Checked your tires lately?

[etheis]

92 Kaw Voyager XII

I've been riding forever. I normally ride year round (but not so much since I moved to Seattle).

I'm a contract software/firmware engineer, and as such sometimes I have to go where the work is.

About four years ago, I was living in Austin, TX. Replaced the rear tire on my Voyager:
Metzler ME 888 Marathon Ultra 170/80 B 15 M/C 77H TL
Worth every penny.

About six months later, had to look for work. Ended up renting a room in Palo Alto, CA (Silicon valley) for 9 months, while my house, wife, and
bike stayed in Austin.

After that, the job market was even worse. Took a contract in Albuquerque, NM, which was supposed to be two weeks onsite, then work remotely.

Meanwhile, my wife and I decided to sell our house in Austin, and move to the Seattle area - while I was still working in Albuquerque.
The house sold in two weeks. (!!)
So I drove down, packed the entire house into PODS, had a shipper pick up the bike. I went back to work, most of our stuff went into storage in Tacoma, WA. My wife, the bike, and some stuff went to live with my wife's daughter in Port Orchard, WA.
I started looking for work in the Seattle area (while working the contract out of Albuquerque). 5 months later, I was finally able to work remotely, and went to Port Orchard. And fired up the Kaw!

Over the next six months I found a job in Bellevue (near Seattle). I commuted for the first 6 weeks (70 miles each way), but finally rented a house in Bellevue, and moved in. The weather was getting decent, so I started to ride again occasionally.

But the bike felt funny, sluggish. Sometime after I had the new rear tire installed it had developed a slow leak. If it sat more than a couple weeks it would be down to 22 PSI (from 40). It was better every time I aired it up, but didn''t feel quite right. I figured it was because I'd been off the bike so long. I wasn't worried about the tire - it was a new-ish Metzler.

One day after airing it up, I decided I really should investigate the leak (since things were less crazy).
So I put the bike on the main stand and got down on the ground to check the tread for any obvious nails, or whatever.

See the picture of what I found. The slash was about 7" long, turning a right angle and proceeding another 3". The entire chunk of tread in the angle was poking out about a quarter inch. Note the nylon plies are clearly visible in the slash.

God knows how long I had been riding on that - on freeways, sometimes 140 mi/day, sometimes 100+ MPH. I'm surprised it was holding air at all. I cannot remember when I first noticed the slow leak - and so have no idea how long the tire had been like that.
I have no idea how it happened.

I check my tires more often now. And will keep buying Metzlers.

[SgtSlag]

Defective tires happen -- for every maker. Glad to hear you had no issues with this, as it could have been catastrophic! I purchased a low-cost TPMS system this past summer for my bike. It cost me $50. I would recommend this to all riders. It worked all summer, with a mild learning curve as to pressures and temperatures, but it beats flying blindly, which is what a rider does without it. My thread on the subject is here. Cheers!