[joe4702]

Red gunk oozing from Pro-4 Endurance sidewall.
2/3 of the sidewall on both sides is covered with this crap.
No idea if safe to ride these, but not willing to chance it.

I've already tossed several Mich. "endurance" tires due to the exact same issue,
But those tires had some miles on them.
This tire has 0 miles on it, just mounted the other day.
It was fine when I mounted it - the ooze appeared within 24 hours.

I've got 2 more of these tires still new in the box.
All are going in the trash.
Never had a problem with Mich. until they moved production to Thailand some years back. No more Mich. for me - they are garbage.

 

[Lombard]

Can't you return the unused tires rather than trashing them?

Is there any cracking or does the color just change?

 

[Jay Strongbow]

whoa. That's crazy. Any chance they are knock-offs?

Not that I know anything about making bike tires but what seems so strange is I'd think it would be hard, time consuming and add to cost to make a tire perform that trick intentionally.

 

[Opus51569]

Is your name Damian???
Do you live in a town called Amityville???

Cuz oozing red stuff is a sure sign your tires are cursed.

Seriously, though, the only guess I have would be a manufacturing defect either in bonding the tire, or in the process of adding some kind of decorative stripe on the edge as some Michelins have. Maybe someone tried to sell you a Michelin Dynamic and called it a Pro-Endurance???

But, as Lombard said, you should try to return the unused tires and at least recoup some of your loss. I like Michelins, but if I went through what you've gone through, I wouldn't buy them again either.

 

[duriel]

I'm going to have to see it to believe it, send them to me. .... if they are 25's!

 

[joe4702]

I don't even recall where I bought them, it was a while ago.
It was either E-Bay or one of the UK online retailers like Merlin or PBK,
They look authentic and came individually factory boxed.
If you want to pay the shipping, you can have the remaining two still in their boxes.
Would be coming from zip 92128.
Even if the tires are safe to ride, it the red goop looks ridiculous, although maybe I should keep it mounted through Halloween! I rode to work today and it felt fine, but who knows.

 

[dmanthree]

Well, this is new. And a nice alternative to the traditional "Conti GP 4000s sidewall" threads.

But I'd love to hear what's causing this.

 

[aclinjury]

I have a bunch of Mich Pro 4 Corse that do something similar, just to a lesser extent. The sidewall would fray up only after about 500-600 miles. I'm not going back to Mich after my current fews are used up.

 

[steelbikerider]

My Pro 3's did that after a few months. It usually happened after storing them in an uncooled garage with high humidity at the end of the summer. Temps were usually 90+and humidity over 75%, higher in the evenings and overnight. It is a bonding or sealant layer in the tire casing and the leaking was always worse where I had scuffed the tire casing against something. I had usually worn out the tires after a 3-6 months anyway so it didn't bother me. It has not happened on my Pro 4 endurance tires.

 

[joe4702]

The stuff is very sticky/tacky. Difficult to remove (kind of smears) even with Goo Gone and I don't know what a solvent might be doing to the sidewall. I have been commuting to work on that tire, but I have some Vittoria's on the way from Merlin. These tires were stored indoors until just recently, then in my garage. It does get hot in there, but hard to believe a product that will most likely spend much of it's life in a garage (either on or off a bike) would react like that.

To be fair to Michelin, I have a Service Course Race tire that I found in a Performance Bike bargain bin on the front wheel and it's a been a great tire with no issues.

 

[duriel]

Rubber and rubber products are very sensitive to heat. The whole process of rubber is heat dependant, so... don't store rubber products in any hot environment.

 

[Got Time]

This happened to my red Michelin Pro 4 tyres too, but not with the plain black.
Maybe it is related to the stuff they use to get the red (and other?) colours?

 

[joe4702]

Here is a photo of the inside of one of the tires, laid flat.
The sidewall is at the top.
The lighter color area on the left is an area where the red adhesive/goop leaked to the outside. All of the areas where the goop leaked out look like this. Without knowin the purpose of the red stuff, It's hard to say for sure, but it's possible the loss of that goop has weakened the sidewall structure in some way. These are going in the trash for sure.

 

[duriel]

Take your finger or something and try to push it through the sidewall from the inside in that area. Try 'something' on an old tire first to get a feel for the pushthrough force. If the michlin tires hold with force-25lbs, I would think they would be good to go.

I don't see anything that would indicate failure, it's just red goo, come on.