbles all the time. On cars they are usually impact breaks from hitting a pothole, curb, etc. hard at speed. What happens is that the belts inside the tire can separate, overlap, and/or break. At the point of impact, a bubble forms because there is no longer any material under the rubber capable of holding the pressure in the tire. With no hard casing, the rubber grows just like blowing bubble gum. Of course this can really only happen on a tubeless setup as the tire is what holds the pressure. Replace it for sure, otherwise you can run a tube if you really want to hold onto the tire for a bit.
 
1sh0t1b33r said:
Never saw this on a bike, but working on cars I see bubbles all the time. On cars they are usually impact breaks from hitting a pothole, curb, etc. hard at speed. What happens is that the belts inside the tire can separate, overlap, and/or break. At the point of impact, a bubble forms because there is no longer any material under the rubber capable of holding the pressure in the tire. With no hard casing, the rubber grows just like blowing bubble gum. Of course this can really only happen on a tubeless setup as the tire is what holds the pressure. Replace it for sure, otherwise you can run a tube if you really want to hold onto the tire for a bit.
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Thanks! This was helpful.
 
I remember reading some where that some tires had an issue with sealant where the side wall would separate and this could happen. I think Kenda changed their side wall mixture to fix this with the nevagal DTC/STC tires.
 
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