My son called me a week or so ago, said he had a front end vibration on his Blackbird, he's not the most mechanical guy but he did give the front end a good look over and said he couldn't find any thing wrong, I told him to take another look, put the bike on teh stand and have some one lean on the back so he could spin the tire, he did, said nothing unusual was noted, tire looked ok, balance weights were still there,

Told him I come up and take a look, I was thinking maybe he had a bad wheel bearing or?

The next day he called again and said he found the problem, he was out riding it and trying to trouble shoot the problem around his apartments, when the front tire started rapidly loosing pressure, pushed the bike back to his place and found the front tire had a huge failure, after seeing the pics I asked if he was sure he looked at the tire the previous day?? he sad yes, as a matter of fact he had ran his hand on the tire to check for cupping and damage, and there was none visible or felt.

I went up and got the wheels, and took them to my friends shop, they say they had never seen any thing like that, I believe the tires had about 7-8K miles on them.

Couldn't tell if the tire had been puntured by some thing and then it split from there, no puncture damage was visible, just the big split.

My son says he keeps his tires at 41PSI, the rear still had 41 when I got it to my house.

I wanted to keep the tire to show Avon, but I was in a hurry and I for got to get the take off when I picked them up on my way out of town, needless to say we mounted PR2's probably wont ever run Avons again, makes me leery of the Storms I have on my ST right now?


Well pics are poor since their from his cell. but here it is.

Avons are good for one thing.....






























SMOKE SHOWS!

I don't remember the details, but Avon had some problems with the first runs of the Storm front tires and were giving out replacements.

I maybe the only XX rider that likes the Avons. I'm on my 3rd set on the 99, and just put a set of the Storm Ultras on my "new" 03 XX. Just took off a front with 16K and almost to the wear bars on a rear with 12K.

Also have a set of the Storms on my Busa and they feel much more planted than the Michelins they replaced. The Storms are pretty well regarded by the Busa crowd, for what little its worth.

Keep in mind I ride the flatlands most of the time here in Kansas.

I too love and have sworn by the Avons, I'm on my second set on my ST, and I believe I ran a set on my XX also, always loved them in the past, but the set I'm on now will be my last.

My kids XX is used from every thing from flat land to the hills in the Sierras, but he's not a super aggressive rider, rides at a nice and safe pace.

Just an FYI,
You better watch your ST, a buddy of mine over there (ST-Owners) and a neighbor of mine, had the same thing on his "03 ST" Avon Storm 2's. Dont remember if it was front or rear, but a split occured in between one of the treads. He bought from Two Brothers and Tim had it replaced for him.

Avons seem to have more quality problems than all the rest. Don't have the stats to prove it though.

Wow!

At least when a tire fails, it gives a pretty good indicator... in this case, a wobble. Good thing he wasn't on the road.

+1

Avon got the worst reputation of them all.

Wouldn't put them on the bike if I got paid to do it.
Avon we call avveien (off road).

Drive with Avon, and bike is bye bye in the first twisty.

When someone drive off the road, the first question is if he has Avon on the bike.

Yep, so far I have not heard one good argument that justifies the price difference Between the Avons and the Shinko Ravens. For now I'm sticking with the Ravens!

that is a massive failure, glad he was riding around the apartments and not on the street when the failure occured.

I have ran several sets of Avons. Started with the ST45/ST46 combo till I had problems with the tires getting over heated while playing in the mountains and would no longer heat up. 500 miles on the last set and the tires were blue and purple.

Tried the SP49/SP50's and they were ok, but the first front tire I got gave me massive head shakes. Had the tire rebalanced twice and checked everything on the front end. After a few calls to Avon they sent me a replacment front and the shake was gone.

Haven't used Avons in the past several sets. Currently using BT016's and love them.

Avon is the modern day version of the Cheng Shin... I would not put them on a 10 speed bicycle if I had to ride it. YMMV...literally and figuratively.

My last and only set of Avon’s started giving me intermittent vibrations 600 miles away from home going to OzarXX. It was bad enough I stopped at a Yamaha dealership to get them balanced, it didn’t help. To me it seem like something came loose inside the front tire so the rest of the weekend I took it easy. When I got home I immediately changed to PR2’s. On top of that I never liked the feel of the Avon’s from day one. You couldn’t give me a set.

Holy crap!! That scares the shit outta me. What if that had come apart at say ummmmm a buck forty-five? Even at interstate speed, that could have been catastrophic. So glad your boy is paying attention to his bike. Sometimes its easy to forget that you're putting your life in the hands of a piece of equipment. Even better, he wasnt hurt, and is probably loving his new set of rubbers. Thanks for the heads up, I was contemplating Avons at one time, glad i didnt buy. A friend had a set on an old ass cruiser. I do believe the rear came apart kinda early in its life. But you know how hard an 80's shadow can be on tires..haha

I was an Avon guy but now for the price and ride ca t complain about shinkos

FYI- Metzler says its Z6 should have no more than 41psi cold.

Were you running them at max pressure? If so, why?

Was this meant for me? what do Z6's have to do with it if it was?

XX Manual says 42 PSI, he runs them at 41, says he like it that way. I did too when I had my 3 Blackbirds. I think I ran 40, and I ran Z6's on my Hayabusa, ran them at 40 also.

FYI: I hated Z6's, with the Z6's it was, yah sure, I got another couple thousand miles on that tire, ride it to the store and back and it's got a 1" white stripe of cord showing,

Tires are funny things, I like the Z6's, even more than the PR2's. Next I'll give the Z8's a go.

They're a shitload better than anything by Dunlop or Metzeler. Not that that's saying much.

Disagree. I went from Avon to Metzelers a long time ago and it was a huge step up in everything but wear, which was about the same. The Z6/M1 Metzeler combo was one of my favorites way back when.

I'm not going defend Dunlops.

I had Dunlops and Metzelers both delaminate on my Valkryie. I'll never have either brand on any vehicle I own ever again.

Right now, I'm all about the Pirelli.

I hear Pirelli is for crashers......

I love Pirellis, they just want too damn much for them. I'm digging Bridgestones for the value for your dollar, though both my bikes currently have Michelins mounted due to finding some nice specials last fall.

As far as your tire failures, that would certainly color my outlook as well. But I hear a lot more shit like that about Avons than I do Metzelers or Dunlops. Plus they handle like crap.

I wasn't using Pirellis when that happened. It was those damn Bridgestones. I won't be having any more of them, either.

Dunlop Qualifiers ROCK! (unless you're looking for long wear) The Roadsmarts seem to last a little longer, but they are stiffer and heavier, so ride quality and handling are slightly diminished.
Can't speak for the rest of their tires.

If I did more long trips, I would probably try Michelin PR2s.