Schwalbe Raping Ralph Evo Pacestar. Only about 2 months old, not had a great deal of use or abuse. Wanted something that might run a bit faster on the rear instead of the Nobby Nic. So halfway through a ride it goes BANG, had a tube in there so that went when the sidewall failed. Had to walk for about half hour to get somewhere I could be picked up from. Anyway, would this be a warranty job? A quick google finds lots of stories of fails on MTBR reviews. Although, I’m not sure I want this replaced with the same now, lucky I wasn’t going 33mph dowmhill at the time like I was half an hour earlier! There seems to be a line where it’s starting to go left and right of the main split.

I’d certainly be dropping the importer an email with photos.

I’ll get onto the shop tomorrow to see what they say, but you think the importer as well (Schwalbe UK ?)

Any warranty is with the shop.

Not at all surprised that it was a Schwalbe to go, I had two tyres fail at the sidewall long before the tread showed any sign of wear.

I’ve had no problems with Nobby Nics and Rocket Rons over the years, but this sidewall does seem very thin, think I might need to check my Nobby Nics now though 😐 wouldn’t want this to happen on the front!

I have had a conti protection go in much the same way, still my go to tyre.

I gave up on Schwalbe after shredding too many of them on South Downs flint. Lovely light tyres, work well at the right pressures but paper thin.

I know someone who managed exactly this twice, both times the rear tyre failing on the drive side. One tyre was a Conti Trail King and the other a Nobby Nic. The Nobby Nic was new and failed in a couple of months.

He had the habit of hosing the cassette and rear derailleur with WD40 to dry them, and the WD40 dripped down on to the tyre. He stopped doing this and, magically, he hasn’t had the problem since.

Which is a long-wided way of asking if you got some aggressive chemicals on the trye?

I recently had a Hans Dampf replaced under warranty for a far less serious issue, so don’t see why your retailer would refuse. I would expect Schwalbe will want to examine this.

But this is odd though….I’m not suggesting anything, but what rims are you running, and what tyre pressure ? I’ve seen tubes sticking out of large tyre holes before with about 30psi, and they’ve not popped.

Hope you weren’t injured or anything by this….

I had a schwalbe one tubeless road tyre fail like this after a couple of rides. Sent the tyre back to the retailer (a cycles) who claim to have lost it. I’m very wary of schwalbe now, but even more wary of a cycles.

Snakeskin sidewalls are the one. I have a pair of Hans Dampfs that are 3 years old and refuse to die. Had a Nobby Nic with standard sidewalls that lasted two South Downs rides before the sidewall got cut

No aggressive chemicals used on the bike, just standard bike cleaner/degreaser stuff but always washed off.

Rim was a Stans Flow, pressure about 36psi.

No injuries, luckily I was on a grassy uphill bit.

The Nobby Nic on the front must be about 3 years old and is fine, it just looks like it’s failed along where it joins the tyre bead.

Shop (online store) says send it back and they will ‘take a look at it’.

The liteskin is legendary in it’s thickness (or lack of thickness). To the point that a load of my bro’s XC racer mates were still all sucking in through their teeth that I was running one of his liteskin tyres on the front of my bike for a race.

I still kind of hope this won’t happen, but lightweight tyres will have paper thin sidewalls. If it helps it’s about half the weight of the Magic Mary I run when not XC racing!

I carry a sheet of tyvek (not uncommonly found in envelopes for documents etc) for repairing sidewall failures. Wrap around the tube a few times and it will generally get you home. I’ve only ever had to do it on road tyres though.

Coincidentally, it happened recently after many years without a problem.

Oh also not sure if yours are liteskin, and if you take some gaffa tape it may get you home (although that’s a pretty big hole which would be a challenge – the suggestion above may be better)

Had exactly that on a Nobby Nic. Liked the tyre but they are just too weak in my view.
I’d be amazed if you got anything back from the shop or importer!

First time this has happened to me in 30 years of MTBing. I’m wondering if I’ll get anything back too, they’ll probably say I installed it incorrectly, or ran the wrong pressure. Not sure if it’s the ‘liteskin’ it’s just listed as a Schwalbe Racing Ralph Evolution Folding MTB Tyre – 26″, no info in the description and I’m at work so can’t look at the tyre.

Beginning to wonder if it’s worth sending it back though, cost of postage etc. and then they could turn around and say ‘user error’ and there’s nothing I can do about it.

So, I also emailed the details and photos to Schwalbe UK, basically they more or less suggest ‘that the tyre was sat a little too low on the rim in the section, causing the rim to interface with the tyre just above the rim line (and chafer material which sits below this to stop the rim wearing on the tyre wall).

So, like I said, they (the shop I got it from and Schwalbe) will probably blame installation/user error and I’ll get nothing back. I don’t think I’ll send this back I’ll just buy something else now and in the future.