Hey everyone,

Just wanted to give a heads up to everyone who has Mudlite tires on there Prairie 650/700 to check them out. If you are planning on going on a big trip, might be a good idea to check them out just in case.

I put a set of new 26" Mudlites on my Prairie 650 when I bought the bike. I put 3000 problem free km's on the tires. At about 3000km's the right rear tire started cracking in between the small side lugs and the big center lugs. It started with one lug and at 3500km's I had 8 plugs in-between 8 different lugs. The tire just seem to be coming apart.

Here is a picture of the tire with all the plugs at 3500km's. You can only see 5 plugs circled in the picture.

Plugs in original right tire


Just for fun, I decided to contact ITP to see if they had ever heard of such a problem. They told me that they had never seen such a problem, and that it must of been a defective tire. ITP was great in dealing with the problem, and really stood behind there product. They insisted that they send me a replacement tire even thought I never asked for a replacement tire. When I had initialy contacted them, I was just curious to see if they had ever run into this problem. Big kudos for ITP for the great support.

Well I received my new replacement tire last October, and installed it just before the snow got here. I put about 900km's on the new right rear tire and what do you know, I lug cracked again. I now have 1000km's on the new rear tire, and I'm up to 4 plugs due to cracking between the lugs.

So I decided to replace the Mudlites with a set of Mudbugs. Today when I installed the Mud Bugs, I took picture of the inside of the tires. I couldn't beleive what I seen. The tire is basically shredding from the inside. The weird thing is that the new right rear tire with 900km's, is a lot worst then the original left rear tire with 4500km's on it. I took some pictures of the tires, the pictures that are not as bad, are of the left tire, and the ones that are really bad are from the right side.

The only thing that I can see is that the Prairie just has too much power for these tires, and is shredding the tires from the inside when they are flexing due to the torque. I run 5lbs per tire, all around also. Now the funny thing is that the front tires with 4500km's on them, are perfect inside. No shredding at all.

The Mudlite is a great all around tire, and I plan on putting a set of them on my new Bruin 350, but I don't think that they can take the torque of the 650/700.

Here are pictures of the inside of the tires. Click on the small pictures for bigger pictures

Mudlite Tire Problem

 

I just returned a 28" mudlite after 300kms and 2 different holes in the same place you had them and 1 in the middle of the tire. G Borques warrantied it and told that some mudlites had some flaws.

 

Some possible causes:
1. Incomplete/tooshort curing time - not likely because the tire should cure faster in that area due to being in an area between the lugs.
2. The wrong quality/chemical mix of rubber in that area of the tire. The pronounced flexing between the lugs caused the cured rubber to physically break down.
3. Poor tire design - The Lite in Mudlite may be coming back to bite them. Too thin a casing with too large a lug sticking off it.
In case you can't tell, I build tires for a living, lol.
Great pictures, Kawidan

 

Xrxman

Where do you ride in Fredericton?

I've never seen your bike around Fredericton.

Are you a member of any club?

Interesting that you had the same problem. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

 

Scott

I'm not sure what the cause of the problem, but I've pretty much given up on the Mudlites for the 650.

 

I am out on the Hanwell, normally we go run out in that area, New Maryland, Mazerol, sometimes I will go up the Nashwaak and around Cloverdale.
I havent joined any clubs usually a half a dozen guy from my area meet up and go.
I was surprised to find so many local folks using this forum
Jeff

 

Xrxman

Right on, I'm in Lincoln

How many 650's in your group?

Seems to be quite a few in the picture you have on your page.

Yes quite a few of us on here.

 

That was an interesting report. I wonder if that problem was associated to a bad batch or something?

All I know is that I put 1,000 miles on my set of 25" mudlites (mounted on my P650) and only had 1 plug where a nail stuck to and punctured a rear tire. The 25" mudlites have a much smaller lug size than the 26" and larger Mudlites. I'm not sure if the smaller lug size had anything to do with it, but in any case, I cleaned and inspected the inside and outside of these tires at 1,000 miles (right before I sold them) and I did not see any signs of damage/cracks on the inside of the tires. However, the outside was worn down considerably (from occasional riding/timed runs on pavement). It was obvious to me that Mudlites wear down faster than most mud tires on pavement...but I thought they were an excellent all around tire otherwise.

Happy trails...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Hello,
I just purchased 26 inch mudlites on my p650. Got about 400miles on them and one of them seems to be leaking slowly with no identifiable source yet visible. Will check out the inside for failure but i am just wondering what pressure you ride your tires on. because too low pressure would probably flatten out the top of the tires and put stress on the corners where the weakness seems to be.
Dan

 

biggerdan

I ride 5lbs of air per tire all around.