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Michelin tire failure - anyone see the video?

3K views 17 replies 11 participants last post by  LDH 
#1 ·
I guess Michelin had a pretty spectacular rear tire failure on Loris Baz' bike, it blew out on the front straight while testing. They are now pulling the "soft" compound tire from testing.

No one was hurt. Video is on youtube somewhere.
 
#16 ·
Tire carcass delamination due to incorrect tire pressure is not really uncommon even at the pro level. They will try anything and everything to get an advantage and some times it does not work.




yeah, pro guys often hate Mich for a list of reasons. Usually psi pressure is sensitive. Mich corp got frustrated and pulled out of pros awhile back if I recall.

Rossi won 5 of his 7 premier class championships on Michelin tires. They did not pull out due to frustration they were forced out due to rule changes. Michelin used to make tires on Saturday to the exact conditions of the racetrack and have them flown in for the race on Sunday and they were damn good at it. It could even be argued that much of Rossi's domination in those days was due to the special made Michelin tires just for him. Once he had to start riding on Bridgestone tires that were the exact same as everyone else on the grid his days of coming back from a 15 second ride through penalty and blitzing the field at will were over...

At any rate when the rules changed and Michelin were no longer allowed to custom make tires as needed the Bridgestone tires which worked better in a much broader range of conditions became the favorable choice. Soon after the spec tire rule was adopted and Bridgestone became the supplier and they had issues along the way as well. Now that Michelin is the Spec Tire supplier for the first time in 8 years they will have some hurdles to jump as well here & there, but I am hesitant to say that this instance with Baz was their fault.
 
#8 ·
It was the rear tire that failed.

Frankly, it's nothing new. Akira Yanagawa had a tire fail at 180+ mph and wadded the ZXRR Motogp bike years ago. Dunlop has had catastrophic failures in AMA at Daytona. It happens when they are trying to get the tires figured out and what pressures to run. It's all part of the process. A scary one for the riders for sure. And luckily no one has been seriously injured by it. But the process will continue and get sorted out and fixed. Michelin isn't a fly-by-night retreaded tire. They were the premiere tire supplier back when it was a competition and just need to get back in the game with these new bikes.
 
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