48by16

I was riding the other day for fun; going about 24mph down my favorite section of beach, when I heard a loud "ting", then a second ting, following by a loud blow out of my rear tire. Got my bike to a stop, then went looking for what I assumed was a piece of glass. I looked for like 5 minutes, but could not find anything. So, I looked at my tire. Upon discovering the 3+ inch rip in my tire, I almost sliced my thumb on the utility razor that had logged itself inside the tire; completely ripping open tire and tube. So, as I waited for my "ground crew" to come pick me up, I put together what I think happened. My front tire hit the blade, then either flung it back and upright into my rear tire, or simply just got up on edge in time for my rear time to roll over it. Either way, I got to wondering how many other riders out there have blown out due to, shall we say, unlikely circumstances - aka bad luck? Would love to hear your blowout story...hoping it ended without an ouch!

hotbike

Yeah, I have a weird blowout story.
It was a BMX bike I was rebuilding. I took it for a test ride, and KaBamm!
The rear rim had buckled, due to rust. (It was a steel rim). I didn't know the rust had eaten through the rim completely.
I think it was inflated to maybe 70psi.
This happened more than twenty years ago.
But the rim, with all the rust, could not hold 70psi, and blew inward.

noisebeam

I got a similar rear flat. I hit a razor blade, it sliced all the way across the tire exactly parallel to axle, from bead to bead, a perfectly clean cut. Since the blade was basically the same color as the asphalt I didn't see it coming. While I was waiting for a ride I walked back along the road trying to find what caused the cut and passed by it several times as it was so camouflaged.

slowandsteady

I ran over my own dog and tacoed and flatted my front wheel.

Greyryder

Pulled out an old set of lightly used wheels last year. (lightly used, as in the brake surface has no visible wear) Put on tubes and tires, inflated them (about 45psi) and set them aside. A few hours later, I got the crap scared out of me, by a loud bang followed by a hissing sound. The valve stem on one of the wheels had launched itself. The rubber was completely torn away around the base of it.

A few days later, I was interrupted in the middle of my ride, by a hissing noise. The valve stem on one of the brand new tubes I'd put in my regular set of wheels had spontaneously failed, and was leaking air at an alarming rate. Didn't have a spare tube with me, and had to make the call of shame.

The only spare tube I had was fairly old, but had never been used. In the same spot on my ride, where the other tube's valve had failed, I noticed that this one was ballooning around base. The rubber was coming away from the stem. That one got me home, and I got it deflated before it finally let loose. But, the swelling was further up the valve stem, than when I first noticed it.

I was having a bad week, for tubes.