tire help needed (blowout)

KTP

100 W
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
131
Hey, so I need a bit of advice.

I just did my second ebike, a conversion of a old chrome-moly steel frame mountain bike (no suspension) to a rear ebike kit 9C hub motor on a 26 inch wheel. I figured I would go with a wide tire since the bike has no suspension, so I installed continental 2.1 inch town and country tires. I wanted to prevent flats so I used that fiber cloth type rim tape over the flimsy rubber thing covering the spoke holes and I also used a type of rubber strip that goes between the outside of the tube and the inside of the tire to help prevent puncture flats. Anyway, I installed the new tire with a new tube and inflated it to 40 psi (range on tire was listed as 35 to 65 psi). I rode around a few miles and parked the bike.

The next day I inflated the tire to 55 psi and took it out for a ride on a paved bike path. I heard a few spoke tingles (I had already done some tightening of loose spokes from the first short ride) and then I heard a strange sound for about 5 seconds before boom the rear tire blew out. It looks like the tire itself has a small slit (a bit less than 1 inch long) sort of near the rim, but there is not a sharp edge to the rim and I don't see any holes in the rim tape (so it was probably not a loose spoke).

I am still really a newbie on the bike mechanics stuff. Is a 2.1" continental town and country too large a tire for the ebike-kit 26 inch rear wheel, or was the 55psi too much, or was the tire defective, or where should I look for the problem? I had the batteries (15 pounds) on the rear rack and I am 6'7" 215 lbs. One of the reasons I went from 40psi to 55 psi was I thought the tire looked a bit squishy with me sitting on it (at 40psi).

Suggestions?
 
Sounds like a defect to me. I've had loose fitting tires shift and allow a bit of tube to start coming out between the rim and tire, and I've had the rim cut tubes as a tire was going flat. I would have thought that 40 psi would be plenty to keep the rim from pinching the tube and tire, but maybe not.
 
I am actually unsure what caused it to blow, but I switched to a specialized 2 inch armadillo tire, which is supposed to be very flat resistant. We shall see.

I read some reviews that said the continental town and country quality went down when they switched from germany to india manufacturing (go figure)
 
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