Michelin Tyre Recall

A little update for any onf you who are running the recalled tyres or know of anyone who is.

The recall was started by a english biker, having had a tyre fitted was riding home heard a bang and felt something not quite right with his bike for a split second....
Once home had a quick look at his bike and noticed his caliper was loose....at his point his wife pointed out that there was a chunk of rubber missing from his tyre.....
So INSTEAD of cantacting Michelin about it (i must point out at this point it is more likely he hit something in the road and damaged the tyre than it being a fault) he contacted a well known british MotorCycle News paper.......<<<<<
They then with out asking any questions contacted Michelin and said that it was a fault with the tyre and proceded to call on a daily basis asking what they were going to do about the now faulty batch of tyres....or they would publish the story...
Now remember that at this point Michelin have not evan seen the so called faulty tyre....
After this happening for a while Michelin caved into the fact that the publicity could do some serious damage to the company profile and sales figures for the future so they recalled ALL the tyres made from the same batch.....Still having not seen the tyre....
It was a case of damage minimisation and customer relations. And to my knowledge and from a very relaible source......could well be a Michelin Rep!!!!!!!!!
The tyre is looking like it was not faulty and the damage could have been caused by a impact....

As a result of this the chances of getting hold of Michlin sports front tyres this year is non at all....as they have had to recall 58000 tyres and re-supply customers already using them, smaller outlets and then large distirbution hubs....

The power of the press hey....and what some companys will do to minimise the damage they can cause..

sounds about right for that paper,the sad thing is so many people believe what they write

SO an impact makes a chunk of rubber come off a tyre?

Hmmmmmm....that's a new one I'll make sure I only ride on perfectly smooth roads from now on :D

I have seen chunks of rubber come away from a tyre after a 'pinch' type impact. Although that was on a car. Really gave the car some strange handling characteristics. Really suprised the rider couldnt feel that much tread missing from the front wheel.
Story from both sides doesnt quite add up. Tyres recalled and just the 'word' of the rider that he was doing nothing out of the ordinary.

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Originally Posted by furry-TLR

SO an impact makes a chunk of rubber come off a tyre?

Hmmmmmm....that's a new one I'll make sure I only ride on perfectly smooth roads from now on :D

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Wont matter if you ride on perfectly smooth roads or not, it does not need to be a hard impact, just in the wrong position on the tyre....
Normally things like this happen on the motor way when you hit small bits of debree from other cars

And yes just so we know, an impact can delaminate a section of tyre that can then come clean away from the tyre....we generally see one or two tyres this has happened to a year....and the riders all say the same, it didnt seem a big impact.
And if you had read the bit about his caliper being loose, it was hangin and one bolt missing...

Michlin recognise how much of a impact a story like that in the press would have so its less damaging to be seen to be doing the right thing than it is to do nothing.
As a note to compare on....fitted 2 pairs of avons this week...both had buldging ruber on the tread section that would cause instability at speed and were masivly out of balance.....this is a normal thing for avons lately so they obviously do have a problem but dont do anything about it, dont recall all affected tyres...
Just goes to show how differant companys deal with situations to keep their comapny profile in a good view.