Warranty claim with Michelin

richarddacat

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I posted this on ADVRider and for those who don’t parley over there this is FYI.
I have since found out that this seam may be a silica strip, or known as a “earthing strip”. If so, why wouldnt Michelin recognize it as such??

Anyway;

I personally mounted Anankee 3's on my SuperTenere about 6500 miles ago. Around 2000 miles I noticed on the front tire a dark line running all the way around the tire. I've been keeping an eye on this and thought it might be a color streak or at worst a seam.
4000 miles later the rear tire is showing the same seam and I can feel the "seam", there is a slight edge at this seam and more apparent on the front tire. I'm not exactly sure what it is but I've never seen this type of defect on a tire before. I don't see any separation...yet.
Seeing and feeling this I contacted Michelin and voiced my concerns. They replied with instructions to contact my dealer or web retailer where I bought the tires. They were polite and gave me a case number.

I bought my tires from Revilla and contacted them, as mentioned above I mounted the tires, and gave them the same spill I gave Michelin. They responded quickly and immediately started a warranty claim by sending me a questionnaire to fill out. I sent my information along with pictures. I would think they/either party would want a dealer to verify and visually inspect the tire but not so.

Today I got a response back from Revzilla, I've heard nothing else from Michelin.
Their reply;
"I recently heard back from our Michelin contact and unfortunately, the Michelin Anakee 3 Tires would not be covered under the manufacturer’s warranty because the manufacturer's warranty is voided if the tires are not installed by a professional shop. Additionally, they did want to note that they've seen that issue present if something on the bike is rubbing up against the tires, and they suggested that you check your clearance on both tires. I apologize for any inconvenience.

As an alternative, I would be happy to offer you a 20% discount on a new set of tires as a one-time courtesy.


Well the 20% offer was nice and handling the claim was excellent but I'm disappointed with Michelin. I expected that once they got the claim from Revzilla they might contact me again and maybe have a dealer do an inspection, no, they think something has been rubbing on my tires for 4000 miles.

So this is my first experience with a warranty claim over a tire concern with a huge manufacture and thought I'd share it knowing that thousands of riders mount their own tires.
 

bimota

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i have had that exact thing with not one tyre but 3 sets of front and rear anakee 3's i,ve used them right to the end of the tyres with no issues as i say its happened to 3 front tyres and 3 rears thats what i kept checking as it looks like something is catching the tyre as its rotating but as you there was nothing
i dont use those anymore now tho i,m on road 5 trail

rob
 

Sierra1

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I've got a pair of similar lines, but not as dark, on my front A41. To me, it looks like where the center, harder, compound is attached to the outer compound, softer. I'm keeping an eye on it, but it seems ok.
 

Checkswrecks

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Looks to me like a cosmetic blemish at the edge of the harder center rubber. The following image is off the BMW GS forum and you can see with more wear the difference in compounds indicated by the line.


btw - The compound used in the whole tire has just enough conductivity to prevent the bike from having static buildup. There's not a unique strip.
 

richarddacat

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I think I’ll contact Michelin again and ask them about this along with some complaining about customer service.
 

Checkswrecks

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Not a defect:



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Interesting article and my guess is this must be for tires where they found an issue in test or early production. I've worked with the engineers from both Michelin and Goodyear and as mentioned earlier, they design to have enough carbon added to the compound to take care of static.
 

WJBertrand

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Interesting article and my guess is this must be for tires where they found an issue in test or early production. I've worked with the engineers from both Michelin and Goodyear and as mentioned earlier, they design to have enough carbon added to the compound to take care of static.
I think this is an issue that has only arisen more recently as manufacturers have begun to add more silica to some compounds enhance wet traction, wear etc. This is displacing the carbon black content making the tires less conductive than they used to be. When my previous ST1300 was equipped with a hard wired comm system (Starcom1) I remember hearing what sounded like static pops in my headset from electrical discharges when running over metal covers and such on the road. That system had lots of wires routed all over the bike, likely picking up those discharges.
 

Sierra1

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Hmmmm. . . . the RT had alot of R.F.I. We just put it down to all of the electronics. Makes me wonder if the tires, which were spec'd by B.M.W., had anything to do with it. The ST1300 never had any issues with R.F.I.
 

richarddacat

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I have not been contacted by Michelin since my first concern except through the usual customer survey. I mentioned in the survey and to RevZilla about the earthing strip.
This is Revzilla’s response;

I did hear back from my representative and they did note that Michelin has not heard of that issue. They do exhaustive testing, and it never showed up during the testing.
 
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