Wallonthefloor

I was riding to go shopping on my 23mm fixed gear bike at the second store I went to in an area where there are lots of bars I noticed glass in the sidewalk crossing to the street I thought oh wonderful I'll take note of that there in case I come by this area again and I thought I stayed far enough away from it. By the time I rode 4 more miles or so up to the last place I wanted to go I rode off a curb carefully and at another light change I then felt my front tire got a little squishy. I had pumped my tires to the max recommended pressure or maybe about 5 under prior to the ride at about 110psi. I locked up went in the store quick came back out and I'm now at the farthest from my house about 10 miles and felt my tire still at the same half pressure. OK I thought I'm not loosing any more air now it seems I'm going to ride straight home. I wasn't planning on making any more stops but it's a bumpy busy city to go through so to be careful but hopefully I can at least make it halfway and catch 1 bus instead of 2 I thought or walk part of the way if needed. Well I went all 10 miles and the tire kept the same pressure (front tire)(Michelin classic) and as I was about 2 blocks from my house where there is ongoing road construction just stuff that was pretty easy to avoid but lots of asphalt debris laying around on the road and then all of a sudden I hear and felt it PSHSSSssssss.... the handling went to terrible of course and I just walked 5 minutes home. I consider myself very lucky but I haven't changed the tire yet nor inspected it. I just wonder why did it hold its air so long and then give away basically over some light debris of asphalt pebbles after so many miles, I was riding potholes and moon like surfaces that I couldn't avoid for 10 miles up until this point?

DiabloScott

Did you have sealant in there?

Wallonthefloor

No, it is a regular tire and regular tube.

MudPie

Perhaps you had a thorn or piece of glass embedded itself into the tire and through the tube. The object remained in the tire, and essentially acted as a plug while in the tube yet allowing air to escape slowly. Then, eventually the object worked its way out of the tire and allowed the air to escape thru the unplugged hole.

I've had similar experiences. Often I'll see a thorn in my tire, and I know I best pull it out. If I led a good and just life, when I remove the thorn, nothing happens. But once in awhile, I get a rush of air when I pull the thorn, And if I'm lucky, it happens in my garage during my usual post ride gear check.

FBinNY 

There's no sense over-thinking this. Flats happen, and this tire served you well by getting you home. So there isn't any more you could ask of it.

In any case you're missing the real takeaway here. As I said, flats happen, and you can't count on another miracle in the future. So like what they say in American Express ads, don't venture far from home without the necessary to fix a flat, namely a spare tube, tire levers, and a pump.

andrewclaus

Maybe the slow leak let out enough air that you pinch-flatted close to home. That's when the tube gets caught between the tire and rim and you get two large holes.

Crankycrank

+1. This is a good time to learn how to change a tire and patch a flat. Watch some YouTube videos on technique and make sure you check carefully inside the tire for anything that may have caused the flat. For practice, take the tire off and put it back on a couple times leaving your punctured tube in so if you damage it again during the learning process it's not such a big deal. And, as FBinNY mentioned, get a patch kit, spare tube, pump and tire levers to carry with you from now on as flats are inevitable and walking your bike home is no fun.

Iride01 

Well first inspect the tire and find out why it flatted. Might be the culprit is still in the tire.

It use to be quite common that a shard of rock, tip of thorn or glass would get embedded in the tire tread and then over repeated rotations of the tire hammering it deeper the shard would eventually puncture the tube. That might be quite a while from when the shard was first embedded. Even a ride or two later.

It wasn't uncommon not too long ago for some of us to reach down with a gloved hand after going through certain suspect areas of gravel on paved and wipe the tire tread off as we continued to ride. Whether this helped remove those shards or not, it at least made us feel like we were doing something. Some of us even spent a portion of our pre-ride procedures removing rock shards from the tire treads.

New tires, at least in the upper price tiers seem to now be made with tire compounds that have made much of the above unnecessary and a thing of the past. I very rarely ever find shards stuck in my tire tread and punctures are actually much more rare.

Whether that is the reason for your puncture is any guess. There are all sorts of reasons why you didn't get a flat near the glass where apparently you would have felt better about it.

KerryIrons

Since all of this is pure speculation since the OP didn't take the time to inspect his tire to figure out what happened, I am going to agree that this particular pure speculation is the most likely. Especially since the OP reported hearing the air leaving the tire. The idea of a pinch flat due to a soft tire is appealing pure speculation as well, but normally you can't hear the air coming out from a pinch flat.

The Diceman OHH

I've had presta cores get loose and do wonky things, slow pressure leak then PFFFFFFFFFFFFT and a long walk home. Put some soap bubbles on there and see what it looks like.