Digital Gee

speak out loud about how many miles you've gone without a flat?

(I almost hesitate to say this much!)

card

I think you better carry 3 tubes and 2 patch kits on your rides this week.

Jet Travis

Too late. You've already blown it.

card

Maybe you can sell your old tubes for soaker hoses. Upside down white bike gonna get dirty w/all those flats.

cccorlew

You can't even think it or you are doomed.

Tom Bombadil

On Saturday, I got my first flat in about 10 years. And I got it by tempting fate. My father-in-law owns a property that has an old railroad track on it. It was dismantled and now is very similar to a rail trail, an undeveloped one. He has 1/3rd of a mile of the trail on his property.

The trail had a lot of glass on it and we've gone up and down it a number of times over the past 5 years picking up all of it. Before riding on it, I went up and down it picking up a half-gallon ice cream bucket of glass. Then I rode on it, one time. Sure enough, I got a flat.

But at least I wasn't out on the road somewhere. I was done riding and haven't even fixed it yet.

On the whole, I think wider hybrid tires that have thicker tread patterns get a lot less flats than thin road tires. My tires are wearing down a bit, probably have about 1500 miles on them.

Sometime this week I'll get to experience trying to patch a tube for the first time in 10 years. Or maybe I'll just use a new tube, I have two sitting in my parts box.

JanMM

Would it be bad luck to state that I've never had a toeclip- or clipless-related fall? On the other hand, I'm a middle-aged guy whose memory is suspect and maybe I just don't remember. Remember what?

Louis

Sounds like a bad case of CRS*.








*can't remember *****

richjac

I have been thinking about this lately. 1500 miles without a flat on the road... one in the shop , and one in the garage is all. I'm gonna pack a spare tube tomorrow.

Normally I would not dare post something like this... I am only doing it in the interest of science. If it is tempting fate, I will have a flat within the week!

europa

On my local forum, we're running too competitions.
The Black Cat Award for the number of punctures - coz it's bad luck to run over a black cat.

and the alternative competition for the longest time before you get a puncture, the Lapin Rouge - the red rabbit, a rabbit's foot being lucky and the Lantern Rouge being the tail ender in the Tour de France (we combined the concepts).

You have to register to join the Lapin Rouge comp, thus inciting the bad luck fairies ... and so far, I'm the only one to dip out.

To compete in the Black Cat, all you have to do is list your punctures if and when you get them, ie no stirring up the bad luck fairies. The Black Cat award is alive and healthy thanks to the lousy condition of our roads and the amount of glass thrown around.

I don't get it. You thumb your nose at the bad luck fairies (the Lapin Rouge) and you don't get punctures. You keep quiet (the Black Cat) and you get punctures.

Richard

maddmaxx 

I haven't had a flat in almost 4 years. Dont't use slime or thick tubes either. Here kitty kitty kitty.

jp173

I can absolutely verify it!!!!!!

Make that 4 patches and 3 spare tubes.

bcoppola

This is like mentioning Macbeth (a.k.a. The Scottish Play) in a theater. DG has already jinxed the board. I recommend banishment unless we can come up with a sufficiently painful and humiliating way for DG to appease the demons he has summoned.

It should, at the very least, involve clipless pedals. And mud.

geofitz13

All i can attest to is I never got a flat till one night before a ride, I mentioned to my wife that I still hadn't had one. You guessed it, that night I got my first flat.

NotReady4Purple

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer.

tlc20010

Sort of depends on who you ask. I think that I hardly ever have flats, but when I do have one and mention it to my wife, she says something like, "Boy you have a lot of flat tires." And she doesn't even have to fix them....I've stopped mentioning the subject.......

stapfam

I will gladly state that I have done 1750Miles since January on the OCR3 and never had a flat - or a puncture - or even a tyre problem. But then I would be lying. Not talking about the new one either.

tcs

I never mention unintended de-inflation by name.

TCS

BlazingPedals

Dang! Someone has requested a visit from the p*nct*re fairy! Glad I didn't do that!

Terrierman

I've proudly ridden about ten miles since my last FLAT TIRE. All I did to deserve that one was to READ THIS THREAD, not even reply to it. I don't think the bad luck thing is restricted to speaking of it, apparently thinking about it is enough.

bcoppola

I'm going on a club ride tonight. If I have a f**t, I'm getting a plane ticket to San Diego so I can kick someone's a**.

The Weak Link

I took off on a 28 mile road ride on Saturday. 2 miles into it I realized that I had forgotten my bike bag with spare tube etc. I pondered going back to get it. Then I remembered that the only time I have a mechanical is when I ride with freeranger, and he was nowhere to be seen, so I kept on going.

No problems.

xlrogue

I used to get at least a flat a month--my luck has changed markedly since I started running Michelin Krylion Carbons (well, except for that unfortunate dual-simultaneous-flats-after-hitting-bad-RR-tracks coupled with non-functional pump thing a couple of months back). Nonetheless, I carry 2 spare tubes and glueless patch kit and my cell phone [the collect phone call to the wife to rescue me from the aforementioned incident cost $15 for 90 seconds] and my multitool in the seatbag everywhere I go as a talisman. Thorns and glass can sense when you're riding without those sorts of things and will jump into your path just to spite you. If you listen closely you can hear them snickering while you're muttering on the side of the road.

solveg

Well, if the odometer on my old Bridgestone 200 is accurate, then about 4,300 miles, not including flats in the garage. I have never in my life had a flat on the road.

But, because I didn't know how to fix one, I used to get new tubes every spring, and I know I got new tires a few times, too. Plus, I ride really* carefully. I don't go by road debris, and I don't go over pot holes or rough stuff. I slow way down, esp. for railroad tracks and the like. I dodge potholes. And I check my tires with my hands after every ride to make sure there's no gravel stuck in them.

Now that I know how to swap out a tube, I'll probably get one a week.

maddmaxx 

I'm even willing to laugh and point my finger at the broken chain fairy. Bicycles are machines and as such are destined to do the bidding of their masters.

Uh......hang on a minute I think I hear a strange scratching sound coming fromt the shop.....be right ba