DreamRider85

livedarklions

Platform pedals?

TrojanHorse

Why do you think the car had any idea what you were doing? He probably thought you were a lunatic swerving all over the road.

I assume you blew your rear or you'd have posted something like "and then I went flying into the ditch"

livedarklions

What's the hand signal for I can't take my hands off of the handlebars?

DreamRider85

livedarklions

Seriously, what's the question?

You were in a bad situation you will probably never encounter again, and the thing that made it a bad situation is that you really couldn't do anything but try to control the bike.

I'm at least a little bit serious about the platform pedals, though. Sounds like the clipless were a big part of the problem.

Colnago Mixte

I train myself to instinctively only brake with the tire that still has air still in it.

I think to myself "right=rear" because in a moment of panic I can forget which is the front brake and which is the rear brake. Once I know whether it's a front or rear blowout, I proceed accordingly, and have always made it out alive, which you did too, congrats. I assume you're still alive if you're posting here, right?

Never had a simultaneous blowout on a steep hill, that really must suck.

Regarding the car, there's not a lot you can do.

livedarklions

What happens when you brake a flat? I've never had a flat cause me that much trouble stopping.

KraneXL

They don't know any better. I hate it when cars are right on my tail giving them no reaction time in the event of a spill. Especially critical since bikes don't come with indicators to show an immediate reduction in speed.Give a stop signal. Admittedly hard to do when you're holding on with both hands for dear life.

TrojanHorse

In all seriousness, I hit something flat in the road (so hard the bars were *almost* yanked from my hands) and immediately blew out the front tire and it was all I could do to not crash.... thankfully I was going straight. Also thankfully, I had just come off a steep hill and it was relatively flat, so I certainly understand your point, I just don't understand what the car should have done differently. Most car drivers don't understand what delicate, frail things are cyclist are and don't give us the space we probably need.

rollagain

You mean you actually practice this scenario?

CliffordK

Odd...

I don't think I've ever lost control due to a flat. Was it a blowout or a slow leak?

I spent many years riding sewups, and got good at feeling when I was losing pressure. Now I'm mostly on clinchers, but one can feel when the tire starts to bump.

I've heard that one of the issues with clinchers is that the bead can roll or something, but I've always been stopped before that was an issue.

Anyway, what I'd say is that learn to feel when your tire is going flat (those first bump-bump-bumps, and stop when it is still safe to do so.

Plus, more practice unclipping???

JanMM

CliffordK

It might be hard in the OP's situation. I don't use a stop very often, but I have when it wasn't safe to pass on a bridge, and the cars do generally notice it. Then I'll wave them on once it is safe to pass.

DreamRider85

rgconner

Exactly what happened to me, slow leak in front tube. Cloverleaf decent followed by a sharp 90 turn at the bottom. Unfortunately I picked up a shard of glass at the top where hobos like to break bottles, but it was pretty clean that day so bad luck I guess.

The front tube was probably still 50 percent inflated, but at 18 or so mph it just rolled under and I lowsided. Fortunately no traffic, so I just got some road rash and ruined a good jersey, wrecked the helmet and the lenses on the sunglasses.

wsteve464

Convert to tubeless tires

jpescatore

First, figure out why you had problems getting out of your pedals. They might need adjustment, the cleats might need to be adjusted or replaced, etc. If you are just new to clipless pedals, even more important to check those things - a bike shop can do that for you. That is probably the most important thing of all.

You didn't detail what kind of flat - lots you can do to minimize flats. On a long, steep downhill years ago where I had to ride the rim brakes on my old bike (I weigh 230 lbs), I had a flat because the rims heated up tremendously and the tube area around the valve melted. That taught me about pulsing the brakes to allow some cooling, etc. (It also caused me to go with disc brakes on my new road bike.)

If it was a flat because you hit or ran over something on the downhill, sometimes that is unavoidable, many times it is avoidable if you go slower. I tore my rotator cuff (not because of cycling) and had surgery on it 5 years ago and now I try to minimize the chances of falling at high speeds and going through that again. So, I'm much slower going downhill than I used to be. Around here, potholes and animals running across the downhilll are constants.

I've found most of my flats are actually caused by something I picked up on a tire on the previous ride. After each ride, I check both tires by rotating the wheel one turn and looking/feeling for anything stuck in the tire. If you find anything, let the air out and remove the offender with tweezers or needle nosed pliers and check to see how deep it went - further action may be required.

My new bike is tubeless-ready, I haven't gone that way because I don't get flats that often, but that's another option if your wheels support it.

The part about the car: it sounds like if you could have gotten your feet out of the pedals, you could have stopped on the side and the car would have gone by you. As others said, the driver would have no way of telling you had a flat.

After many years of pooh-poohing a rear view mirror on my bike, I put a bar end mirror on and now am able to always know if a car is behind me and what it is doing. The mirror didn't replace looking backwards, but it has greatly improved my situational awareness (we cybersecurity geeks love that term...) so that when a squirrel or groundhog runs out when I'm going downhill, I know if swerving left is a worse option than swerving right into the ditch...

There are roads I don't bike on because there are downhills with low visibility, no shoulders and high speed/high levels of traffic - if that was the case, avoid that stretch of road. If there is no alternative, Then, all of the above can help make that stretch less dangerous for you - all things you can do, vs. hope the driver behind you does!

indyfabz

Heh. First thing that came to my mind.

That and don't ride down steep hills.

Colnago Mixte

I did until it became reflexive. And yes, a flat clincher can roll off the rim, get caught up in your brakes, lock up the wheel and cause a crash. I thought everyone knew that.

What's with the incredulity? Is there something wrong with wanting to survive a relatively common situation like this? I wonder sometimes if people on this board even ride bikes.

BobbyG

I have had tires suddenly go flat leading to a squirrelly bike on fast downhills...very scary!
Perhaps they wanted to shield you from other approaching vehicles, but didn't give you enough room. I think that if I was driving behind a cyclist and saw them swerving with a flat on a fast downhill, I would try to protect them. But I wasn't there at your incident, so I don't know all the details.
I don't know, but you can gain a little more confidence from knowing that you managed to keep control under difficult circumstances.

gregf83 

I've never heard of a flat getting caught up in the brakes. If you flat on a corner it's likely you'll go down.

When I have a flat on a straight section of road I either coast or very lightly brake to a stop. No need to practice. Most important thing is to just relax, a bike is rideable in a straight line with a flat tire.

clengman

I feel you. I broke a spoke the other day on a steep (15%), winding, downhill with a car behind me. It was disconcerting. A lot of noise and a lot of wobble. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was a spoke. It was not really a time when I would have expected a spoke to break. I hadn't even hit a pothole. Just a little rough pavement. I heard a pop and a whizzing noise and my first thought was that it must be a burst tube. I got to the outside of a lefthand turn and slowed down, saw that both tires were full, was puzzled, but realized that the whizzing noise was rim rubbing on brake, or tire on fender. Then proceeded carefully down the hill. I'm glad it wasn't a blowout. It could have been a whole lot worse.

Colnago Mixte

... unless you brake carefully using only the non-flat tire.

gregf83 

Braking in the corner isn't going to help. If you're going slow enough that you don't immediately go down then you can just ride out the corner and coast to a stop or brake lightly. There is generally no urgency to hit the brakes when you have a flat, particularly if you're riding in a group.