Foo - how long can you ride on a flat tire

tonight on the way home about 5 miles to go i hit a patch of goatheads(thorns)(evil)
its dark, i stop to brush them off the tire shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
dang so i start riding to find a light spot and see how far i can go i made it 5 miles i could have gone farther if needed lucky night

any one else made it farther on hissing tires???????

I've made it about 8-miles. Completely destroyed the tyre & rim though...

I don't ride with a flat tire, period. Even though I can sympathize with the difficulty of having to change a flat tire at night. I use Mr Tuffy (http://www.mrtuffy.com/)tire liners to help prevent a flat tire. If I do get one, I will repair on the road hopefully with a patch kit and a flashlight. In a worst case, push the bike (not ride it) or if too far away call a cab which is cheaper than a new rim on most cases.

on my road bike: i'll do it for 50 yards max (see DannoXYZ's reply).

on my city bike: depends how late it is; how far away from home i am; what the weather is like; how drunk i am... etc.

I've done 5.3 miles.

The rim is okay, but only because it weighs more than the frame. :p

I did about 15 miles once. I had brought my two spare tubes and a patch kit but no pump DOH!

The rim only needed a little sanding to get the burs off and I still ride it today in fact it was brand new but there was no way I was going to walk 15 miles home. I rode on the grassy edge of the road when I could.

I dont ride on flat tires, period, way to scared to mess up the rim.

When I was like 11 or 12, I got a flat tire about 10 miles from home...

This was before the time of cell phones and I had no money. I tried calling collect and no one was home and it was getting dark (and cold) so I just keep pounding away... Cheap bike with heavy steel rims, I don't think I caused much damage.

I almost always ride with patchs, an extra tube, a pump and a cell, and of course some money now so I'll stop as soon as I know Im getting a flat cause I don't wanna mess up my pretty road rims.

I know I did more than 5 miles on a flat front tubular once, no hills. It was a campy rim and it actually looked ok, no major damage.

Let's face it, you could ride with a flat tire, or no tire at all, until your rim breaks or collapses. How far can you ride with a flat in order not to hurt your rim? Depends upon the rim, the bike, the terrain, and how much you weigh!

While on vacation on Mount Desert Island, my bike partner and I were finishing the day's ride we were taking in Acadia National Park. As we rode out of the park, the back tire on her bike began developing a flat. We didn't stop as we had worked up a good speed beforehand and it was a long distance back to Bar Harbor where we were staying.

Surprisingly, my bike partner and I made the six miles back to Bar Harbor, where her bike crapped out in front of the town's bicycle shop.