Originally Posted by
Oso Polar
A bit off topic but related - I wonder what is the proper course of action to avoid an accident in case of a front tire flat during a fast descent? No amount of maintenance can really prevent it but judging by the responses in this thread such event is either extremely rare, or there are no survivors to tell about their experience, or, hopefully, people manage to handle the situation gracefully and avoid an accident. Suppose there are a few seconds until the tire loses all the air but how to stop the bike fast enough? My understanding is that braking with a front wheel (the one with flat tire) is a very bad idea and braking hard at speed with rear wheel pretty much guarantees skid and crash on a side.
The best approach is foresight. Replace your clinchers with tubulars (sewups) before that descent. A well glued tubular will leave you with far more both control and ability to brake. Much, much less exciting. It's been decades but I've blown tubulars at 45 mph. No big deal. Just don't be going around a corner. I'm riding clinchers now but I am going to replace my rims with tubular from now on, mostly for that security. (The ride's pretty darn nice too.)
Ben