Folding Bikes - Flat tyre on a Strida - lucky me!

I have gotten into a bad habit lately of carrying no tools with me on my Strida. Longest I've ever ridden it in one go was about 20 miles. I only use it for a few miles between train station and home, and I'm never than a few blocks away from a public transit stop. So, why carry tools?

Today, after I got home, I decided to wash the bike; been a while since I hosed off the gunk. About the time I was done, I noticed the rear tyre was flat. But it was fine when I got home just a few minutes earlier. So I was lucky once, that it didn't flat on me during the ride - and lucky twice because I actually HAD a patch kit and knew where it was in the mess of my garage.

And lucky three times, because - KUDOS TO STRIDA - This was the EASIEST flat I ever fixed.

Not having to take the wheel off made it fast; the small, fat wheel and tyre was much easier to work on than the large diameter, skinny, high pressure jobbies on my other bike.

I pumped it up to 70 PSI (about 10 over the usual) and will see if it's holding pressure in the morning. I really don't like patches, I might have to go find a 305x40 tube tomorrow.

Unless my luck holds :)

Agreed, very easy to change tubes, back & front. Usually I just carry spare tubes, the 3 way Allen key they provide & tyre levers, although some tyre brands need no levers at all!

Someone in another thread mentioned they had another aluminium folder with mono forks, but didn't find tyre changing easier, & I'm not sure why that was so.

The Strida Club in Singapore did an overseas ride to Malaysia recently and encountered 2 flats. The mono fork design ensured the repair was done in 5 mins flat. No worries at all. Painless.

Maybe we should have a category for fastest puncture repair bike?

I went through a spate of flat tyres on my Strida - due to a combination of poor quality inner tubes from Halfords (they kept splitting) and inconsiderate melonfarmers throwing glass bottles into the cycling lanes along my regular route...

However, I can really recommend a tyre liner (which you can get from most bike shops, I think) - especially for the back wheel where most of the weight is distributed - I haven't had a regular puncture since installing it.

And AGAIN today - this is just wierd.

Rode the Strida to work today. All was fine. Come out at the end of the day, tyre was flat.

Hopped on the bus, stopped at my favorite LBS and bought a new tube. Figured when I got home I'd find the patch I put on last week had peeled lose or failed in some other way.

NOPE. Pulled the tube and my original patch is fine. I found another tiny little hole in a completely different spot.

Patched, pumped up, tested in the traditional tub of soapy water, all is well. Brushed out the inside of the tyre to make sure there wasn't some sliver of glass in there causing the recurrence. Keeping the new tube for a spare.

But what I don't get is how and why the tube would take a hit and not go flat until well after I got off the bike - TWICE.

Is this just unnatural luck, or is there some reasons for them to go that way?

THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM.

It happened AGAIN today - but this time I think I found and removed the problem

A tiny metal shaving was embedded in the tyre, and would only jab the tube while it was being ridden.

The only way I found it this time was to mark the tyre and tube with a silver Sharpie before I took them off. Then when I found the hole in the tube it was easy to line up with the offending bit on the tyre.

But I STILL couldn't see the thing, even with bright light and magnifying glass. Could barely feel it. Took a pair of tweezers and a bit of fiddling by feel to get it out. And while the bit exposed was tiny, the whole shaving was surprisingly large. Perhaps 2mm long, very thin and sharp.

Cannot feel or see, (even with a magnifying glass), any hole in the tyre now.

We'll see if I can ride all the way to work tomorrow without it flatting on me again.

Here's a post I started a thread with just now that might relate. It sounds like Strida tires are easy to remove even though they're tiny. I've read about other tiny tires requiring a bench-vice and 4 levers to remove.

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I've read in recent A-to-B's about the wretched difficulty of repairing flatted tiny wheels. I'm talking about the A-Bike and Strida size wheels. Probably anything under 16" and be a pain but those under 8" surely are. The tires don't stretch enough.

Is there an easy solution out there yet?

When I saw the complaints I thought about what we went through in my other hobby of XC skiing and the rollerskis we use in the offseason for training. A company came out with pneumatic wheel rollerskis, with wheels about 6" in diameter. Repairing them was insane! So the company went to SPLIT RIMS. They had plastic rims made in two halves that bolted together. To replace a tire/tube, you separate the rims and make an easy fix, then bolt them back together. Have the bike people tried this yet for tiny wheels?

I believe this rollerski company has now gone to a tubeless system but my tires/tubes are still working fine so I haven't kept up to date on their tech.

--JP