Bicycle Mechanics - Many many punctures what are we doing wrong ?

Hello all

I am a recreational cyclist from the UK. I don't ride aggressively and I am by no means fit enough to Race I just cycle 7-10 miles 2-3 times a week. I don't have my own bike I just borrow my Dads racer or mountain bike.

But we are both having lots of problems with the road bike, it gets a puncture almost every single time it is used :( My dad has bought new tyres for it and a new wheel/rim (metal thing with spokes I don't know what its supposed to be called) and we have gone through countless inner tubes. We don't use any slime or prevention accesories its just a bog standard tyre, tube and rim. The last tyres were kevelar and supposed to be very tough.

The thing is though its driving us both up the wall, I am beginning to wonder how anyone keeps up cycling as a pastime. All I ever seem to be doing is changing, repairing, and buying new tubes. Now I come here as a pleed for help. There must be something wrong or that we can do to prevent it?

I always take the mountain bike now, but it is by no means as much fun or fast :D

Tim

If the wheel is set up properly, you get maybe one puncture a year. Punctures are not a regular feature of cycling.

Do the punctures come from stuff coming through the tyre, or from sharp metal inside the rim.
Check the rim for spokes poking into the inner tube, sometimes wheel bulder use spokes that are too long. Look for sharp edges around the valve hole and take them off with emery cloth. Make sure you are using a good rim tape (Velox cloth tape is best).
When you ride, keep the tyres inflated to the max pressure.
When you fix a puncture, be sure to check inside the tyre for any thorns or bits of glass. If you dont remove them you get another puncture.

Ok well I think that the rim tape is a bit thin and it doesn't look that good, my dad went around the inside of the the rim and sanded every single spoke hole then wiped clean a long time ago.

Erm the only thing you mentioned that I don't think we do is the tyre pressure The tyre itself says maximum pressure of 115 PSI its a Vittoria Tecno sport TT. I think we normally pump the tyre to about 60-70 PSI could this be our problem ?


Tim

When you remove the tube, note the orientation so that when you find the leak, you can hold it up to the wheel and match the location on the tire or rim.

Check the hole in the tube, if there are two little holes side by side, then what you have is a "snake bite"... this is caused by too little air pressure. The tube will pinch itself. You really should air them up!!! Good luck!

MichaleW....Maybe you ride on a velodorme. Most normal people don't. Even proper setups can get daily flats due to thorns,glass, wire ,nails,screws,rocks and all kind of road trash, when you live in the real world. What a LOAD!

what sort of pressures do people use then ??

The pump we have won't really go above 70PSI and at this point the tyre is rock hard


Tim

Underinflating tires causes snake bite punctures. Get a proper pumpGet a proper Velox type rim tape.Make sure spokes aren't too long.Make sure you feel around inside of tire for whatever could be still immbedded and causing repeat flats.Check inside of rim for burrs.Tubes can be patched too you know. There is great variey in puncture resiatance among kevlar belted tires. Specialized Armadillos are one of the better ones. You can also try tire linerrs like MR tuffy to enhance punctrue resistance. Despite alll efforts,flats will still happen,but you can do your part to minimize them.

I ride on normal roads, through industrial estates,and rough tracks, with glass, flints, potholes etc on 32mm Panaracer Paselas, on wheels which are nothing special.
I cover a min of 60 miles a week, much of it in the dark during winter, and I get about 1 puncture a year, sometimes 2.

I have just come back from a tour of Ireland, 50-60miles/day for 2 weeks on Continental Top Touring 32mm, on roads and trails. No punctures.

Exactly what am I doing wrong ??

Maybe you get the good luck,I get the bad. I run various reasonably light 23s. Your generalization does a disservice.

I find that light-touring style 32mm tyres are far more robust than racing 23mm tyres. They weight more, roll a bit slower, and dont fit into many racing frames, but for general purpose daily riding the extra reliability is worth it.

Different strokes...

you said your rim tape looks thin. that's probably your answer. it's important that the tape covers all the spoke holes. otherwise, as your tube inflates, it will fill the hole where the spoke goes and will probably be punctured.

try taking fresh rim tape and wrapping it tightly around the circumference of the rim, so that all the spoke holes are evenly covered.

also, if you have a flat, run your fingers along the inside of the tire to make sure the offending object is no longer embedded. if it is, it will just puncture your tube again.

make sure your tires are fully inflated to the maximum pressure indicated on the sidewall, as was previously suggested, to avoid a pinch.

finally, consider the specialized armadillo brand of tire. it is slower than some brands, but i have found it to be very flat resistant.

Thanks for all the replys... although I won't be able to inflate to 8bars without a much better pump max it will do at the moment is 75 PSI then it just pops off the inlet.

Tim

Hi Stiffler
I agree with MichaelW you are getting way too many punctures.
Like MW I only get about 2 punctures a year and I use 19mm tyres at 110 Ibs its a hard ride but at my weight I have no option.

I once got a series of 3-4 punctures on the trot because all of my latex tubes had degraded ( they were a couple of years old)

Next time you get a puncture I would take the wheel into a LBS (local bike shop) and ask them to check it over. They may spot something you have missed. They will also pump it up to the correct inflation too. You will notice a terrific difference in handling and speed .

Track pumps with a pressure guage can be bought for £15.00 or so, if you shop around and they are the best initial investment a cyclist could make. My pump has lasted 12 years !
Best of luck:thumbup:

Actually you brought up a small point (well perhaps not so small in my case) weight... I am not really a small fellow I weigh around 14 1/2 stone could this be an added problem ??

