I had that happen on my last rear tire, right in the middle. Looked okay till a gas stop near LA and I parked it till I could get a new tire as well. Had to ride on the back of my buddie's ST1300 bank to San Diego, which must have looked rediculous. Two grown men in full gear on a Honda It certainly wasn't to the point it wouldn't hold air though. What do tires cost over there? A set of pirelli diablos cost around, what, $300-350 I guess.
I paid $300 for a rear Michelin pilot road 2, fitted, about 5 mths ago. A front would cost about $250. Sometimes set of tires can be found on sale at around $400-450 I can actually buy at set of tires from the USA and have them delivered to my door for slightly more than the cost of a rear tire here, and lots of people are doing that sort of thing now and not just with tires. This has local retailers crying foul and calling for import duties and customers saying well if they were priced competitively instead of trying to make a million on every sale we would buy locally. After all these same businesses were calling for a free market afew years ago. Seems its not so attractive now