Bicycle Mechanics - Blowout

I had my first blow out my road bike last night. I've had plenty of flats and slow leaks from thorns and glass etc.. But this was a dramatic blow out. I just put on a new set of Continental 3000's with new Kenda tubes. They are 700 X 23. I pumped them up to the max at 120 psi. I was doing a high speed turn at about 20 miles per hour on a new black top road when the tube blew apart. I don't know how I stayed upright but I did a lot of fish tailing. It was startling to say the least.

The tube had a 6 inch split in it. I saw no other damage on the inside of the tire. My question is this. Could the tube have been defective? Did I possibly overinflate the tire? What else should I look out for or try to avoid? Being in a peleton at the time would have been a mess.

Sounds like the tire was not seated on the rim correctly. The tube lifted the tire off of the rim and blew the tube.

The tire is probably perfectly fine.

Don't worry. It has happened to a lot of people (me too).

Next time, wet the tire sidewalls with some soapy water before you mount the tire. After you mount the tire, push the tire down onto the rim to make sure the bead is seated.

Inflate the tire to about 85 psi and wait for a bit for the soap water to be forced out. While watching the tire for bulges and to make sure the tire doesn't lift off the rim again, inflate to full recommended pressure.

Of course, this assumes you have a rim suitable for 120 psi tire pressure. If we are talking road bike tires, and your rim is post year 1976, they should be OK.

As a note, the tire should have required tire tools to get onto the rim. If they went on with your hands alone, I would question the fit.



Blowouts are shockers, aren't they!

Make sure you have hook-bead type rims. If the inside walls of your rims are smooth, you cannot safely use Continental and similar modern high-pressure tyres on them, and in fact are limited to an old-fashioned 70-80 PSI.

Although I love old bicycles, I do not hesitate to use modern rims, tyres, and brake pads on them.

Originally posted by John E

Although I love old bicycles, I do not hesitate to use modern rims, tyres, and brake pads on them.

I'm with you on that, John. I replaced my old steel rims with alloy beaded flange rims too.

Of course, as a user of tubular tyres, I'd like to point out that:


1) This probably wouldn't have happened with a good tubular


2) Even with a flat (had one cheap Vittoria blowout on me once!), you would still be able to operate the bike safely, assuming that the tyre was glued on more or less properly.





(Sorry, I just had to point that out)

Been out of town the last half week but thanks for the responses. Mike , I will use your recomendation next time I mount a tire. Alex, the only other blow out I have ever had was on my 1975 Falcon road bike with tubulars. The fish tailing was much more comtrolled. This was only last year and the tires were new. But I hit just the right amount of glass.

My current road bike is a 2000 Trek 5200 with Rolf Pro Vectors so the tires match up well with the rims. I think Mike hit on the problem. I rode in a 50 mile charity ride over the weekend and I managed to keep air in the tires so I think the rims and tires are fine.