noglider 

The rear tire (25mm wide) on my Lemond would go down in two days. I rarely pump a deflated tire; I normally replace or patch the tube, but this worked for a few days. Now I replaced the tube, and it may be hard to find the leak, since it's so slow. I'll try a bucket of water.

jimmuller 

What's up with the new look? What was wrong with the old one????

So I was working quietly in my office (actually a small conference room dedicated to my work) when I heard a real quick "tchk tchk BANG!" A glance over at today's transportation showed this:



I had actually heard the tire bead moving on the rim a split second before it blew. Later in the afternoon I started to replace the tube and discovered the spare I'd brought had a Schrader valve. Aaarrrgh! A co-worker kindly offered to drive me over to REI just 10 minutes away. Eventually I got it all fixed up and rode home.

jimmuller 

Another commuting flat yesterday. I rode the Grandis which wears 23mm Veloflex Masters. A few miles into the ride home the rear went flat. On an uphill. Fortunately there was a comfy stone and concrete wall to sit on and grass to lay down the bike. I found a medium-size puncture, patched it up. A local resident going out to his car even asked if I had everything I needed. Yes, thank you. I pumped it up, mounted the tire, rode home. Uneventful except for the minor delay.

Drillium Dude 

Forgot my saddle wedge, so of course I got a flat coming back from my turnaround point for today. Walked about 1.5 miles to the Redmond Trek store where I got a new tube and pumped it up fine. Got about 5 miles before the new tube blew, too. Another 4.5 miles of walking brought me home

Lucky I was wearing my Sidi touring shoes and not cleats; as it is, I ended up with a blister on my heel.

Second flat - I'm walking home from here:



Crap



Inside of casing:



I was not amused when I got home and discovered the failure - both times - was apparently weak casing at one of the tread features.

This was one of those Michelin Dynamic Classics. Never an issue before. I'll be keeping an eye on the others for awhile...

DD

jimmuller 

That looks like it could be a cut from a piece of glass. If the second flat was in the same place it would be from the tube working its way through the same hole and popping. That cut looks large enough for that to happen.

I had that happen a year or so ago, got a puncture flat, patched it, then after a while had another flat in the same place. In fact the patch had a hole in it in the exact same place. Apparently the pressure had burst the patch through the hole. I fixed it again, don't recall if it was a new patch or a new tube, probably re-patched, but kept the pressure much lower, had no more trouble in the ride home.

mrm1brian

rhm

Last Thursday, the first day of the Blue Ridge to Bay 1200, my rear tire was getting squishy as we left Olney, MD. I stopped to pump it up, and the whole valve came off the tube! Time for a new tube.

Last Saturday, the third day of the same ride, my rear tire was getting squishy as we approached Deale, MD. It was raining and we were experiencing a low in our spirits. Not in a mood to diagnose the problem, i just replaced the tire and the tube all at once.

noglider 

I did the Ride The Ridge ride on Saturday. I chose the 50-mile hilly route. I normally carry everything I need, but I had forgotten a pump. My front tire went squishy. I flagged down a couple of guys. One had a CO2 cartridge. Somehow we ruined the valve in my spare tube. The other guy had another spare tube, so I used that, and there was enough CO2 left in the first guy's cartridge to get me going again.

jimmuller 

My flat-tire episode was on someone else's bike this morning. On my commute in I saw a guy stopped, called out, he replied he had a flat. Okay...a youngish guy who seemed unsure what to do next, holding TIG-welded steel, mid-to-late 80's(?) Lemond. He said he was a novice, had forgotten to bring a spare tube. Also had neither patch kit nor pump, so we are talking real novice here. He'd hit a bump going through some gravel. I was on sew-ups but I carry a patch kit for just such occasions, have seen too many of them. To judge from the state of his other tire, his tires had been soft, probably 50psi or less. The tube showed a narrow-gap snake-bite flat on the inside surface. I can't see how he'd get that from a rim-pinch but maybe the gravel had squished the tube against a spoke nipple head. The cloth rim strip was good. So I put a single patch across the two holes, pumped it up and it held air just fine.

Then he compared the front to the now-fixed rear and decided the front was too low too. So I put my pump on it, and it immediately decided it didn't want to hold air either. What the ...' ? The valve stem had separated from the tube, a failure I've seen as few times too. Tough to patch that and we had no spare tube. On a whim I decided to wrap a patch partially around and up the valve stem and wedge it in good, thinking maybe the glue and pressure from the rim would seal it place long enough for him to go the mile or two into Lexington. Tried it, pumped it up to maybe 40 to 50psi, and it held air! We took off and I saw him riding in my rear-view mirror until our ways parted, so I guess it stayed rideable for a bit.

