Gaiter Failure

[Deanohh_imp]

Ok, here's my wacky theory.
In the pics the bottom where they're stretched over the fork legs is checked like an old bicycle tire...age or environmental damage to the rubber. Also look at the form of the pleats...large radius on the lower inside pleats compared to a sharp vee on the torn ones higher up so the sharp vee ones are weaker and are stressed more when they flex...and in cross section that molded vee shape is probably the thinnest right there. Finally the bottoms are pulled down so far that the vent holes are blocked by the top of the fork legs so that when the forks move up and down they blow up and suck in like a balloon which makes more movement of the pleats and more fatigue on the sharp vee shaped ones, which are the ones that split.