Kudos for Conti-NA!

[deilenberger]

I got a new rear Conti Road-Attack today. Free. Mounting included.

My rear Conti had been loosing a tiny bit of pressure since I got the bike.. in the beginning so little I put it down to natural loss from checking the tire, as the tire got some miles on it - the loss increased. In the beginning - it was 1-2 PSI a week.. when I finally decided it was a problem - it was 1-2 PSI a day. I tracked down the leak using my laundry room sink as a dip tank - and it appeared to be a tiny amount or fair escaping from perfectly good looking rubber - in the middle of a tread block. Even after scraping it with a sharp knife edge - no hole or flaw was visible, even with magnification. It appeared the air was going through solid rubber.

I was simply going to patch the tire - when my wife said "Call them up.." (I think she's getting even - that's what I usually say..) I tracked down the Conti-NA importer/sales - a chap in Ohio. I emailed him, told him what was happening and gave him a phone number he could reach me at.

Within hours I'd gotten a call. I explained what was happening, and told him the owners warranty statement said tires are warrantied by the tire company - not BMW. He wasn't sure - so he contacted BMW-NA and got that confirmed. He then contact Conti-AG in Germany, and called me back to say they said to "replace it"..

This was on a tire with 5,500 miles on it at the time. It still had 4.5-5mm of tread in the center, so it wasn't one I wanted to throw out as worn. Since I was leaving on a longish ride/trip the next day, I had taken the tire to a local general bike shop where the owner is a friend to see if he could patch it for me before I left.

When I went to pick it up - the shop owner told me he couldn't bring himself to pocking an ice-pick through the tire (he'll only use patch/plugs - which from personal experience really ARE good) - so he filled it with "RideOn" and gave it back to me with the instructions to ride it a few miles and see if it seals up.

I did - and it did. I put an additional 1,000 miles on the tire in the past few weeks - and finally today got it swapped out with the replacement that Conti had shipped to my dealer. No charge - everything covered.

I'm impressed. Conti stood behind their product 100% - even with miles on it. I think I'll keep using them on the Roadster - I like to support a company that values it's customers.

BTW - when they took it off - it still had about 4mm of tread left in the center. The tire starts out with a tiny bit over 6mm when new (just measured the new one..) I would guess I could get 10,000 miles out of one of these tires without sweating it.

BTW-II - I asked the shop foreman (who actually did the tire change) if the RideOn caused any problem or was a mess. He said he was impressed - there was none of it on the actual rim. He said it had coated a band about 3" wide right in the center of the tire carcass, with none on the walls and none on the rim. I have a bottle of it ready to go into the new tire before I have a puncture. Good stuff IMHO.

[AllanCook]

A propos a thread a little while back, did they happen to say what they think the tire pressure should be?

[TWI]

Any chance Conti will get back to you with what the problem was with the tire?

[deilenberger]

A propos a thread a little while back, did they happen to say what they think the tire pressure should be?

No - and when I checked it after getting home - it was at 23 PSI.. it's now at 38 which I found seems to work well for me.

[deilenberger]

Any chance Conti will get back to you with what the problem was with the tire?

I don't think Conti even wanted the tire back. I think it went to the trash.

[celticus]

Thanks Don, I'm going to get some for my bike.
Mark