jimmuller 

That's a good distance, inn'it?

I don't bother to keep accurate records but I know what my weekly mileage has been for commuting and I know how much we rode on the weekends. I figure I'm over 5000 this year. I've had two commuting flats on 28mm Pasela TG's. Another was a cut in a Vittoria sew-up. Another was from a piece of glass in the tandem's rear tire, a 32mm Pasela TG, which developed a slow leak but never actually flatted while we were riding. All the rest were on Vittorias whose tread had become too thin to bear up to much of any real use. Over the previous two years' commuting I had one from a staple from the office carpet, one pinch flat, two from pieces of road debris, and one Schrader valve stem blow out.

I'd say the tires do make a difference.

linnefaulk

Today was my day. It is my first flat in many, many years. A two inch long screw imbedded itself into my tire. (Bontrager R1) Of course it had to to be there rear tire. I found that my old tube was for .75"-1" tires and mine are 700x23c. I put it in anyway and pumped it up as well as my Performance Hand pump could manage. I am glad I was only 2 miles from home. I rode slowly and could feel every inch.
I went into the LBS, the guy said the tire was rideable but I wasn't convinced. I could feel that defect. They didn't have the R1 but sold me a T1. I took the older, bigger tube home because it was still useable.
I am quite proud of myself for being able to change the tire. I am adding a better hand pump to my wish list.

noglider 

Sometimes, it's not a huge inconvenience, and I'm good at fixing them. When it's the third in a day or it's cold and rainy or dark, then I get annoyed.

rhm

Yesterday at mile 90 of my November century I noticed my front tire slowly losing pressure. It was going soft so slowly that I was able to pick a spot to fix it. It was too cold to sit by the side of the road. I chose a gas station that doesn't have a mini market so the office was just this space where I could sit for a few minutes and patch my tube. The cause proved to be a very tiny piece of wire, just a couple mm long, and hard to get out of the tire. About 6cm from a previous patch, making me wonder if I missed it last time.

Panaracer Pasela 700 x 28 Tourguard tire.

jimmuller 

What's up with all this wire trouble lately? I came home Saturday night from a T-Day weekend and found the rear tire of my UO8 commute vehicle flat. The tire hadn't been flat when I parked the bike Tuesday evening. The culprit was a bit of wire on the inside of the tire but not visible in the tread.

gaucho777 

Speaking of small little wires, I wonder how many flats I've caused myself from rolling my bikes through my workshop. I know I've stepped in my share of wires which fall off brass wire brushes.

My latest annoyance is a rear 27" chrome rim that I swear is bigger than it should be. It's on a low-end flip bike that have spent too much time on already and want out of my garage asap. I just need to mount the tires, wrap the bars, and it'll be done. Three times I tried this weekend to mount a 27x1-1/4 Panaracer Pasela tire on the rear wheel, and each time I caused a flat. Once it pinch flatted when the beading snapped over the lip of the rim. A couple times I think the tube must have ridden up between the rim and tire beading. It's so tight it had to double-check I wasn't mounting a 700c tire. Went on another 27" rim with ease. I've got strong hands and usually don't struggle much with mounting tires, but this tire/wheel is putting me to the test. Used the last of the glue in the patch kit and broke a tire lever, but still haven't got it mounted and inflated. Gonna pick up some talcum powder, another patch kick, and try my luck again tonight when I'm not so filled with rage and frustration.

uberprutser

I also hate flat tires and had to walk many many miles over the years.
But the worst was about 4 years ago on a couple of consecutive mtb rides.
Went trough at least 4 tubes, most of them new, and on all of them the valve stem broke loose. Most likely the tire slipped over the rim under braking.
First I thought is was the low tire pressure (2-2.5 bar) and than I blamed the baby powder thats on new tubes.
But in the end I replaced the tire and the problem was solved. I guess it was just too loose on the rim. (folding tire)

holden west

Years ago I was fixing a flat tire on a little patch of grass next to this pedestrian sign. I decided to move away from the road a bit so I relocated a couple of metres closer to the bus stop away from traffic. A few minutes later a guy on a Harley literally flew past the pedestrian sign where I had just been crouched down repairing my tire. He had lost control on some gravel. He was airborne--him and the bike flying horizontally. He landed in a bush (since removed) behind the bus stop. He refused to stay for the ambulance and rode off as soon as he regained his bearings.

