Tubeless Enve tyre rolls off Roval rim at 45kmh-Venge written off-thoughts?

Sounds shit and I hope you're alright. TBF to Specialized and Enve, I had exactly the same occurence but running Vittoria Corsas on latex tubes. 45km/h, tyre goes 'bang' and turns inside-out on rim, I hit the deck and the frame snaps. Hurt pride but fortunately the bike was insured so a relatively minor inconvenience in that regard. I'd just hurtled down a mountain at 80km/h so I was pretty relieved to be on the flat at 45km/h when it happened! Never had anything like this in 5 years of running tubeless though.

Hi Nadsta - it's never good seeing images like this and we'd like to get more information. Can you email jake [at] enve.com so we can be in touch? Thank you. 

Horror show photos.  I used to ride a motorbike and was conscious that all the grip you have cornering is tranferred through a few square inches of tread - an autumn leaf's worth, if you like.  Road bikes tyre surface area contact is a fraction of this and whilst we mostly travel at lower speeds, lycra isn't much protection against stone-chipped asphalt. 

I think the most plausible explanation is recoveryride's below, that the tyre caught the edge or lip of a pothole, distorted, letting the air out, and then de-rimmed.  Wow. Just wow. 

I wonder if running tyres at lower pressures could contribute to this?  I'm an 85psi man myself, a lot less than the 140psi one of my German mates insists on squeezing into his Vittorias, but I'm inclined to think that higher pressure tyres might distort less and so be less prone to twisting.

Jeez! I did not expect that! It's literally nearly done a 180 on the rim!

That's not just a burp or a simple deflation on impact. That looks like an incompatibility issue that's happened in the 1-in-a-million type scenario. A perfect storm if you will.

Thinking about it, tyres that are meant for hookless applications are supposed to be stronger at the bead. Purely because they don't have the hook to hold them on.

I'm wondering if hitting a bump at the bottom of the wheel has allowed, momentarily, for the tyre to slip in to the central channel which has then allowed the tyre to become baggy/loose at the top and pop over the edge?

Like Chris says though, the GP5000 is a fantastic tyre and in my opinion is able to hide the sins of a bad tubeless design.

Thanks for posting this, Nadsta.  Glad that you've both survived the experience and retained a healthy and philosophical attitude.  Sharing experiences like this makes us all safer.

​I've been warned by my LBS about the compatibility of certain tubeless tyres and rims following difficulty in getting a good seal. Apparently this derives from shape and dimensions of the rim hook versus the tyre bead. I guess that hookless rims compound this.  It's certainly one to look out for.

I tend to use GP5000s for everything apart from Mavic wheels for exactly this reason. Mavic, for some unknown reason, wouldn't share their data with Continental when developing their tubeless rims and so advise only using Mavic tyres. Just to be contrary, I use Hutchinsons who make tyres for Mavic so they don't make any more money from me! 

You're really talking me into going tubeless! I have the appropriate wheels which came with my fairly new gravel bike but, as an old fuddy-duddy, I have confined myself to enjoying the satisfying noise as the tube pushes the tyres onto the 'ramps', or whatever they're called.

First off, I'm glad your ok other than the road rash. Like you said it could have been a lot worse.

I have experience with the Roval, I had some CLX 50 and due to a pretty miserable tubeless experience I sold them. I'd constantly find the tyres unseated and sealant everywhere. The best tyres I used on those wheels were the GP5000. Mainly because they were so tight. They were the only ones I felt confident going on longer rides on and they stayed up all the time, but only at the higher end of the pressure gauge  

The shape of the tubeless ridge doesn't hold the tyre on like Hunts or Scribe (or any other tubeless rim for that matter). I found that after a tyre had been fitted to them it was hard to get it to seal on any other wheels. 

4.5k sounds a lot but if it's done in one year then that's ok. How long have the tyres been fitted? How heavy are you? Had you been braking quite a lot beforehand, the rim/tyre might have had a lot of heat in it?

Those tyres are designed to work with Enve hookless rims and it's what stopped me from buying them, even though they say they work with hooked rims.

It sounds like the tyre may have lost some pressure at some point and then re-seated but blown past the rim outer. I also think the profile of where the tyre interfaces with the hook of the rim might not fully compatible. The Roval rims are a very old design and in my opinion a very poor tubeless design. Many forum posts will back this up.

If it still intact I'd try the tyre on another rim to see what its integrity is like. After that, take it up with the manufacturers.

Also, after a crash many years ago while I was in A&E the Dr said salt baths is the best thing. Loads of table salt in a bath. It doesn't sting at all and speeded up the skin repair.

Good luck and quick recovery. 

From what you describe, I would speculate that the tyre has caught on the side edge of a pothole and gravity/momentum/the impact has pulled it off the rim.

There are a few threads on, or connected to, this on weightweenies. I haven't been through them all, but from my brief scan, and what I can remember, there have been concerns about Rovals not retaining a tubeless tyre in the event of a sudden loss of pressure or - as seems likely in your case - a burp. Somebody posted a diagram highlighting a possible issue although IDK if it was of your model.

It's interesting, as you note, that the newer Roval wheels are explicitly not tubeless compatible, despite having a rim bed that looks pretty much identical to the older ones, so maybe this is something Roval is aware of. That said, if it was/is a known safety issue, I'd like to think they'd recall/issue a safety notice.

I would definitely pursue it; like you said, this could have been very nasty indeed.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.