First of all, I love the way these tires handle! It is a whole different bike with them installed on ITP's 12X7" rims. The bike is several inches wider (way more stable!) and the ride is very sporty. Traction is great everywhere except hardpack.

But, I am experiencing a RELIABILITY PROBLEM with them. There is a failure in the casing between the traction lugs that are on the outer edges of the tires. The lugs have a narrow slit in them, and this is where the failure is occuring (rear tires only, fronts seem to be fine). At first some "fuzz" (the casing threads) will appear. Then within a short time, a leak will develope at this location. I have them on two different bikes, and same story on both bikes. The slit is so narrow, I can't imagine that rocks or something are getting in there and wearing the rubber off. I would say I have over a dozen plugs in two tires, all in these areas in about 10 different lugs!

What I think is happening is that when the tires were molded, they just didn't get enough rubber over the casing in the slit between the lugs, and the casing is failing at this point. The casing on the rest of the tire is holding up great, and no problems anywhere else on the tire.

So, my question is whether anybody else is having this same problem???????

 

i have not experienced this but i ride with a guy who has them on his 660 grizzly and he has had 2 rear sets do this..weird because both of my rear sets have been fine,i would call itp and see if they will help you..

 

I called ITP and got an immediate response. They are going to get back to me. Please, be sure your friend calls too!

I got my tires very early on (right after they came out), so there may have been a bad batch of them.

 

they did have some Quality Control issues on the 1st ones out... mostly related to pin hole leaks in the sidewalls ( all on the rear tires, as far as I remmember )... I've also heard of a few cases of what you are describing... to my knowledge, ITP replaced all of the defective tires, that were sold by reputable dealers... I suspect that some of the "blem" tire dealers may end up with these sooner or later, & then the buyer may have trouble with ITP standing behind them, but as of right now, I'd expext that ITP would replace them, as they have others...

 

THANK YOU ITP! Some of the very early tires were defective. They said the tire mold probably wasn't cleaned properly, so there wasn't enough rubber over the casing in these spots. Received a new pair of replacement tires this morning!!

 

WOW, you lucked out! you had quite a few miles on them. I'm glad to hear ITP did that! More companies should follow that example.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

V Force-These weren't the worn out Holeshot XC's that you saw on the 400EX. These were on one of the Ranchers, and only had a moderate amount of mileage on them.

 

just ran a new set with c-series wheels on my kodiak 450 ...totally differant much more stble due to the wider stance and goobs of traction.where i ride there is alot of one line motorcycle trail thats washed out ,narrow stuff etc.was running4psi on the front and 3 rear but with so muchmore traction than stock and wider every high spot and rocks in the trail would suck wich ever front tire right into it . I had to double tire preasure on front to take some bite out.what tire pressure is optimal for these atr"s.