kingston 

I have my bike loaded for a 1,200k right now and it weighs 44 lbs. with 2 full water bottles. A little more than a half-pound of that is an extra tire.

ksryder

I don't even carry an extra tire for 200 miles of gravel.

GadgetGirlIL

A half pound of weight is well worth the insurance it gives you for your 1,200K! Wishing you and everyone else a great ride! I'm sure I will see you in two weeks as I'm the breakfast volunteer all 5 days.

Flounce

kingston 

This happened to one of the guys on our 1200k last weekend. He may have been able to ride it after we popped the bubble and booted the tire, but he had an extra tire so he just replaced it.



Tire failure

rhm

That is a memorable photo!

I have all kinds of questions about what exactly went wrong for that to happen, but I guess the inevitable lesson is: expect the unexpected.

GadgetGirlIL

I need to revise my original response to this thread. I had my first brevet DNF (200K) this past Saturday after getting a cut in my sidewall at mile 34. I was able to repair the flat using a $20 bill (smallest I had) as a temporary boot and a new tube. That lasted until around mile 49 when the paved road turned to gravel. Apparently the grit worked its way into the hole, shredded the $20, and gave me another pin hole in the tube. I had one remaining tube so replaced it and the boot, but 2 miles later while still on gravel I got another flat, same spot. It was apparent at this point that the only real solution was a new tire. The nearest Walmart was 12 miles to the west at Tomah, WI.

I sent my riding companions on as there was no point in 3 of us getting a DNF and I got back to the main (busy) road that paralleled the gravel road. After about 2 miles of walking (thankfully I had my SPD recessed cleat shoes), I came upon some women at a church packing up from an earlier rummage sale. I asked if they could help me get a taxi to take me to Tomah, WI. The one woman was kind enough to drive me. I bought a new tire and new tubes and a mini hand pump (they didn't sell CO2 cartridges). Of course the tubes didn't have long enough valve stems for my rims. So after much fussing about on my part which was getting me nowhere, she drove me 2 miles to her house where her husband had an ATV tire patch kit and I got my old tubes fixes. Then it was back to the church where I had to take off my rear fender since the new tire was 32mm not 28mm (my frame can only do 28mm with fenders). She stashed my fender in some bushes so I could claim it this morning on my drive home. I gave her $$ for her time which she didn't want to take, but then I suggested she donate to the food pantry her church runs and she was good with that. It was the least I could do for all the time she spent driving me around.

Now that I had lost about 3 hours of time, there was no way I could complete the rest of the ride (it was a loop) so I just rode back the way I came staying on the main highway to avoid the gravel. While I didn't have enough psi in the rear tire (crappy tire pump) it was sufficient to keep me from getting a pinch flat. I made it back the ~50 miles to Wisconsin Rapids finishing in the dark. So I had ~101 miles of riding for the day and ~2 miles of bike walking.

I had a LOT of time to think about how lucky I had been with all my previous rides and flats. And I had a LOT of time to think about what I will now carry with me: a tire, a real tube repair kit, a tire boot, and a better mini pump. And a LOT of time to be extremely grateful for the kindness of the woman and her husband.

I was successful at completing yesterday's 100K as the new rear tire and patched tube held up fine. I had a floor pump at my hotel so had the right psi. But at mile 44 the front tire got a sidewall cut. I did have a fresh tube with me as I had brought a spare that I had left in my backpack when I set out on Saturday. The $1 bill boot worked just fine and we completed the ride without incident.

The tires involved were the originals that came with my All-City Mr. Pink and I've only ridden about 1,000 miles on that bike. I've now ordered Continental Gatorskins which I've been using on my other bike and have been very pleased with.

pdlamb

Maybe the lesson is to be sure you have a $1 bill for a tire boot? (My $5 bill failed as a boot the other week, too. Same story: it was the smallest I had.)

unterhausen

Sorry to hear you had such a tough weekend. That's a lot of things going wrong. I think I would have taken up a different hobby after all that.


fedex will give you tyvek boot material for free. Maybe they don't look at it the same way as their customers do
Now I'm trying to remember if I have any on my bike, I thought I did.

Carbonfiberboy 

Yeah well, that's why I always carry a spare tire . . . Everything is fine until it isn't.

GadgetGirlIL

+1

@pdlamb - hah! For once, cheaper is better? I need to also get a cutup FedEx envelope into my bag, too, like @unterhausen suggests.

As for taking up a different hobby, that thought never crossed my mind. I was channeling my father on Saturday. He never gave up in the face of adversity either. As I was making my way back after finally getting the tire fixed, I heard back from a friend who was up in the area offering to come and pick me up. I declined as I had already done the walk of shame to the church and was determined to get back under my own power. But it was nice to know that I had a Plan C in the event that some other issue arose.

clasher

I always have a boot or two in the bag... on a 200k last weekend I was riding with two friends and we all had different wheel sizes so we should have all had our own spares! But on a tour recently my partner had one of those pins from the brake pads come loose and it cut into the tire. Luckily she saw it before the tube popped and we could boot it. The park tool boots are thick and that tire has been solid for at least 600km so far, since that time she's kept a spare tire on that bike but I have been really impressed with the park boot so far, it's more like a permanent repair than just a quick fix to get home. I wouldn't bother using anything else to boot a tire now, having used the park ones.

GadgetGirlIL

@clasher - thanks for the testimonial for the Park boots. I've ordered some of those too. I'm a firm believer in some redundancy!

Carbonfiberboy 

I've used the Park boot material. Works well except the edges will eventually wear a hole in your tube, so toss the tire ASAP.