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First flat

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Road Cycling “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” -- Ernest Hemingway

First flat

Old 08-08-13, 01:58 PM
  #1  
IANative
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First flat

Well, if finally happened. I've had to change tires/tubes for other riders before, but in 3+ years of cycling I had my very own first flat this morning. A sliver of broken glass, perhaps 1/4" wide x 1/4" deep, lodged itself in almost the exact middle of my rear tire. I've always wondered what it would feel/sound like when I got a flat... now I know.

Fortunately for me, it happened at the very end of my ride, about 100yds from my house. I rolled it straight into the garage and stuck it right up on the ceiling. Also fortunate is the fact that I'm going to be out of town for a few days, and won't be riding the bike. Which should give my PBK order of a few new GP4000s's and some innertubes time to get here.

On a good note, despite a fairly brisk east wind (don't you hate it when the wind is out of the east? it's just wrong!), I turned in my time ever on that particular 16-mile loop.
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Old 08-08-13, 02:05 PM
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therhodeo
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So you're replacing the tire because of the flat or did they need replaced anyway?
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Old 08-08-13, 02:08 PM
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canam73
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I usually get a new bike when that happens. At least a new wheel.
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Old 08-08-13, 02:14 PM
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IANative
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Originally Posted by therhodeo
So you're replacing the tire because of the flat or did they need replaced anyway?
No, I'm sure it can be patched. I had placed the PBK order last night to facilitate some tire changes I'm planning, and to add a spare tire/tube for each of our bikes. I'm just a little intrigued by the timing of it all. It's like I invited the flat by trying to plan ahead.
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Old 08-08-13, 02:21 PM
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Originally Posted by IANative
No, I'm sure it can be patched. I had placed the PBK order last night to facilitate some tire changes I'm planning, and to add a spare tire/tube for each of our bikes. I'm just a little intrigued by the timing of it all. It's like I invited the flat by trying to plan ahead.
Just don't try getting a plot for yourself.
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Old 08-08-13, 02:26 PM
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I get small cuts in my tires all the time. They generally don't need to be patched or replaced - just check for any foreign material inside the cut, remove it, replace the tube and keep riding.

If I replaced my GP4ks every time I got a flat, I would be flat broke.
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Old 08-08-13, 02:31 PM
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Welcome to the FLAT TIRE CLUB!! The membership of this club is very large!
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Old 08-08-13, 02:42 PM
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I'm curious if you guys patch your tubes. After two years of riding and accumulating tubes from flats, last week I was running out of new tubes, so I patched all 7 of them using the Performance rubber cement kit. The rubber wedges are very thick though and I wonder if I'll feel them during my rides. I almost wanted to just cut one of the tubes into square pieces and use them for patching instead of the kit pieces.

On another note, I wasn't aware that you can patch tires. I presume it's the same method.
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Old 08-08-13, 06:02 PM
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Originally Posted by Excelsius
I'm curious if you guys patch your tubes. After two years of riding and accumulating tubes from flats, last week I was running out of new tubes, so I patched all 7 of them....
This is almost literally unbelievable to me on a couple of fronts. First, I probably have ten flats a month. Seven in two years is impossible here. One summer back when I was a compulsive record-keeper, I averaged about one every 30 miles, better than one per day. Lot of thorns here.
Second, I can't believe people won't ride patched tubes, or that there's any debate about it. I've been riding since college in the early '70s, certainly had a couple of hundred flats. I've had two patch failures in all that time, and one of those was my fault. There's no downside to patching, and who can afford six or eight bucks every time you get a puncture?
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Old 08-08-13, 06:19 PM
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I don't have only 7 flats in two years. It's a little more because some of the tubes I threw away due to various reasons. But still, I don't get that many flats. Maybe it's because of the terrain or perhaps you ride much more. Mine is about 150-200 miles/week. Despite my rare flats, I got a flat during my first triathlon. I would have substituted that with 50 flats during my normal ride...
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Old 08-08-13, 06:30 PM
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1 every 30 miles? Dude, that sucks. I get one maybe every 1500. And most of them are when I run my tires down to nothing. If I would give up on them a little earlier half my flats would go away.
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Old 08-08-13, 06:31 PM
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Originally Posted by Velo Dog
This is almost literally unbelievable to me on a couple of fronts. First, I probably have ten flats a month. Seven in two years is impossible here. One summer back when I was a compulsive record-keeper, I averaged about one every 30 miles, better than one per day. Lot of thorns here.
Second, I can't believe people won't ride patched tubes, or that there's any debate about it. I've been riding since college in the early '70s, certainly had a couple of hundred flats. I've had two patch failures in all that time, and one of those was my fault. There's no downside to patching, and who can afford six or eight bucks every time you get a puncture?
Hmmm... If I had 10 flats per month I'd either find somewhere else to ride, find some Kevlar tires or quit riding. You quite likely ride much more often/many more miles than I do, but a flat everytime I go out would greatly reduce the joy of the experience for me. Are you keeping it on the pavement, or are you wandering off into the desert?
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Old 08-08-13, 06:36 PM
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I leave small cuts in my tires as well and only change them if there are really deep, long gashes. It has never been a problem.

