Heidenau Tires - Cracked

[powerlet]

This description makes no sense to me. As DCStrom mentioned, the 100gs is a tube tire and tIres on tubed wheels seldom fail, let alone fail suddenly and catastrophically. As in the description "blow." The failures are almost always the tube or some type of external damage.


If not an external cause, running a tube in a tire increases heat, which is the bane of rubber products. Running low pressure or overload, especially as speed increases will increase the rate of heating and lead to premature failure of the tube. Of course, folks can't see the tube, they read the name of the tire.


Which is more typical.

The R100GS does not run tubes. Have a quick search of the ebay and you will see they run the same tubeless style rim as the new GS'. I was just letting you guys know this happened to him, and what he told me. That's why I started with the FWIW...

 

[EricV]

FWIW one of my coworkers had a K60 front blow out on his R100GS while traveling 75-80 down the freeway. (He was running 34PSI I believe.) After that, he did some research and found that there has been some issues with these tires.

It is true that the R100GS, (& R80GS), use tubeless tires, and have the same rim design as the newer GS bikes. But, like ?Don, I also believe the term 'blow out' is way over used and doesn't always give a good description of what occured.

As to your friend's assertation that his research resulted in learning that there have been "some issues" with the tires, that's pretty vauge too. There have been "some issues" with Ford Explorers too, for example. :

We each need to ride with some awareness of how the bike is handling. I know what low pressure feels like in the front and rear and do look at my tires before every ride, check air pressure before every ride, etc. Not everyone does.

I had a local rider tell me once about how his front tires sucked and "blew out" on him. He told me how he never can get good mileage from his tires and the fronts "fold over" in turns on his R6 sport bike. I asked him what pressure he runs and he responded 20 psi! His buds told him lower air pressure gives better traction in the corners... ???

After some education, he reluctantly agreed to air his tires up to a more suitable pressure and take a ride on the same roads he normally rides on. Go figure, he was astonded at the improvments in handling and how the bike was "on rails" instead of moving all over in the turns. ::26::

What we don't know about your R100GS friend is what kind of riding he did with that tire before it failed. I haven't read about any significant issues with the K60s specifically. I have read that some of the fronts seem to lose a little air pressure slowly, and have noted that with my first K60 front. Usually needing about 2 psi a week to stay where I like them. Don't know on the second front since it's only had one ride, (yesterday I slabbed 300 miles up to Salt Lake City, UT. Tomorrow I'm doing a 24 hour rally, so will check the tire condition and pressures before I head out.

 

[dcstrom]

It is true that the R100GS, (& R80GS), use tubeless tires, and have the same rim design as the newer GS bikes. But, like ?Don, I also believe the term 'blow out' is way over used and doesn't always give a good description of what occured.

I stand corrected... the R100GS introduced in 1988 had tubeless rims - but the R80G/S (yes they removed the / from the R100 model designation! Those sneaky germans...) had tubed tires - I know cos I had one.

Still - it's hard for a tubeless tire to "blow out" so would be reluctant to jump to the conclusion that it's a faulty tire. Many other factors to consider first.

 

[whitedelight]

Some of the first Heidi's were renowned for losing pressure when running low pressures.It struggled to seat poperly.The new ones do not have this problem at all.I have run mine fairly low,even though I prefer rumming higer pressures front and back.Only in extreme conditions would i think of lowering pressures.
I think they are great tyres for big bikes.