Thanks and I have already decided I need to go to a shop, just thought I would get another opinion first. Like my dad said "I guess you have to spend some more money to get a hassel free ride" I thought the Pump we had was quite a good one but its only a small hand one... do you recomend a foot one or one of those where you stand on it and pump with your hands ?

Tim

do you recomend a foot one or one of those where you stand on it and pump with your hands ?


personaly I prefer one where you stand on it and pump with your hands.
Don't worry about you weight too much that won't matter when you get your tyres properly inflated. I am a modest 17 stone and ride a 17 Ib road bike with 700x 19mm slick tyres

What the heck is a stone equivalent to?

(quote)What the heck is a stone equivalent to

a small rock of course!:D

sorry couldn't resist.

Its odd when I sell equipment to the US clients always ask for dimensions in imperial inches and yet you use metric kilos and kilometers ?:confused:
anyway 17 stone is a lot approx 110 kilos. but its not quite as bad as it sounds as I am heavily built with a lot of muscle.

anyway 17 stone is a lot approx 110 kilos. but its not quite as bad as it sounds as I am heavily built with a lot of muscle.

Why, you could almost be describing some of the afrikaaner crane operators I saw at a steel-rolling mill in Pretoria. They were women!:D

Buy a quality pump, we're talking under $50 US , Pump those babies up! 70 lbs. is not enough for a tire that's rated at what?-- 110-120 lbs. ?

To summarize.
Pull the tube out slowly and mark where the puncture(s) are. Re-orient it to the tire/wheel to see where and what is actually happening. Install new rimtape (Velox) as well as a tireliner (Spinskins DuraLiner). There is also one more area that is usually neglected, where the stem goes thru the rim. Last year I bought a brand new set of Shimano 7700 Dura Ace clincher wheels and got a flat within 2 weeks, then a second, then a third. I noticed that all the flats were on the valve stem where it connects to the tube. These new wheels were razor sharp where the valve stem is. I used some sandpaper to smooth this area out on both wheels, then used some left over Velox to cover the valvestem hole and cut a little "X" in it just large enough to force the valve stem thru. This has solved my flats.............................

Originally posted by Bokkie


Why, you could almost be describing some of the afrikaaner crane operators I saw at a steel-rolling mill in Pretoria. They were women!:D

uhh that's gross:eek:
I like to think ~I look more like one of the afrikaaner rugby players
:D

I get heaps of punctures on my MTB but haven't had a single one on my new (about 3 months) road bike yet! I rarely go off road on the MTB, usually just commuting. I think it might be the crap tyres I have. I bought them at K-mart - made by Dunlop - same as what my LBS has but about $6-$8 a tyre cheaper. I have the Specialized Comp tyres on my road bike (the Armadillo now supercedes them), someone else mentioned that these were good (my LBS reckons they are the most durable). I usually run less than 100psi in my road tyres for comfort.

I like to think ~I look more like one of the afrikaaner rugby players

Gawd-elp-us! Play like one, but don't [/I]look[I] one, please!

One word comes to mind for Armadillos with less than 125psi; DOG!
Scratch that, Armadillos are dogs no matter what pressure.They will roll on a bed of nails without a puncture to be sure but man they are sl o w........
I know some of you guys swear by them.I had a pair and couldn't wait to get them off of the bike. Am running Panaracer Stradius Sports @ 150psi, no problemo...... I certainly don't know everything about riding but swear by running road tires at rated pressure though. On 700x25's or smaller there just isn't enough tire to warrant otherwise.

Er..., what type of 'racer' is it ?

A trick, new 700 wheel thingy or a ratty old 27" 10 speed ?

In my area, you will get a puncture every 100 yards because of three-corner jacks (goats heads ?), unless you have slime and an old tube inserted in the tyre, or a punture proof tyre, or a Mr. Tuffy strip.

What sort of area do you ride in ? If you ride near irrigated fields or farmland you will definitely be running over prickles.

I don't think the pressure would affect it (not a particulary high pressure tyre), or the rim strip from what you've said.

If you have whitewall tyres that are perished on the side and you ride over rocky ground you will get punctures too, and they are not repairable on the side.

Hi Stiffler

Another thing to watch out for.

A while ago my hybrid cycle wheels required new rim tape, so i bought some and replaced it myself, I then went through a period of continuos punctures, it, like youself drove me crazy as i could not detect the cause. At the finish i resorted to taking it into the lbs. The mech immediatly found that when replacing the tape I had overlapped the joint enough to cause a pressure point against the inflated tube and the cut end was enough to cause almost immediate punctures.

Have you tried Blue Tube replacement inner tubes? They are completely puncture proof no matter what you ride over & give a comfortable ride for ordinary bike riders. Details can be found at their website: www.bluetube.biz. Hope this helps.

MichaleW....Maybe you ride on a velodorme. Most normal people don't. Even proper setups can get daily flats due to thorns,glass, wire ,nails,screws,rocks and all kind of road trash, when you live in the real world. What a LOAD!

I've done around 3000 puncture free miles in the last 12 months with a mix of tyres, road and off-road. I'd be suprised if I was getting a puncture every 10 miles.

Have you tried Blue Tube replacement inner tubes? They are completely puncture proof no matter what you ride over & give a comfortable ride for ordinary bike riders. Details can be found at their website: www.bluetube.biz. Hope this helps.

This answer probably would've been useful seven years ago

Get a floor pump with a built in guage, and put in a couple of pumps before each ride. Just use the little one to get you home when you get a flat on the road. Armadillo tires are bomb proof, but the Panaracer Paselas are almost as tough and are a lot more fun to ride.