Wife's Gazelle has a bulge in the front tire sidewall, it's about 1" long and bulges out maybe 1/4"..... It's a schawlbe marathon with green guard. Size is 26x1.75. I can only assume the cords in the tire are broken allowing the bulge to appear. So I go to Amazon to order a new tire and am shocked to see the tire is $40.00, close to the cost of a new small car tire!. The bike only has 75mi. on it and she doesn't recall hitting anything. I called the dealer where we bought our bikes and he told me to bring him the front wheel and he'll replace the tire at no charge if he doesn't see impact damage after he inspects the rim. The rim looks o.k to me, at least on the outside. Going forward, can someone suggest a less expensive tire that would be compatible with the marathon rear or do I need to keep the front and rear matched with same brand and type?...
Help; bulge in sidewall
- Thread starter DDBB
- Start date
indianajo
Well-Known Member
I've been using off road Kenda tires at $25 each from the LBS. The tread comes at about 9/32" thick and as long as I don't wear them down to 1/16", I rarely have flats. The thick off road tread only starts at 2.1" size, so if you want to try these, check your fenders that your bike could take a slightly larger tire. I've never had one split open. My LBS stocks them, but I don't see this pattern on the Kenda website.
indianajo
Well-Known Member
I got a flat after 6 months with the street tire that came with my new bike in January. I ride on road with frequent patches of glass from collisions and shredded chunks of truck tire with wire on the edges. I used to pick up metal screws and nails too with street tires. It is the extra thickness of the off road tires tread that keeps them from going flat, IMHO. Kenda's don't have any kevlar belt or any such thing as a schalbe. But with the good results i've been having, I'll put up with the humming noise the off road tires make so I dont have to take the 50 lb of supplies out of my bags and turn the bike upside down to change a flat.
Instead of a 3 hr. round trip to the dealer. I took the wheel to the LBS.. No rim damage and he thinks it's a defective tire.. He put a Kenda cross tire on the rim for $20.00.. I'm happy, wife is happy and next time we are at the dealer we'll try and get the schwalbe marathon exchanged. The Kenda has small knobbies so hopefully it won't flat easily.
Good thinking. It's $20 in gas to do the round trip so paying for a new tire today at the LBS was a wash... The problem now is you can't see the bulge with the tire off the rim. Dealer might look at it and say there's nothing wrong w/ it but as soon as it gets 50psi in it, the bulge is obvious. He'd have to mount it on a rim and inflate it to see the bulge. Oh well, we're still having a blast and just today I let a neighbor try my Haibike. I could see the grin on his face from 200' away when he came back. He told me it was more fun than his harley.
larry-new
Active Member
I've got 700 miles on stock Rad City Kendas run at 80/90# all street riding. One caveat...cloth rim tape is necessary at those pressures. They're fine...Schwalbe Marathons will be my next tire, in a much narrower width...1.5" probably.
Schwalbe should stand behind a bulged tire.
Schwalbe should stand behind a bulged tire.
John from Connecticut
Well-Known Member
I'm sort of a 'tire junkie'. Schwalbe is one of the premier bicycle tire makers. Based on what you've written, 75 miles, no apparent damage and I'm assuming the tire
was not over inflated. (I did that once by mistake ) I'd expect the LBS via Schwalbe to replace the tire, which you said your LBS will do. You asked about
purchasing tires going forward...
My two cents. Your wife's bike...From what you've written she has higher end quality bike. If it were mine, I'd ride on matched tires, if for no other reason then vanity.
Two different tires will look just like that, two different tires on a very fine looking e-Bike. As for the Schwalbe Marathon Green. it's a quality touring tire designed
to carry a load plus it has a built in 3mm liner in behind the tread to help protect from flats. There is value in the Schwalbe tire.
https://www.schwalbe.com/en/tour-reader/marathon.html
You are right, the tires don't match. The Schwalbe has a reflective stripe around it, the Kenda does not and of course the tread pattern is different. Test rode the bike and I can't tell the difference in ride quality. If the schwalbe is warranted, it will go back on and the Kenda kept as a spare.
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