curbtender

My experience with a front flat was a blow out while I was turning into the garage area at work. The front tire washed out and I went down hard, sliding infront of a truck leaving the yard. Glad the driver was paying attention when it happened. Don't know what caused it, but it had a slice that looked like the op's.

arex

You may have reasons not to, but why not throw an inexpensive-and-temporary cheap tire on there, until you have the bucks to get the tires you want? I'd trust an undamaged cheap tire more than I would a damaged fancy tire.

PatrickGSR94

lol except in my case... it's a damaged cheap tire These original tires go for less than $15 I think.

MattMem

https://www.amazon.com/Vittoria-Zaffi.../dp/B001JI42WY

~$16 with shipping. I would just do that in the interim, better than it exploding on you.

PatrickGSR94

dangit, local Walmart didn't have any Shoe Goo, and I don't have time to look anywhere else. Oh well I'll be riding the bike home today and hope for the best!

sreten

Hi,

The general concensus, right or wrong, is front wheel skids are a
lot hairier than rear. I don't know about that, but rear wheel skids
are pretty routine stuff for me, incorrectly using the brakes out of
the saddle, but I can't recall a front wheel skid due to my riding.

Front skids have been due to the road, and very short.
They are gone before I can do anything about it.

Myth perhaps, but most would prefer the rear to go pear shaped
rather than the front, its less worrying. I fit a good rolling near slick
tyre to the rear and a better grip in poorer conditions to the front.

I can't answer you question, but as Sheldon Brown said,
with identical tyres, the best one should always be on the
front, is my motto, I'd rather have a rear than front blowout.

rgds, sreten.

I'd fix it with some goo if you want, and ride it on the rear.
My tyres all have puncture protection belts in that area,
and a cut of that type it the tread is pretty meaningless.
Looks like a Gatorskin to me and unlikely to be any problem.

TallRider

FBinNY, I suppose I was repeating conventional wisdom that made intuitive sense to me. I've had very few flats over the years, and the only true blowout (immediate loss of pressure) was on the rear wheel on a downhill and I had no problem steering or stopping. It seems intuitive that a front blowout could compromise steering to a much greater extent than the rear.

Have you found front blowouts to not significantly compromise handling? Or have you found that rear blowouts can significantly compromise handling?

dbg

It hasn't ever happened to me but if I'm going down a long steep hill approaching 50mph, I just intuitively would rather have rear tire problems than front. Maybe they both have an equal chance of killing me but if I had to choose one over the other... "rear tire" wins every time for me.

44.5mph

Shoe Goo works great for me. I use it on cuts & pinholes in the tread to protect the cords from wear by debris.

deep_sky

Had blowout Tuesday going down a road at 23 mph (hit a rock, which pinched the sidewall of the tube and immediately depressurized), and let me tell you, it was a close thing keeping the bike upright. I was going around a slight bend, but it was enough of a curve that any front brake immediately resulted in fishtailing from the front tire rolling around on the rim (no traction). The rear brake also is not very good at stopping very quickly at those speeds so I basically did a series of short fishtails to get the bike slowed down enough to get off. The worst thing was clipping out. The twisting motion almost had me falling down, but I managed to get to a stop without falling over. Would MUCH rather have a rear flat than a front flat.

PatrickGSR94

wow that sounds like a crazy ride! Well that cut that was in my tire has been of no consequence, the Shoe Goo is still in there and by now you can't even really see it as I've put nearly 700 miles on the tires since I first made this post.

zorobabel

Has anyone tried rubber cement to fill in tire cuts? How about superglue?

PatrickGSR94

Wouldn't do superglue because I believe it sets up rigid, which is what you don't want. Rubber cement might be okay, but the Shoe Goo worked perfectly.

PatrickGSR94

Alright so this tire hung on a hook in the garage for awhile when I put Conti GP 4 Seasons tires on in early 2014. When the rear GP4S wore out, I put one of the original Zaffiro tires back on, because I'm cheap. Then that one wore out (several patches of cord showing), so I swapped that out for the tire shown in the first post of this thread, just about 3 weeks ago. I guess the Shoe Goo fix must have worn out and come off or something. I had the bike in the stand, spinning the rear wheel and suddenly *PSSSHHHHHHH* the tire ruptured at that spot, the tube sprung a leak and broke through the cords at that cut in the rubber.

Glad it didn't happen on my commute home from work yesterday.

So that's 3 rear tires in 7,200 miles. Taking the bike on a trip tomorrow so I have to make an emergency LBS run to get a 25c tire.