First thought. Don't drop the bike?

Riding south on interstate near my place of living. Had in interesting experience.

Lots of people talk about blowouts. But have they happened to you?

Somehow I stayed upright. Kept it under control.

There's a line from a popular dear hunting movie from the northern Michigan area...
"I don't know who's hands were on da wheel eh?"...

2 nice folks stopped and helped. One guy on a another gs and a guy in a car. Apparently saw the whole thing.
I honestly only remember the split moment of yep. Rear tire flat wobble. Slow down not brake. Get off road. Don't hit brakes or don't down shift. About 300 plus feet of wobble and side to side.
Car guy who stopped said "there must be a halo around me, I thought for sure I was gonna watch a guy die today"...
Guy on bike said "I have a plug kit but I think you'll need more then 2 to fix that"..
My only reply was "did you enjoy your show?." .. I was clearly in shock and a little asinine...
Got a ride to nearby town from car guy. Nice folks still exist.

And for all those not in the fold. Jesus and the Satan believe in you. Even if you dont.

Thanks for reading!

Oh yeah. Rim managed to survive
.... I mean silver lining right?

Sadly no one had video of the incident....

No tire was not over inflated. We believe it was something ridden over that I didn't see. Created a fast air pressure drop and then the rest you see.

One of your nine lives is gone.

Glad you survived the ride of your life:)

That often crosses my mind when I am resting my left arm/hand, riding with one hand on the handlebars. I really need to stop that. Been riding bikes for over 50 years and haven't had one of those on the highway yet...excuse me while I knock on wood.

I’ve had it happen, and didn’t go down. Was only doing about 30-40 mph, and more luck than skill, probably, kept me upright.

Going to disagree that your tire failed from an impact or road damage. That looks like a catastrophic carcass failure to me. Not much different than those complete semi tire failures on the interstate that are so exciting.

Low tire pressure comes to mind first. The excessive flexure, heat buildup, explosive rupture. But the failure line isn’t where I’d expect to see it from that. So actually, I think perhaps not low pressure damage actually.

This is one of those failures where I wonder if your tire had a crack in the tread on that failure line. A crack that exposed the cords, letting them get damaged and weakened. Ultimately resulting in the catastrophic failure on that crack line.

There have been a fair number of posts in recent years about some motorcycle tires developing circumferential cracks, for unknown reasons. Usually rather quickly, and on a rather new tire.

Regardless, glad you’re ok, and that with some combination of skill and luck, you didn’t go down.

Glad you were able to ride it out safely. While this was a catastrophic failure that doesn’t appear to involve the center tread, tire looks well worn. Probably should have been replaced earlier.

curious what the date code was OP?

eta - since I just put a set of 705’s on my GSA and rode to CO and back, ~5000 miles so far

I have never seen a motorcycle tire fail like that. In some ways, it is better that it did that instead of create a flap that would lock up in the rear fender. No fun either way.

A friend of mine had a front blow out at speed while leaned over on an elevated overpass. He instantly stood the CBR600 up, and began to scrub speed as quickly as he could. He was nearly to the 100 foot drop off when he came to a stop. Ruined the rim. This was at 2am in San Jose, so there were some rough gangsters giving him the stink eye as he stood there in full leathers. Out of sheer coincidence, someone he knew drove buy in a little pickup. They loaded the bike up with no straps and got the heck out of there. That friend passed away many years ago, but we still have his bike. We use it as a shared track day bike. The unmatched white front wheel reminds us of that close call.

Coincidence is always a thing we key up for some failure of ours or something unknown.

I'm not sure about stress cracks or tire worn down etc.
The incident in general is clearly death-defying. And since I'm still here I guess I'm supposed to be at least a while longer.

I've run those same exact brand and tread pattern for 3 tires now. Ive got several way more worn out versions of that. The dogs love to play with the worn out ones.

I've got another bike (my old airhead) that has that same tire make and model in tube type. It seems to hook up great. Only variance is the one is not radial vs biasply.

I can't say of it will go away or be replaced sooner then later. All I can say is I'm glad it didn't go worse.
I put a Dunlop trail sense on the gs to replace that blowout. It seems to like the corners quite well. I hope not to have much ice or bad luck with it. Well see. Last Dunlop I had was on my old 650gs
Those tires were like prying plywood. On and off the wheels.
This one seemed to go on about average.

To address the date and stamp. I don't know off top of head. I want to say it was manf around feb20 cuz I looked at it after I got it in mail back in March.

Whatever you do. Don't stop riding. Don't be scared off. If you nearly die but scrape away from with major injuries..that's another story.. Don't run away if you just get scared. Use those scares to make you a better rider.
I've been riding since I was 18. That was more then half my life ago. My dad got me into this. And I'll probably not stop even after he and everyone is gone.
I've had friends I would go riding with fall off thier bikes while it was on sidestand or centerstand. They got spooked and blamed the bike or circumstances. One even sold his bike after only having it for 3 months.

I'm not saying they were right or wrong. Just my theory is. Don't throw something away if you really enjoy it. If you like motorcycling and want to do it for along long time. Don't forget the tricks you learn along the way.

It doesn't matter what you ride or how often. Just keep riding.

It's not going to happen at the dock. It's gonna happen out there.

A picture(s) of the failure and the DOT stamp should be sent to the DOT and NHTSA. That alone could force a recall. Without the expense of recall, and possible lawsuits, (very, very glad you were not hurt!!!!) there is little reason for a manufacturer to shape up and take QC serious.

Rod

You should quit buying retreads...

Retreads? These are all brand new tires when I get them.
....? If I understand retreads one takes old tire and takes off old rubber then puts on new?

I thought you buy a new tire. It's new. And who retreads motorcycle tires?

I'm lost....

Well maybe I'll look into this. Might be a really big thing if as you say.

There is or was a Tomahawk tire company that was retreading mc tires. They also made colored tires, not colored smoke, colored rubber. They were not that much less expensive, and I never bought any.

Rod

I'm pretty sure he was joking.

I too have never seen a tire fail like that. All I can say is I am happy you didn't lose control. Keep living the good life.

That looks like what's called groove cracking. It can be caused by age, ozone, over or under inflation, heat, and/or overloading. Usually it doesn't get bad enough to do that, and would have taken a while to get to this point, but from the treadwear that tire should have been replaced long ago. Glad you came out unscathed though.

A most unfortunate event to be sure. But if you hit something on the road perhaps that started the eventual event, you can't hardly blame the tire. Seems like it kept you safe, right?

That and like others stated, that tire was past it's prime. I have run 705's front and back for a very long time on two different bikes, rarely do I even have to add air to them. Yeah, they are a cheap date, typically 4000-5000 miles, but I have found them to be predictable, which I can't say for tires costing nearly twice as much. The 705 perhaps the peanut butter and jelly sandwich of tires, but they can still be quite satisfying and get you through your day.

Pretty sure your right. Just the response got me thinking ha!