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how often do you get flats

Old 04-15-09, 06:10 PM
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how often do you get flats

i have gotten 4 in the last 3 and 1/2 weeks. after 3 in three weeks i bought better tires cause i was sick of it, then today my brand new tire was destroyed by a medal thing i think i am just unlucky
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Old 04-15-09, 06:13 PM
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I can go a couple months without a flat and then all of the sudden every bike I own gets one or two flats a week. I am in one of those periods right now dang it.
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Old 04-15-09, 06:22 PM
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Never gotten one on my bikes. I've got about 900 miles on them so far. However, my car got its first a few weeks ago, around 800-900 miles. Will take it in to the shop to get it (the tire) switched soon.
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Old 04-15-09, 06:48 PM
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I get very few from road hazards. My first year I got one from a staple, one from a sliver of glass. The 2nd year, one from a bit of wire, another from a sharp metal shard. I think that's it from road hazards. So it's been about 3 years since that kind of flat.

However, in ONE DAY I got 5 flats - because I had a bad rim strip in a new wheel. I had a valve stem blow out on me once. I had a tire rip loose from its bead last fall. I got a pinch flat this spring when I let a tire get low and I came across some really course gravel that I hadn't known was there. I had a patch fail on me once (got old and cracked). One time I wore a tire clear through, the tube poked out and popped.

Typically I get a flat about once a year, though as you can see recently it's not been for typical reasons. I just switched to brand new Schwalbe Marathons and I now have high quality rim strips and new wheels front and back, so it's possible I'm set for a while.

I only have one bike. Total miles is about 17400.
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Old 04-15-09, 06:49 PM
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My wife gets many more flats than I get. Even when we are riding together on the same model of tires, she is roughly 5 times more likely to flat than I am. I chalk it up to the fact that I fix all flats so she has less incentive to watch where she is going.
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Old 04-15-09, 06:50 PM
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About 2 a year. I run Continental Ultra Gatorskins and haven't had...... uh, never mind

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Old 04-15-09, 06:54 PM
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It varies, I've gone over a year without a flat, and then again, I've gone less than a second between flats.

The strangest was when I got a flat at one intersection in the morning and a second flat at the same intersection (opposite side of the road) in the afternoon. But I had killed a rat that morning before commuting and I attributed both flats to the rat's revenge.
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Old 04-15-09, 07:04 PM
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Originally Posted by ItsJustMe
I get very few from road hazards. My first year I got one from a staple, one from a sliver of glass. The 2nd year, one from a bit of wire, another from a sharp metal shard. I think that's it from road hazards. So it's been about 3 years since that kind of flat.

However, in ONE DAY I got 5 flats - because I had a bad rim strip in a new wheel. I had a valve stem blow out on me once. I had a tire rip loose from its bead last fall. I got a pinch flat this spring when I let a tire get low and I came across some really course gravel that I hadn't known was there. I had a patch fail on me once (got old and cracked). One time I wore a tire clear through, the tube poked out and popped.

Typically I get a flat about once a year, though as you can see recently it's not been for typical reasons. I just switched to brand new Schwalbe Marathons and I now have high quality rim strips and new wheels front and back, so it's possible I'm set for a while.

I only have one bike. Total miles is about 17400.
5 in one day lol that is why i posted this so i would feel better about my luck
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Old 04-15-09, 07:21 PM
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1 flat which was on my Gary Fisher in 1 1/2 years. Well, I was putting new tubes on my Puch and one of them burst so I can count that too for a total of 2.
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Old 04-15-09, 07:44 PM
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I can recall only a handful of flats while commuting, going all the way back to college commuting days in the late '80s. I have no explanation for my good fortune.

On the other hand I've had 3 flats on a single century, two flats on two consecutive days touring, and a flat followed by a blown tube (poor tire mount) on one ride.
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Old 04-15-09, 08:00 PM
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Let's put it this way--if I truthfully answer the OP's question, I'm guaranteed to flat on the way home tonight.
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Old 04-15-09, 08:00 PM
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I have to consider myself fortunate, since I haven't had a flat in several thousand miles. I still couldn't call that last one a real flat either, as I broke a valve stem while inflating a tire, and I have switched to presta valves since then.
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Old 04-15-09, 08:01 PM
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Originally Posted by ian123
5 in one day lol that is why i posted this so i would feel better about my luck
Yeah, and the first one was 18 miles from home, 3 miles from a meeting I was heading to, and 5 miles past work. I didn't know what a bad rim strip looked like, I had two spare tubes and a patch kit but couldn't make anything stay. The tube would pop as I was pumping it up. I wound up walking 5 miles back to work.

