General Cycling Discussion - 2 days before d-day and I finally found what was causing my flats..

8 flats in two days was driving me nuts. Nothing I could see in the tire, nothing on the wheel, rim tape was intact. Yet every tube lasted an hour if it was lucky. Then today I sat down in the direct sunlight and checked every mm of the stupid thing. Finally found it. A black bit of metal just large enough to sit flush in the tire when it wasn't under pressure. Thus almost invisible. When the tire came up to pressure it of course had enough of a sharp point to deflate tires slowly... really annoying.

All that and I'm gearing up to ride 260km in one day for the first time on Saturday. I was about to just throw in the towel and get a new set of tires and I finally found it. Whew. Hopefully there is only one.

I carry a small ball of cotton in a 2" plastic bagie and run the cotton around the inside of the tire when I flat. It finds the tiniest of problems such as yours.

I carry a small ball of cotton in a 2" plastic bagie and run the cotton around the inside of the tire when I flat. It finds the tiniest of problems such as yours.

Nice move. Will try that next time it's difficult. Thank you.

Good idea. Beats changing the tubes 8 times and almost being late twice.

Good idea. Beats changing the tubes 8 times and almost being late twice.


I find that checking what causes my flats is worthless. The way things really work if you commute by bike is this :
If you leave extremely early to make sure that any flats or other problems can be taken care of with plenty of time to spare before work.....then everything will work fine and you will have no flats.

If you start riding to work with just enough time to get to work.....you will get multiple flats or run into other mechanical problems.

You can pump up the tube a bit and then dunk the tube section-by-section in a bucket of soapy water, too. Bubbles==hole....

Those tiny things are the worst. Hard to find in the tire, and the tube will hold air just fine at 2psi that you need to dunk it to find the leak. :notamused:

Line up a label on the sidewall and the valve stem, so when you do find those bubbles
then you can have a good idea where to look, on the tire.

I had three flats in a quarter mile once. After the first two flats I was feeling the inside of the tire real good for anything sharp cause I couldn't see anything from the outside. The third time I had the tire inside out for about fifteen minutes looking as close as I could till I found it. It was a few strands of speaker wire that I could only see If I pinched the tire. I was able to pull them out with my small needle nose pliers.

I had three flats in a quarter mile once. After the first two flats I was feeling the inside of the tire real good for anything sharp cause I couldn't see anything from the outside. The third time I had the tire inside out for about fifteen minutes looking as close as I could till I found it. It was a few strands of speaker wire that I could only see If I pinched the tire. I was able to pull them out with my small needle nose pliers.

That's not speaker wire. That's belted radial tire wire.