Now I always do repairs away from the traffic path. Not just the road but anyplace where an out of control vehicle could end up. Expect the unexpected.

rhm

For some reason that reminds me of the time I was patching a tube on the tow path of the C&O canal in Georgetown, D.C. in about 1982 or 83. I was on the south side of the canal, my Raleigh Professional lying in a sad looking heap at my side, and I was carefully scuffing the tube in preparation for glue. I noticed another cyclist on a racing bike approaching from the east, but he was on the north side of the canal, going like a bat out of hell, studiously ignoring me just as I was ignoring him. Concentrating on the task at hand, I was nonetheless conscious of a splooshy kind of sound as he went by. That made me turn my head! But he was gone. Wtf, thought i (the abbreviation was not yet current; I actually thought out all the words, what the duck?). I looked west, north, east... nobody. Then I noticed an arm, then a Bell Biker and a head, then shoulders, then a very wet dude, all emerging from the nutrient-rich canal waters. All but his left arm, which stayed in the water until he was otherwise on land again. Then, with visible effort, he pulled out his left arm, still attached to the handlebar of a snazzy looking bike. He hopped on the (wet ) saddle and off he went, still not making eye contact.

In retrospect, of all the flat tires I've patched, that one was the most fun.

yipyipyip

Flats are a PITA, but can be effectively minimized easily. In C&V, I know I'm generally not talking to newbies, but anyway here are my hints to minimize flats. I very seldomly have flats at >260lbs/6'5'' and correspondingly high tire pressures.

* Rim tape. Get high-quality tape, especially when running at high tire pressures. I use Schwalbe, but there must be others out there I don't know about. These should be below 5$/pc. Considering it takes the average amateur mechanic maybe 30min per tire to fix, compare to your hourly wage and decide accordingly.
* Tires. Anti-flat tires in my experience do exactly what they promise. Again, I can recommend Schwalbe, but only due to lack of experience with other brands. Other brands are probably just as good. You get vastly improved flat resistance in exchange for a tire with increased rolling resistance and increased weight. From my experience, I would venture to say you gain >10x piercing resistance at maybe -10% performance. That depends on your performance level, though.

As far as my experience goes, tubes have nothing to do with flat resistance. As a disclaimer, I have zero experience with tubulars or tubeless.

rhm

I'm getting tired of bumping this thread. But this time it is definitely my fault; my tires felt squishy but I was in a hurry, and figured I could get away with not pumping them up. Wrong.

There's some construction going on at the vanished village of Franklin Corner NJ -- where Franklin Corner Road crosses Route One and becomes Baker's Basin Road. Having just missed a green light I went up on the sidewalk to push the button that triggers the light so I can cross; and I hit some debris on the sidewalk. I hadn't realized there was construction there; most of the construction is on the other side of the road. Anyway, it felt my rim bottom out on something. Rear wheel went flat by the time I got across Route One.

It was too cold and too dark to patch the tube, but had a new tube so I just replaced it. But when I took the pump off the valve after pumping it up, all the air rushed out again. The valve was defective. I was able to unscrew the valve from the old tube and screw it into the new one, pump up, and get to the station; but I had missed my train by then. Total loss in time, a bit over an hour.

ksryder

Since I've only been biking seriously for a few years and some of you have been biking longer than I've been alive -- why do I keep getting pinch flats when swapping tires & rims?

Lately I've been swapping a lot of tires and rims around and when I try to re-use a tube I almost always pinch flat it. When I use a brand new tube I don't.

Let's rule some things out:
1) The tires are good. The tubes are good. The rims are good.
2) I don't use levers to put the tire on (but I use them to take them off, usually.)
3) When seating the tire I start at the valve and work my way around to the opposite end
4) I visually inspect the bead to see if the tube is caught between the bead and rim.

Here's my guesses -- either I'm damaging the tube with the levers when I remove the tire; or I'm pinching it when I seat that last little bit of the tire that's hard to get on even though I'm not using levers on that part.

Other than start using baby powder I'm not sure what else to do.

30 degrees, dark and drizzle at 4 am this morning.. still better than no ride at all. Or the trainer.

rhm

Based on this observation, I'd say you're damaging the tube when you take the tire off the rim. I can't say how; it could be something wrong with your tools, or your technique. What tools? What's your technique?

Are you patching your tubes?

jimmuller 

Ah, bumping the thread isn't the problem. You are being bothered by the bumping of the rim which prompts you to bump this thread.

I wouldn't want to disagree with rhm who has plenty of experience, but it seems not so likely that you are damaging the tubes when you remove the tire. In any case, you can test that by pumping up the tube a bit while it is off the rim just before you remount it. That's not a bad idea anyway because it verifies that you have a good tube before you waste time mounting a bad one.

