Elvo

Yes you can trust either. Mom and pop might be able to fix it on the spot. Performance usually has a weeklong backlog.

caloso

Is there a bike coop/kitchen near you?

VegasTriker

Trust the several people who are telling you that you need to replace the tire. The amount of tread left on the tire is no indication it is safe to use. I had a roughly $60 Schwalbe Durano tire develop a bubble in the sidewall last Spring at only 300 miles, which for me was less than three weeks. It was still a brand new tire with all of the tread intact. I immediately took it off and replaced it with a more reliable tire (different brand too!) even though it probably was covered by a warranty. I would never try to boot the tire and then ride it until the tread was gone. If it failed once, it is very likely to fail again on another part of the sidewall. I don't like to get stranded with a blowout or crash when one happens while I am going fast. I'm frugal but not to the point where it affects my safety.

The rubber on an old tire gets hard and less flexible. The cord holding the tire together also weakens over time. If the bike was left sitting with flat tires for a long time, the contact area where the tire was flattest will be the most likely place for a sidewall failure. You paid $36 for the bike. Sometimes you can get a pretty good older bike for less than $50 but you always need to have the expectation that an old bike will need some TLC and that includes tires and brake pads. Both get old and should be replaced to make the bike safe to ride. I always check all the places where the bike has been lubricated and do whatever maintenance is needed.

Machka 

This ^^

Duane Behrens

Bike shops don't make money on changing tires. Virtually every one will give you a good price and they'll yawn as they perform the work. I still don't understand why you don't want to learn such an important road skill when it is a guaranteed fact that, if you ride as you should, you will soon wish you had. Bike co-ops and bike shops often hold little coaching seminars on easy road fixes like this. You should attend one and conquer your fear. :-)

Retro Grouch 

Test how your brake pads line up with your rim. If the brakes touch the tire even a little, they'll wear away the tire sidewall in very little time and cause the kind of damage you have described. If that's the case, you need to move your brake pad up a little and you need a new tire.

Sorry.

sknhgy 

Most people hate them, but 3 out of my 4 bikes have Mr. Tuffies in the tires - including my singletrack only mountain bike. The other bike has Schwalbe Marathons, but they are expensive.

Retro Grouch 

I don't think that applies in this case. OP has a sidewall cut near the rim.

Shawn Gossman

$16 for a tube and replacement???? HOLY CRAP!

I own a bicycle repair shop... I charge $4 for a tube and still make a profit and then like $3 for labor, heck for my regular customers I don't even charge labor!

Retro Grouch 

That sounds to me like upper end prices for both the tube and labor too.

On the other hand, Hurst or even Carbondale, Illinois is probably a relatively low rent area. Orange County California isn't and they need to cover their overhead.

Shawn Gossman

It is fairly rural. I give away more free work than I charge... to the low income people and kids Its not my actual job, its more of a hobby with profit every now and then plus it gives me an excuse to actually have my own shop for my bike stuff

Now c'dale, they got 3 shops, I always refer serious cyclists to them as I am not exactly a "official business". Maybe one day but then again, Illinois is a B-word to start a business in...

Retro Grouch 

Here in the St Louis area I suspect you'd be charged $10.00 - $5.00 for the tube and $5.00 for labor. To make that cost out the mechanic has to be able to change the tube in under 5 minutes. I can do that if you just let me do the work but it can take a lot longer if I have to entertain the customer while I'm doing it.

Incidentally, there used to be a Guiness World Record for fixing a bicycle flat. It was at least once held by a fellow from Carbondale at around 1 1/2 minutes. The rules required him to remove his rear tire, check for a thorn, inflate his replacement tube with a frame pump, and ride away. He used a loose fitting tire and a slightly undersized inner tube that already had a little air in it.

Shawn Gossman

If its local, I just do house calls at no charge... One family calls me the "family bike dr" lol i'm looking to start seeing people trading me chickens, eggs and goats for bike work which would be AWESOME!! Lil Bike Shop on the Prairie!

Velo Dog

Learn to fix flats. If you keep riding, you will have dozens of them. I've had nine on a century ride, and when I lived in the desert, I expected (and got) one about every 30 miles. You aren't likely to have that many, but only a fool rides without a patch kit, tools and the ability to use them.

VegasTriker

Well, here's the answer to what several people have suggested: Bicycle Collective and Co-op Links This is a list of 110 bike co-ops around the US. You have to be pretty lucky to be near one.

