Small "tears" in tires, near the wheels

[rationull]

I was inspecting the bikes today before the GF and I went on a long ride, and I noticed that there appears to be a small tear in the tire skin close to the valve stem just along the edge of the rim. Forgive the [censored] picture:

Is this type of thing a normal occurrence or is it damage I should keep an eye on? I'll admit that I fairly frequently slightly overfill the tires by a few PSI (70 PSI sidewall limit) figuring that the extra few PSI will blow out when I disconnect the pump. Could that have caused this?

There's no evidence the tire is leaking.

I realize it's very small and probably minor, just trying to avoid a wrecked tire skin while I'm out on a ride, if there's anything I need to do about this.

 

[oilboy123]

Probably from changing the tires. Looks pretty minor to me. I notice changing my 700-23c road bike tires are really a pain.

So some tire nicking etc is inevitable. If the tire has never been changed......never mind. Could have been caused while riding it? I can't see pressure having any bearing on this.......

 

[rationull]

Never been changed, but it could've been like this since the bike was first assembled and I've just never noticed it. These tires are 700-37c, I imagine they're nearly as much of a PITA as road bike tires.

It could have happened while riding too. If nicks are normal then I'll just forget about it. I'm pretty new to cycling so I figured I'd check. Glad the pressure probably didn't cause it.

 

[NYEngineer]

That's normal "stress" on the sidewall. I'd change it if it gets any worse. Or you could do what Burt Munroe did in The Fastest Indian... Fill the cracks with black shoe polish so the tech inspectors don't see em.

 

[IndyIan]

Doesn't look like your using rim brakes but sometimes the brake pads will rub the sidewall in that area if the pads wear alot without being adjusted, or if you flatspot a rim.
Ian

 

[rationull]

Right, this bike has disc brakes so it's not being caused by the pads.

NYEngineer: I've only got just over 300 miles on the bike and while it's seen some mildly bumpy roads and shock from running over some twigs and small rocks, it hasn't had too hard a life yet. When you say "normal" stress, does that just mean the stress of rolling along and carrying the weight of the bike and rider?

 

[NYEngineer]

Yes. It appears to only be the outer layer, but I can't REALLY tell from the picture. The rubber could also be beginning to get a little dry. Even though there's not too many miles, how old are the tires?

 

[rationull]

I can't really tell from looking, either, because it's so close to the rim. Drying rubber was one guess I had. I'm not sure exactly how old they are .. the bike is a 2008 model so the tires could be anywhere from 1.3 years to a few years old depending on how long they were sitting around before being shipped with the bike.

 

[oilboy123]

It has a nick right near the tire blemish. Probably just had a rock push a little in between the tire and rim................

 

[rationull]

Hmm, I hadn't put two and two together w/ that nick. Good point.