Another reason to check your tires frequently: Metzeler Z6 Failure

[Joe_Rocket]

Hi Gang,

 

I tend to inspect my tires closely when I wash my R1200RT and a bit less closely whenever I ride it. By less closely, I mean I glance over the portion of the tires I can see before I get on for a ride and by closely (when I wash it or do maintenance) I mean I rotate the tires and inspect them thoroughly.

 

Yesterday I washed my 2005 R1200RT and I rotated the rear tire and inspected it while I was drying the rim. In doing so, I noticed that it had a "bubble" in the tread... I pressed on the bubble and it is VERY soft. I'm guessing that the tire experienced an internal separation of the belt. I called the place where I purchased the tire (Cycle Gear) and they said that they thought they could get a manufacturer defect replaced with no problem (I'm hopeful but a bit skeptical). I'll be taking the tire off and bringing it in for them to examine. I thought in the meantime, I'd share the pictures with you.

 

If there is a lesson learned here... it is to inspect your tires closely on a relatively frequent basis. I washed my R1200RT two weeks ago and there was no failure so this problem cropped up sometime in the last two weeks.

 

By the way... I think I'm going to try Conti Road Attack 2s next. If I get this Z6 replaced, I'll keep the replacement as a spare.

 

Here are a few pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joe

[AZRTRDR]

I'm sure glad that you caught that one while at home.

Ride safe,

[OoPEZoO]

Yeehaa.....thats a scary thing to find. Like Tim said, glad you found it at home and not the hard way.

 

I know Z6's can be deceiving, but it looks like you had plenty of rubber left on it. And not that this has anything to do with a failure of this type, but how many miles were on it?

[4wheeldog]

How many miles on the tire?

[MT Wallet]

Did you notice any thumping or vibration the last time you rode? Glad you found it at and not on the road.

[Danny caddyshack Noonan]

Looks like a rubber unbond from the outer ply. Someone didn't do something correctly when laying that up.

[Joe_Rocket]

The tire has 3856 miles on it and I didn't notice any noise or vibration. The "blister" is extremely soft to the touch and I can easily push it in with my finger.

[Selden]

Unrelated, except to reinforce the need for frequent checking: last week, I noticed that my front tire was losing about 2 psi every 24 hours. Careful inspection of the tread showed no problem. When I checked the pressure Tuesday morning, the pressure had again dropped 2 psi overnight, and when I chucked the air hose on the valve stem, I heard hissing. It turned out that the valve stem was going bad, and in fact the metal part had separated from the rubber. I wouldn't have wanted that to happen while on the road.

[gogs01]

Now you've got me worried - I've got 9500 miles on the front Z6 which came with my 2010 R1200RT SE, and 3000 miles on the second rear. I have been very pleased with their performance so far, so hopefully this problem really is a one-off.

[tallman]

I have over 70,000 miles on Z 6's.

Sold a bunch too.

Haven't seen this.

Means nothing though as any tire can have a defect.

 

I'm not working much at all at our local shop right now but stopped in earlier this week.

Rider on new GS.

FRont tire 15#'s low, rear 6 #'s.

No problems, yet, but if he had not come in and our parts manager notice, who knows?

Message here is to check the tires we're riding frequently more than to use/not use a particualar tire, IMO.

Glad OP didn't have a failure while riding.

 

[Guest Kakugo]

That's just plain bad luck Joe.

The only defective tyre I had replaced (up to now) was a Michelin front and they didn't try to make excuses for it. In a couple of days I had my replacement and Michelin also paid for installation without flinching. The only "hassle" was the amount of paperwork involved.

The thing I suggest you do is to have Cycle Gear to contact the Metzeler importer directly, and quickly. If they work as Michelin they will send out a field rep in a matter of days to pick up the old tyre and authorize the replacement.

 

[lawnchairboy]

give the PR 3's a try. have got 7k on my current set, including multiple slab and spirited riding miles on multiple surfaces with excellent wear so far.

[Lone_RT_rider]

give the PR 3's a try. have got 7k on my current set, including multiple slab and spirited riding miles on multiple surfaces with excellent wear so far.

 

That sounds better than the PR2's. I was getting about 6K out of the rears on those.

[Joe_Rocket]

My pair of Internet ordered conti road attack 2s came in on Tuesday of this week and I had the metzelers removed and the road attacks installed by cycle gear. Metzeler will replaqce the rear tire with a new one if my tread wear is less than 50% or they will give me 50% off a new tire if my tread wear is greater than 50%. I imagine I'll hear from cycle gear in the next week or so.

 

The conti road attacks feel great so far... New tires always seem to be a joy. Most of my riding is commuting and my tires typically get flat in the center of the tread. I never notice how much the flattening of the tread impacts handling until I get new tires.

 

 

[Huzband]

My 12RT Came with Conti Road Attacks & I did three sets of them before going to Dunlop Roadsmarts. Loved them, but I like the Roadsmarts better.

[StuGotz]

on the K-RS:

 

Love the Roadsmart rear, front not so much, my commute is about 60 slab, 40 twisties, and a good mix of cement and asphalt..

 

Got 8k on the rear, its got about 1000 left and starting to square. And I'm on my second front, first one gone at 4500 miles, squared off badly and tread gone....looks like the second front is gonna be an exact match, except some scalloping also..prob my balance. Until they improve the front, think I'm moving on from these. Dual compound rear, single compound front should anyone not know this. And I generally abuse tires on this bike. These seem to run hotter than most tires I've had on this bike. Perhaps this bike is heavier than most.

 

Next set will be PR3.

 

On the RT:

 

Metzler Z8....New product. Metz has gone away from multi compounds...1800 miles and love 'em. They heat up quick and seem to maintain even temp throughout rides. Verdict still out though.

 

Tried 'em all, but for all around, hard to beat the Michelin product on BMW"s.

 

YMMV?

 

MB>