When I get a flat I just replace the inner tube right away (always carry spares). I usually throw the damaged tube on a pile somewhere until I feel like patching it. I do not throw them away though. Patching is fast and easy.

It does not surprise me that some people get way more flats than others. We all ride under different circumstances. Some people have to deal with things like goatheads etc.
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Old 08-08-13, 06:52 PM
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Originally Posted by Velo Dog
This is almost literally unbelievable to me on a couple of fronts. First, I probably have ten flats a month. Seven in two years is impossible here. One summer back when I was a compulsive record-keeper, I averaged about one every 30 miles, better than one per day. Lot of thorns here.
Second, I can't believe people won't ride patched tubes, or that there's any debate about it. I've been riding since college in the early '70s, certainly had a couple of hundred flats. I've had two patch failures in all that time, and one of those was my fault. There's no downside to patching, and who can afford six or eight bucks every time you get a puncture?
10 flats a month is natures way of telling you that you need to find a different hobby.

In 11,490 miles I've got 3 flats. Up until last week that was 11,400 miles with 2 flats.
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Old 08-08-13, 07:04 PM
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Four flats in the last four rides. Life is pain, highness.
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Old 08-09-13, 05:41 AM
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Sometimes I can go several months without a flat, but at other times I'll flat two or three times a week. I ride daily. There is a correlation between tire condition (wear) and flat frequency, but most of the time its more a case of the road/path conditions that I ride on. Once I started using better tires (Kevlar incorporation) the goat head flats were rarer, but glass and wire still very problematic. I will patch tubes and reuse them for years, never had a problem related to patching. I do prefer to do my patching at home though (better conditions).
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Old 08-09-13, 06:00 AM
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Originally Posted by canam73
I usually get a new bike when that happens. At least a new wheel.
+1

Nuke it from orbit. Its the only way to be sure.
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Old 08-09-13, 06:58 AM
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I went from getting flats like every other ride, to getting flats like twice in a year. Lots of small pieces of shale around here were giving me the flats and switching to Gatorskins has fixed it. The Gatorskins get cut pretty badly but they don't flat from the shale. Not sure how they perform against those goatheads though since we don't have those here.
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Old 08-09-13, 07:34 AM
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Where is the best place to buy tubes? Knock on wood, I haven't had a flat and it's been almost a year. Then again, I ride mostly in residential areas or in parks. I was going to get a patch kit (I think the one I had 10 years ago is probably useless now) but maybe I should just get some tubes for my road bike.
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Old 08-09-13, 07:42 AM
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Tubes are pretty cheap, I would check your LBS.
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Old 08-09-13, 07:58 AM
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Originally Posted by 2 wheeler
Welcome to the FLAT TIRE CLUB!! The membership of this club is very large!
and first rule of Flat tire club: don't talk about flat tires.
__________________
You could fall off a cliff and die.
You could get lost and die.
You could hit a tree and die.
OR YOU COULD STAY HOME AND FALL OFF THE COUCH AND DIE.
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