Some of the worst cuts are the ones you cannot see. A thin blade of glass, a piece of sheet metal or a sharp kerb edge can slice into the shoulder of a tyre and leave a cut that closes up completely when the car is standing still. Run a thumb over it and you find nothing. Under load and at speed the tyre deforms as it passes through the contact patch, the shoulder flexes hard, and the cut opens and closes on every rotation, working itself deeper each time round.
Which is why the failure appears to come from nowhere. Nothing looked wrong on the drive, nothing felt wrong at low speed, and then it lets go on a faster road with no warning at all. It is also why we flex the shoulder when inspecting a tyre rather than simply looking at it. Squeezing the sidewall and the shoulder opens anything that has been sitting closed, and a cut that shows cord when it opens means the tyre is finished. The alternative is finding out at speed, which is a considerably worse way to learn it.
It might be a side street in Red Lion Square, it might be an unlit stretch miles from anywhere. A burst tyre does not care and neither, honestly, do we. We are out across Greater London, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. A Red Lion Square cul-de-sac or a Gray's Inn Road main road, tell us which. A tight terrace in Gray's Inn Road or a narrow bay on Theobalds Road is usually workable. The WC1V postcode and a street in Chancery Lane: that is enough.
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High Holborn is buses and taxis all day with nowhere to stop, and the tight corners around Red Lion Square and Chancery Lane put the shoulder of a tyre against kerbs far more often than the tread ever meets anything sharp. That is why shoulder damage is the common failure around here rather than nails. It is also the damage least likely to be noticed, because the injured face is usually the one against the kerb that nobody looks at.
A tyre inspected in a permit bay near Red Lion Square looked untouched. Squeezing the shoulder opened a fine cut with cord visible in the bottom of it.
The corners around Chancery Lane are unforgiving on a wide tyre, and a shoulder cut picked up there had gone unnoticed for weeks before the driver rang about something else entirely.
A shoulder cut found on one tyre prompted a look at its partner on the same axle, which is where the second one turned up.
Because rubber is elastic and closes over a thin cut when the tyre is not loaded. Standing still, the two faces are pressed together and there is nothing to see or feel. It only opens when the tyre is deforming under the weight of the car.
By flexing the area rather than looking at it. Squeezing the shoulder and the sidewall opens anything sitting closed, and if cord shows in the bottom of it the tyre is finished. It takes a few seconds per tyre and it is worth doing after any sharp impact.
No. The shoulder sits outside the repairable band, it is the part of the tyre that flexes hardest, and a cut has severed cords rather than made a hole. There is no version of that which gets patched.
Stop somewhere sensible, look, and flex the shoulder with your hand. If there is any doubt at all, call us out to take the wheel off rather than driving on it. We are out around the clock and would far rather look at a sound tyre than attend the failure.
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