So, what does the bicycle co-op do? (Here's what it says for one in Cincinnati OH)

The co-op is about helping people help themselves. The co-op provides a central place for people to come to rescue bicycles and learn how to fix and maintain them. The volunteer mechanics do not fix bikes for people; they help guide members who are working on their own bicycle projects. The co-op also works for bicycle advocacy, and organizes rides, social events, and contests. Most importantly, we concentrate on empowering people, getting them on bicycles, and having fun.

I was part of a Co-op bike shop in a major university town a long time ago. It still exists but is no longer a student owned co-operative bike store. They come and go.

biker2

Ok guys, so I'm past that issue and here's how it went:

I wanted to get an assessment of what happened to the tire, so I removed it and took it to a local bike shop, after calling around to find out who had the cheapest tire. It turns out that while the guy I bought the bike from claimed he had recently put on new tires, and even though the tread was high, the side wall was a mess. The coating had come off, revealing the X lines that I assume are structural. The sidewall was thinning through in several places. So one section eventually just gave completely. The tube on the other hand seemed to have no hole, though the valve had broken off, so it was unusable due to that. Would that have caused the deflation?

So I bought a tire for 17 bucks and a tube for 5. I decided I'd fix it myself to save the 7 bucks they charge for fixing a flat. Also, I took everyone's advice here figuring I do need to know how to fix a flat myself. It took a while since it was my first time changing a bike flat, but after consulting a video several times, I got the job done.

The front tire is also in poor condition and will probably go soon, but this time I'll know what to do! Thanks to everyone for all your advice and support.

RPK79

Fastest guy on a bike I know was an Olympic speed skater until he injured his knee skating. He's a cat 2 racer. I don't know if he plays golf, but he can fix a flat.

Dave Mayer

Welcome to cycling. I have roughly one flat per month. But then I have a thing about riding on excessively light race tires. If you are riding on the streets on hybrid or mountain bike tires, then expect about one flat per year. No matter what tires you are on, sooner or later you will meet fate with a roofing nail, or a fist-sized chunk of glass, or a metal sliver from a street sweeper.

Prices quoted for the repair are totally reasonable.

Check the air pressure in your tires. If it is too low, then you will get pinch flats. This is where the tire and tube bottoms out on the rim during an impact. The tube gets pinched in 2 places, and you get rapid deflation. If the hit is big enough, or the tire pressure low enough, then the tire is damaged too. Possibly the rim too. This gets expensive.

My local shop does almost nothing but repair flats. Certain customers come in on schedule every 3 months with a flat on the rear. Three months is the amount of time required for the air pressure to drop to the point where it is pinch flat time - again. And again and again.

Learn how to repair flats. This is the most basic and fundamental maintenance skill you need to know. And, get a pump and keep your tires up to recommended pressure.

Dave Mayer

I think I get the problem. I had this problem about 10 years ago when I was mountain biking solo in the middle of nowhere with only 2 spare tubes and zero cell coverage. I went through one tube, replaced it, and then another and another. Finally I was faced with walking 6 miles back to civilization.

What happened is that my pump I had with me was low budget, and it unable to generate more than about 25psi, no matter how much effort I put into it. So I was riding a long downhill with underinflated tires. It turns out during the frequent hard braking, that the tire shifted on the rim, and it caused the valve stem to be sheared off. That is, the tire rotated relative to the rim, and this caused so much stress on the valve stem that it failed.

This happened two more times, and finally I was left with 3 unrepairable tubes. Game over.

A new pump, and I've never had this again.

VegasTriker

When you finish with this repair, check to make sure the valve is coming straight out of the hole in the rim. If you inflate a tire while the valve is cocked to one side, you may well tear the valve out of the tube just as happened with the old tire. Check out some of the mail order bike parts companies. You can find excellent tires and tubes at a pretty good discount if you are going to do your own wrenching.

Yes, the old tires are no good. If you can see the tire cord on the sidewall of the tire, it is time to change tires. That's what the X pattern is - sidewall tire cord that holds the tire together. By the time the rubber on the sidewall flakes off, it is past due for a change as you found out with the sidewall failure. Buy a new front tire before you have a blowout on that one too and you will save 5 bucks on a tube.

Rowan

Cool. It's sort of a rite of passage to be able to change out tyre and tube. It's a skill that will stay with you and come in really handy on more than the odd occasion.

Well done.