First time I've ever tried a patch like that.

rhm

After I got home from the BRB 1200 I put the bike out in the back yard where the rear tire suddenly went flat after an hour in the sun. It turned out the tube was defective; the leak was on the glued seam where the valve (along with a butyl disk) is glued to the tube itself. I patched it. While I had the tire off the rim I inspected the rim and found the sidewall completely worn out, actually cracked on both sides, but I put it all back together anyway so I could put the bike in the shed complete. This weekend, replacement rims having arrived, I brought the wheel inside where, leaning up on the wall in the kitchen, it suddenly went flat again. The patch had failed; not the glue holding it on, but there were cracks right through the center of the patch, and the air is getting out there. Defective patches, now! Sheesh.

squirtdad

I keep a pump, spare tire, levers, patch kit and small multitool on each bike I ride....just so I don't have the problem for forgetting something

Rotten

Got my first flat of the year on Sunday. Tiny piece of wire I almost missed when switching out the tube. Got that taken care of no problem.
The problem was after I got going again, the FD cable slipped and wouldn't hold in the big ring. Quick fix when I got home but pretty annoying on the way there.

noglider 

Swapping tires between two bikes, on each bike, I didn't seat one tire correctly before inflation. In each case, I destroyed two tubes.

And putting tires on my Pacenti is a b*tch and a half. Except that I had to do it twice to two rims, so that's six b*tches.

VictorVran

One time one of my bungee cables snapped that was holding my lock, and the ensuing tire rub sounded like that. I let out some serious profanity in a school zone all for nothing!

jimmuller 

From the "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" file - After the fix-a-fellow-cyclist's-flats (yes, two of them) episode, I rode to work, worked a full day, started home and noticed my rear tire soft. Not flat, just way softer than it should have been. Dang. A Vittoria sew-up too, so I couldn't just patch it. Fortunately I carry two spares and they are easy to replace. I guess it was losing air through a tiny puncture, but it could have been through the valve stem. I haven't had time to think about it. Latex tubes leak air anyway, but not that fast.

rumrunn6

I was gonna say ... after your last post ... but I didn't want to jinx you ...

noglider 

@jimmuller, let us know what happens of that. You'll try to fix it, right?

jimmuller 

Hmm, I've fixed them before and they didn't come apart but wouldn't consider my skill very good.

I spent part of this evening applying glue to two tires and a rim. I also pumped up that tire to maybe 60psi, held under water, saw no bubbles. It didn't seem to be losing air but I'll know more in the morning.

Essthreetee

jimmuller 

Addendum to that soft sew-up story. It is still holding air a day later. Don't know why it went soft, probably the valve didn't seal well.

When I glued up tires last night I used an artist's brush and a can of glue. First time I've done it that way. Sure was easy.

I rode that bike, the PFN10, to work again today and I'm really liking it.

noglider 

On the way to work this morning on the bike path, a guy flagged me down asking for a pump. I could tell right away he had no idea what needed doing, nor was he equipped, so I gave him my tube and a lesson and a tire change service since otherwise, he was in trouble. Before I started, he said he had some of "those stickers" with him. He said he didn't know that bike tires have inner tubes.

Well, it was nice to spread a little love the bicycle way.

jimmuller 

Well done, Tom. Spread a little love and knowledge too!

rumrunn6

priceless

good karma for you!

noglider 

Thank you and @rumrunn6. I thought I would be warned about liability from fixing someone else's bike.

AlmostGreenGuy

I left to bike to work one day last week, only to find out that my back tire had gone flat overnight. I quickly swapped tubes, and the tire proceeded to immediately go flat again. So I gave up and grabbed a different bike to ride to work.

Unsure of what was wrong, I seriously looked into things again during the evening. It turned out that the relatively new wheel was not very good. When the spoke holes in the rims were drilled out, huge burrs were left. Eventually, the burrs punctured the rim tape, and then punctured the tube. So I used a grinding bit on a Dremel tool to remove all of the burrs and slightly radius the spoke holes. I should have been good to go.........

I replaced the rim tape, threw on a patched tube, pumped it up, and everything was good with the rear wheel. While I had the bike on the rack, I decided to clean and lube the bike chain. While I was cleaning the bike chain, head positioned very close to the rear wheel, it went BAM!!!!!! The tube blew in a big way, simultaneously deafening and scaring the crap out of me. Turns out that the old patched tube blew at the valve stem.

So I tore everything back apart, AGAIN, put in brand new tube, and everything looks okay now. The bike has hung on the garage wall for a week now, and it's holding air. But I can't get myself to ride this bike to work. I feel like it's cursed and hates me.