sudoshift

Last night as I was preparing for my morning work commute, I broke off the bike tube's valve stem while attempting to pull off the pump head. Guess I just pulled too hard cause all of a sudden 'ppppsssshhhhuuuuu' deflation.

This actually gives me an opportunity to change both tubes and slap on some Marathon Racers!

On the commute note, it was an awesome commute!

Sirrus Rider

Uh.. No I treat my stem with some delicacy..

weshigh

My pump has a screw on valve to avoid that. Might want to invest in one He-Man

nkfrench 

When I was riding on Armadillo tires, the only flats I had were "parking lot flats" when the presta valve broke off while removing the pump.
I am buying my tubes from a different store and am riding faster tires, so now I have had plenty of "normal flats" and no broken presta valves.
So I can't conclude that there's any difference between the more expensive tubes or not regarding breaking the valves.
I will conclude that I go faster on the racing tires (except when I get a puncture) ...
Guess I'll find out about the valves when I put the Armadillos back on for winter training and colder night rides.

Andy_K 

I've done that. I got a nail through the tire (=unpatchable) and called my wife to say I was going to be just a bit later than expected but that I had it covered. Then I broke the valve on my spare tube and had to make the call of shame.

I've got the Lezyne with the thread on chuck now, but I haven't had to use it yet.

ThermionicScott 

I've done it once or twice. It's hard to reconcile the fragile Presta valve with some of the large and clunky pump heads out there. Most of the time, I'll use a Shrader adaptor so I don't have to worry about it.

sudoshift

Glad I wasn't the only one lol.

I failed to mention that it was a Shraeder valve. Had a brain fart and now that think about it also failed to put the pump lock in "off" mode. The bike was purchased off an auction so I was eventually going to change the tubes and tires.

nashcommguy

Did exactly the same thing on a recreational fg ride. We live in a rural area that's very popular for city/roadie weekend riders. It was a beautiful Saturday and they were out in droves. Forced myself to ride in the back of our pick-up w/the bike and let all the warriors have a good snicker at my expense. , indeed.

Orange Hatter

Valve strain is common and can be especially bad when using a small hand pump when you are on the road. With a tire levers or some similar object you can actually avoid valve strain quite easily. Simply stack the lever(s) on the ground and as you pump it takes away the strain. You can see an example here.

JohnJ80

I gave up on the Lezyne pumps. All my tubes and tires have stems with removable cores and I have problems with the Lezyne screw-on heads pulling the cores out. I had Joe Blow pumps and some others that all had issues. I now use the Silca heads on all my floor pumps and have no further issues.

J.

Andy_K 

The new ones have a pressure relief button on the chuck that's supposed to fix that.

The Chemist

Yeah, I've done that before. I pretty much won't use a mini pump anymore because of it.

osephjey

totally did on my son's bike trailer the other day. didn't realize I had a screw on/off type pump. oops. schrader valve, pulled the stem right away from the tube.

SouthFLpix

Yes, I've done it by pulling the pump head too hard.

Ridefreemc

I have been looking at the small/portable Topeak pump ( https://www.topeak.com/products/Pumps/MiniMorph ) that has a hose on the end. But to answer the OP yes - at home - by breaking off the head once. Many times on the road when flat fixing. I like the stacking tire irons trick and will try it. I use my shoe as a base for the portable pump, but that doesn't always work.

mawtangent

Well I've torn a presta valve (or two) out using a basic mini-pump. My technique now is to attach the pump to the valve and hold it in front of me with the bike wheel in the air only being held up by the pump (valve pointing down at 6 o'clock). It a bit of a work out especially since the pump isn't resting against anything solid, but both hands/arms (one holding the body of the pump, the other pushing the handle) sort of share the work. I haven't torn out a valve doing this. I can manage about a 100 pump strokes in a 700 x 25 tire, enough psi to get home...next time I think I'll try Orange Hatters (Post #9) technique, or maybe even use a tree as mentioned in one of the comments in the link (Post #9). Using a tree (or wall etc.) I'd still use my technique except use the tree to pump against instead holding the pump body with my hand.

Pobble.808

A couple of years after I got my Silca I went through a phase where it destroyed every presta stem it came in contact with (or more precisely the rubber at the base of the stem would tear, unpatchable) because I had to wrestle so hard to get the head off of the stem. And it apparently wasn't a problem with my technique because I took the pump to the LBS that had sold it to me, they tried it themselves, and they said the head was defective and unusable. So if you're having repeated problems with stem failure, it's worth considering the possibility that along with the usual suspects such as junk tubes and improper pumping technique, the pump head might need a check-up.

Digital_Cowboy

What kind of stems are we talking about? Presta or Scharder? A couple of months ago while riding out to the VA I had to add some air to one of my tires and valve itself came out when I removed my frame pump. This was on a Presta valve tire.

Digital_Cowboy

Would that trick work with a floor pump to help keep down the possibility of stressing the rubber at the base of the valve and causing pin holes in the tube around the base of the valve stem?

Digital_Cowboy

Or in the case of my Specialized Air Tool floor pump in the handle itself.

Digital_Cowboy

Look for a park/bus stop bench to rest the bike on as you work. I had to use one not too long ago when I got a flat on the road. Fortunately it was my front tire. Used the bench to hold the bike up while I worked on the wheel changing out the tube.

Medic Zero

I've done it a couple of times. Once on a new tube that I chalked up to manufacturing defect.

unterhausen

Have you thought of learning to use the multi-quote feature?

dscheidt

There are lots of crap tubes on the market, and the typical failure is pulling the stem out of tube. It apparently costs more to properly bond the stem in place than to do a half assed job.

JohnJ80

eh. To me the Lezyne design was just completely underwhelming and an attempt to solve a problem that (IMO) didn't exist. There are pumps that pump better and there are certainly pumps that are easier to seal and lighter to boot. Why bother?

J.