It blew the last 2 times on the way home from work. I was an hour late. That was the day my wife made me go get a cell phone. Luckily prepaid phones are dirt cheap, because other than for emergencies I wouldn't bother having one.
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Old 04-15-09, 08:26 PM
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Originally Posted by DataJunkie
I can go a couple months without a flat and then all of the sudden every bike I own gets one or two flats a week. I am in one of those periods right now dang it.
+1 I am just coming out of one of those periods. I got a flat everyday for a week. It has now been a few days, so I hope I am safe for a while. I usually go several months to a year without a flat. I hope I don't jinx myself.
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Old 04-15-09, 08:44 PM
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2 flats in the last 1600 miles. Neither one on the road

# 1 the bike was sitting in my foyer for more then 24 hours since last ride. Tube popped at 10:30pm scare the pajesus out of the wife and I! Thought a water line broke in the laundry room on the other side of the wall. Old tube failed where it was stretched over a nipple.

#2 Broke a presta valve pumping up the tire on my Crit bike.


Now I have helped or fixed 4 flats in that same time frame...all on other peoples bikes.
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Old 04-15-09, 08:47 PM
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I went for a whole two years without a flat (well, without one on the road. I went out to the bike in the morning and it had a flat tire a couple times).

Lately I've had several of them for different reasons, including my first "in the rain" flat...
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Old 04-15-09, 08:55 PM
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I've had two flats in four years, even though I ride pretty much every day. The reason for my "luck" is that I have fat, 80 psi 700 x 37 road tires; skinny, high-psi tires are more likely to get flats. (I hope I don't get a flat now that I've mentioned the unspeakable.... )
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Old 04-15-09, 09:23 PM
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Originally Posted by bragi
I've had two flats in four years, even though I ride pretty much every day. The reason for my "luck" is that I have fat, 80 psi 700 x 37 road tires; skinny, high-psi tires are more likely to get flats. (I hope I don't get a flat now that I've mentioned the unspeakable.... )

I seem to have very few flats on my "everyday" bike and I have 700X38's on it. I think that's true, too, about tire size.
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Old 04-15-09, 09:47 PM
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Like everyone else, I get them in bunches. Winter 2007-2008, I got about 6 (the source of the flat became obvious when I discovered the tubes were always punctured at the same spot....) and haven't had one since.
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Old 04-16-09, 06:21 AM
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I average one per year per bike in 5k-6k miles per year in all-season, all-conditions urban commuting. One bike wears 25mm Continental Gatorskins and the other wears 28mm Bontrager Race Lite Hardcase.
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Old 04-16-09, 06:26 AM
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8 flats this year.
Glass, nails, etc
5244 miles
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Old 04-16-09, 06:27 AM
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I almost never get flats. My old commuter never once had a flat. My old roadie flatted a number of times until I identified the problem (crappy rim tape), and then never again.
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Old 04-16-09, 06:29 AM
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About every thousand miles or so. Probably a bit more often on my road bike and a bit less often on my commuter. Most of the flats on my commuter so far have been with my snow tires which don't fit my rims very well.
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Old 04-16-09, 07:06 AM
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Originally Posted by jefferee
Let's put it this way--if I truthfully answer the OP's question, I'm guaranteed to flat on the way home tonight.
My thought precisely!
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Old 04-16-09, 09:07 AM
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Originally Posted by bragi
I've had two flats in four years, even though I ride pretty much every day. The reason for my "luck" is that I have fat, 80 psi 700 x 37 road tires; skinny, high-psi tires are more likely to get flats. (I hope I don't get a flat now that I've mentioned the unspeakable.... )
i agree with you about the wider tires, but my the guy at my lbs convinced me otherwise when i was buying mine.... well it took 4 days to get a flat so i think i was right
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