You might be squeezing the tube between the tire bead and rim when you "encourage" that last bit of bead to go over the lip of the rim. I don't know what your usual procedure is but here are two key points. After you get the valve stem situated put enough air in the tube to help it hold some shape. This helps to stay up out of the way as you tuck it into the tire. Then as you go around the rim edging the tire over the lip, especially towards the last bit of length, push a tire iron up between the rim and tire to push the tube upward into the tire and away from the contact point between rim lip and tired bead. This is especially helpful if the tube is on the large side w.r.t. the tire and rim width, such as when using a 25-28mm tube with a 25mm tire on a 19mm (outer width) rim like the Sun M13-II.

ksryder

Good suggestions -- Next time I'll check the tube after I remove it to see if that was the problem.

I'm using these stiff plastic Bontrager tire levers my LBS sells -- I like them because they're hard to break but won't damage the rim.

nlerner

If you're managing to grab a section of the tube while your working the tire off the rim, you'll create a hole, no matter which levers you use. I find that I have to make sure the tube is fully deflated, then make sure the tire bead is free on both sides of the rim. That usually creates enough space to get a lever under the bead without catching a piece of tube. With some rim/tire combos, I don't need levers at all, but those aren't as common.

rhm

Woah, I haven't bumped this thread in over three months! There was one I didn't write up here, on the back wheel of my commuter; it started losing air in mid-February. I took the tube out and held it under water, stretched every inch of it this way and that way, couldn't find the leak. Changed the valve and put it back on the bike; but it continued to lose air. Early March I took the tube out again and held it under water again, and this time I found the leak. Patched it and problem solved.

______________

Anyway, went out to the bike shed at 4:45 am today and found the front wheel of the commuter bike flat. I rode another bike to the station and just patched the tube now. 32x700c pasela compe tire, no Kevlar but it had a flat guard in there. Puncture in the side wall, couldn't find the cause. Patched.

3speedslow

Couple days ago was relaxing after a spirited SS ride home. Sitting on the front driveway with my bike 3 ft from me when the back tire exploded. I went straight up and so did my drink !

The cause: cheap rim strip allowed the high pressure tube to push through and expand into the inner chamber of the rim.

Moral: use better rim strips, I am a lucky dog.

m3rle

I have fresh Schwalbe Marathons and new tubes on my commuter. Spare tube kit and pump on board. Don't want a flat and definitely don't want to patch it on the road. Just got my mom's '59 Gazelle out from the Uncles rafters. Not sure how old the tubes & tires are, decades at least, but since they held air I rode it. 4 miles out I got a flat. That is a heavy bike to walk home! Realized I pumped them to near 60 when max is 45. User error. Now the Omafiets has fresh tubes and tires. Bit of a challenge with the full chaincase but not too bad when done in the home shop. She got a fresh Sturmey cable and some polish too.

fender1

Road home from work last Tuesday night. Came out Wednesday morning, front tire was flat. I patched it but could not find the cause......holding air fine now. Tire is a Compass Barlow Pass EL 700x38. Generic tube

jimmuller 

I was tempted to write something glib like it will be flat in the morning. Then I realized there was something even glibber. Flats are most always caused by a hole somewhere in the tube. How did you patch it if you couldn't find the cause? You just put a patch randomly on the tube and that fixed it?

rhm

Now Jim, I know you understand this already so I don't know why I even explain it to you... what he's saying is he found (and repaired) the puncture but not its cause.

jimmuller 

He! The cause of the flat was the hole. The cause of the hole is still unknown. I don't know what's so complicated...

fender1

No, not randomly. I just ride with my thumb covering the hole. That way, I can reuse the patch whenever I need it!

Dave Cutter

I few years ago I had a rash of flats. Unable to determine the exact cause.... I replaced the tires and bought new "thorn-proof" tubes.

OK.. I live and ride in the Midwest... nowhere near a thorn that could damage my tubes. But I figured those super thick tubes had to be of some help. Of course they do add weight and the tubes are too large to stuff into a saddle bag.... so I carried a "normal" tube as a spare. But neither of those tubes have ever went flat. That bike in now my rain/foul weather bike.

I got a new Trek last July and within the first 1000 miles (stock tubes) I'd had a flat. I haven't switched the Trek over to thorn-proof tubes and because of the added [wheel] weight I may not... unless I have a rash of flats. But I do know the thorn-proof tubes are a solution.