TECH TYRES DISASTERS
Following on from the tyre disaster on our Facebook site it has prompted me to write a new article.
These tyres seem to be failing more than they did before when we were main importers………. Why?
These problems have been around for many years and we have known about them. When we were main distributors we had a direct line to the tech guy where we would thrash out problems, develop and give feedback to problems.
We instigated the all weather tyre in 350:10, we pushed the Whitewalls in various sizes and had a totally new dual compound tyre and Lambretta inner tube made to our designs.
We were that close to the German tyre company to get these things done because we had a passion for the tyre brand and the job we did with them, they were our babies and any problems effected us deeply.
We put that company on the map in the UK and turned this unheard of tyre brand into probably the biggest selling tyre for Vintage Scooters in recent years.
But the UK side of the company without warning shit on us and sold to other dealers and wholesalers who jumped on the back of all the hard work and money we put into bringing these tyres into the UK. To say we were not pleased was an understatement so we voted with our pockets and dropped them just as quick as they shit on us and we pulled out never buying another one of those tyres!
Yes we lost money and sales and you could say we shot ourselves in our own foot, but that is how strong we felt about the whole episode of the five hard years we worked for the company!
You can read more here in our statement at the time.
So what’s going on with these failures?
When I say failures I’m talking about the photos on the Facebook site where tyres de-laminate and get bubbles and bulges and eventually the thread comes apart and you get a blow out! These problems are nothing new we saw a small amount over the years failing in similar ways. When we had a complaint we swapped the tyre for free and returned it for testing and pushed as much as we could to make sure it would not happen again. Today I’m hearing the same old excuses as we got at the time. It’s crazy, why? After many years of these problems why are they still occurring? Do they not realise someone will be killed by their own tyres! And it won’t be until that happens that something maybe done?
It can happen to any of their tyre model range fitted to the tubeless rims, it happens to random tyres with no pattern to manufactured batch dates. We have seen other problems with tube typed tyres but it seems the inner tube saves air getting into the carcass and stops this de-laminating, so you see very little of these problems when a tube is used. This happens to only a small percentage of tyres sold. But we can not watch a tyre as we ride, so you are taking your lives into our own hands and you have to trust you will feel something before the tyre explodes!
The easy cop out is a quote…… ‘these people are not putting enough air in the tyre and this is why the tyres are failing!’
BUT hold on, it’s not happening to other tyre makes used on the same Scooters by the same kind of Scooterists. We know……… we are now selling eight different manufacturers tyres and lots of models and not one person has complained they have had a similar issue and we’ve not heard anything on a forum!
To be fair, when we were distributors the amount of returns was very small compared to the amount we sold. I still stand by that, our returns were less that 1%…… BUT we did hear more complaints over the phone or on forums and can only really comment on tyres where someone actually went out of their way to return a tyre. Today I’m seeing definitely more on forums and Facebook than we did before and because of our involvement I’m told daily of tyres which customers have fitted and had the same problems. But people really need to return or take photos to follow up the problems. The percentage failure rate maybe still small compared to sales but these are known issues for many years and they will kill someone!
Read more on tyres from start to finish the way I see it in our MB TECH SITE
http://www.lambrettaspares.com/info/mb-tech-articles/tyres-*-whats-right+247.html
http://www.lambrettaspares.com/info/tyres-*-whats-right/tyres-*-faq~s+218.html
http://www.lambrettaspares.com/info/tyres-*-faq~s/tyres-*-types-and-styles-+249.html
http://www.lambrettaspares.com/info/tyres-*-faq~s/tyres-*-types-and-styles-+249.html
http://www.lambrettaspares.com/info/mb-fitting-instructions/fitting-*-tyres-*-spit-rims+219.html
http://www.lambrettaspares.com/info/fitting-*-tyres-*-spit-rims/fitting-*-tyres-*-tubeless+154.html
Ask Mark mark@mbseriousoutdoors.co.uk
