Complete Failure of Bridgestone Front Tire

[HanseDavion]

The attached pictures are from the front tire that was taken off my R18 yesterday. While on the freeway, I noticed a significant vibration and decided to slow to a stop. As soon as I applied a slight amount of front brake pressure, the bike acted like it was experiencing an extremely bad speed wobble. Thankfully I managed to coast it out and stop safely.

Upon inspection, it was clear the tire had completely lost all air. You will see from the pictures that the inner lining seems to have begun separating, and several areas between the treads where the lining separated blew out. This all happened within the span of 15-20 seconds while on the freeway, and I had been riding for several hours without issue that day. I was forced to tow the bike to the nearest repair shop with a tire that would at least fit and was available. Tire is new with the bike and has less than 7k total miles.

Just started communicating with my dealer to see what BMW/Bridgestone will say about this.

 

[Scott Semone]

WOW...!! That's not cool...

Do you have any detailed pictures of the tire's sidewall, which may have the tire's date of manufacture code on it? The manufacturer's website may have additional details on locating the date code.

Which model and year is your bike? I'm going to inspect my tires more closely, later this afternoon.

 

[Ulrich]

Holy $hit !!! .. I am glad you and the bike are still in one piece!

 

[Deleted member 1344]

I would check the tire date. Look for 4 numbers, the 1st two are the year, the last two are the week of that year. So 2252 would be the last week of 2022.

 

[HanseDavion]

Tire was made the 31rst week of 2020.

As a result of my predicament, I was forced to mount a new Michelin Commander 3 on the front so I could at least make the 250 miles or so back home (it was the only tire available at the only shop open in the area I was in). While I didn't seem to have any serious issues with it getting home, the Michelin is a 130/60 - 19, whereas the original tire was a 120/70 - 19. If I had to say I noticed any difference, it would be that I seemed to feel the vibrations of the road and bike a bit more than I did previously.

I asked my dealer if this would be a problem and they were not entirely sure. Was curious what people here would think of this. I am not all that concerned with the larger width, because I believe the R18 classic comes with a 130 width tire. But the shorter aspect ratio gives me pause.

On a related note my dealer is submitting a claim and I should at least get something back to reimburse my costs here.

 

[Ulrich]

Tire was made the 31rst week of 2020.

As a result of my predicament, I was forced to mount a new Michelin Commander 3 on the front so I could at least make the 250 miles or so back home (it was the only tire available at the only shop open in the area I was in). While I didn't seem to have any serious issues with it getting home, the Michelin is a 130/60 - 19, whereas the original tire was a 120/70 - 19. If I had to say I noticed any difference, it would be that I seemed to feel the vibrations of the road and bike a bit more than I did previously.

I asked my dealer if this would be a problem and they were not entirely sure. Was curious what people here would think of this. I am not all that concerned with the larger width, because I believe the R18 classic comes with a 130 width tire. But the shorter aspect ratio gives me pause.

On a related note my dealer is submitting a claim and I should at least get something back to reimburse my costs here.

If I recall this correctly (and memory abandons me at times) the /xx number is a percentage of the width ... so a 120/70 should be about the same overall diameter than a `130/60 ... didn't do the math, but I went that route on my chromehead and it worked out well with fender clearance ...

 

[Scott Semone]

I would push for a warranty claim to cover your out of pocket expenses for the temporary tire and have BMW mount, high speed balance and install the CORRECT replacement tire under the same claim; let BMW sort out your cost and such with Michelin - at the very least, if they can't cover your out of pocket cost in cash, store or BMW credit towards gear, parts or future service.

I don't like the idea of a different specified tire size, mixed with an ABS braking system that thinks the tire is a very specific size and such...

 

[Alan neill]

The attached pictures are from the front tire that was taken off my R18 yesterday. While on the freeway, I noticed a significant vibration and decided to slow to a stop. As soon as I applied a slight amount of front brake pressure, the bike acted like it was experiencing an extremely bad speed wobble. Thankfully I managed to coast it out and stop safely.

Upon inspection, it was clear the tire had completely lost all air. You will see from the pictures that the inner lining seems to have begun separating, and several areas between the treads where the lining separated blew out. This all happened within the span of 15-20 seconds while on the freeway, and I had been riding for several hours without issue that day. I was forced to tow the bike to the nearest repair shop with a tire that would at least fit and was available. Tire is new with the bike and has less than 7k total miles.

Just started communicating with my dealer to see what BMW/Bridgestone will say about this.

You should put the lottery on mate