First off, I am not talking simple "flat tires".
What I am referring to are two types of "blow outs":
1. Bead separating from rim bead seat
2. Blown side wall where tire tears away from bead
Oddly enough, I had
#1 happen just today (well, yesterday... its after midnight now). I did a shake-down ride before my trip coming up - loaded - and noticed a bulge in the tire. Mind you, I had just rotated the tires and the rear tire is the one that bulged (was the front for a while). I had an issue with a bit of a "thump" in that tire on the front and found what appeared to be the bead not having been seated properly. I ended up rotating the tires, but in both cases when I remounted the tires I massaged the side walls to ensure the bead seated better.
The above having been said - when I got back from my shake down ride I was a bit surprised to see the bulge after taking care in how I mounted the tire.
I took the tire back off the rim, completely, and inspected the tire. It is all in tact - there is no separation of the bead or other abnormalities in the tire itself. So I re-mounted the tire. This time I did notice the tube near the valve stem was interfering with the bead seating. So I massaged that a bit differently and tried to get the valve stem part of the tube back up inside the tire more on that side.
From a previous thread a poster mentioned to "seat" the bead by using 2x max pressure. My tires are rated to 85psi and I was going to do 140psi. I never made it there. I hit 100PSI and KABANG! I did have safety glasses and ear muffs on just in case things went "boom" and they sure did.
On inspection - the tire did not give out. The bead came out of the rim and the pressure inside blew the tube apart in a long slice at the separation joint.
So I again took the tire back off the rim and inspected it. There is some "scraping" of the bead where the rubber is abraded off of the bead, but there is no separation of the bead anywhere.
One thing that baffles me is why, after massaging the side walls to seat the bead, that the bead would come out of the seat like that? I could understand if the bead was up inside the rim too far on one side, causing excess tire sidewall and bead to show on the other side, but that does not appear to be the case.
So I put a new tube in and remounted the tire. This time I was also careful of the tube near the valve stem and interference with the tire. I got the tire on and massaged the side wall as I did the past few times. Everything looks OK. I pumped it to 85psi (max rated) and test rode it. Everything seems just fine.
However, I am not very confident in that tire.
Tomorrow I am going to pick up another tire so I have a spare.
As for the subject of the thread - are there any ways to deal with blow-outs to, at the very least, be able to limp until a proper repair/replacement can be made?
In the case of
#1 - where the tire is not damaged, but the tube gets a slice in it - is there a way to use, say, a strip of an old tube as a long "patch" - installed the same way as a small hole patch with scuffing and glue? Maybe a strip of Duct tape?
In the case of
#2 - if the side wall separates from the tire is there any way to reinforce that area to hold any respectable pressure to ride on? Maybe creatively placed duct tape along the tube to keep it from stretching through the blow out zone?
On a bit of a tangent - what are everyones thoughts on rolling up a wire bead tire in tighter circles that the regular OD of the tire? I know kinking the beads as would happen when folding is bad - but if it is condensed in a tighter circle will that work? Or are there problems in doing that, also?