Judy is an experienced cyclist and a qualified bicycle mechanic. She had recently purchased a high end carbon fibre mountain bike which came fitted with Continental Race King tyres.

One afternoon she was cycling along a paved cycle path when all of a sudden she heard a bang, lost control of her bike and fell to the ground. It all happened so suddenly, she didn’t know what had happened. She hit her head and shoulder but luckily was wearing a helmet. Passers-by helped to call her husband for help. It was only then that she realised that her front tyre sidewall had blown out and shredded.

As a qualified bicycle mechanic, she knew that the type of blow out shown was not normal and shouldn’t have happened as the tyre was nearly new and she was only cycling along a flat paved cycle path. Judy approached Cycle Law Scotland to see if we could help.

Whilst our most common cases involve collisions between cyclists and other road users, or road defect hazards, we are committed to representing all injured cyclists pursue their civil rights. As specialist cycling solicitors, we all have a personal interest in cycling and bicycles and we were able to see straight away that this crash was caused by a defect in the tyre and were able to advise Judy to pursue a product liability claim against Continental as the manufacturers of the tyre.

We instructed Sandy Gilchrist, Cycling Expert Witness, with over 40 years experience in bicycle mechanics, to examine the tyre and he was able to confirm that the type of blow out in the side wall that happened could only have been as a result of a manufacturing defect. Armed with this evidence, we were able to successfully pursue a claim for compensation against Continental and obtain compensation for Judy’s injury and losses.

Judy was delighted with the outcome commenting:

"The team at Cycle Law Scotland have been so helpful, organised, thorough and very professional in how they dealt with my case. I was always kept informed and updated and face to face meetings were really reassuring. I would recommend Cycle Law Scotland without hesitation, thank you so much for taking my , slightly atypical, case on, and for getting such a great outcome."