CyclingBK

I went for a ride on Saturday, all fine. Checked today and rear tire is flat. No obvious tire damage.

Took out the tube, inflated it, hear the leak, small pinhole on side of tube.

Check the wheel inside and feel a tiny sharp piece of metal. Not sure if it was a defect, I have been riding regularly since August and no indication of any leak at all. And not sure what could have caused it.

Can it be repaired at home? I was thinking electric tape maybe?

But please let me know if anyone has experience with this and what should be done.

Here is a pic. It’s small but pretty sharp.

Iride01 

Old or new rim? See if it is a manufacturing defect if new and in warranty.
Alloy rim? Sand or file it smooth. Probably void any warranty if still in warranty.
Carbon rim? maybe same as above, but wait for someone else to say yay or nay on that.

Can't see the pic clear enough. Is this maybe damage from prying with a screwdriver or something? It doesn't show on the outside does it?

CyclingBK

New rim, just 10 months old. I never touched it except to use the plastic lever to get the tire off.
Its just the stock rim that came with the REI CTY 1.1 I bought. No damage at all on the outside. But it’s odd that if it was there this whole time I never experienced any leak. It just went flat overnight.

That little black spot inside the white is a little edge of metal sticking out.

jon c. 

No personal experience, but everyone says REI is excellent with returns so I'd take it back.

From that picture I can't hazard a guess as to what could have caused that.

Iride01 

Another thing I can't make out in the pic is that there appears to be a vertical line coming up through the spot to the edge of the rim. If this is an alloy rim, that might be the two ends of the rim where they are put together and possibly something dinged that edge before they were put together. Still sounds like you might have a warranty issue to pursue before doing other things.

Otherwise smooth it down. Tape might work, but if thin enough to not interfere with seating the bead, then it just might wear through again and then start working on the tube. Rough spots like this can take many miles to finally get through a tube.

dsbrantjr

I would just smooth the sharp burr down with a rifler file, machinist's scraper, small Dremel stone, or some sandpaper.

CyclingBK

I went ahead and pushed the piece back against the rim. It felt pretty smooth afterwards . Then put a couple of small strips of scotch tape over it.

Lets see what happens....

Appreciate the help, gents ; )