Finally flatted.. do I need to replace my tires as well?
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Finally flatted.. do I need to replace my tires as well?
Took the bike out for one last ride of the season before strapping it to the trainer for the winter. We had an abnormally warm day here in Toronto on Saturday.
7km into my ride BAM!!, something is horribly wrong, I stop, and sure enough front is flat. I've never had a real flat before in some 8 years of road biking.
Anyway, judging by the color of the glass shards I pulled out of my tire, I ran over the remnants of a beer bottle. Front and back both took a couple of cuts each, but they are tiny little cuts, maybe 2mm-3mm max, no big slices or gashes, one made it all the way through and punctured my fronts tube. My tires are a set of GP4000s, and relatively new 1.5 years, in excellent condition plenty of life/tread left in them.
Tube replacement aside, do I also need to discard the tires after this? is it ok to continue to use a good set of tires after a puncture? I've heard stories on here of people booting sliced tires with dollar bills in an emergency to make it home. What about small repair? Is it acceptable to say, use my tube patch kit on the inside of the tire(not the tube) where the puncture is and continue to use the tires?
Or is a case of, once they've been pierced through no matter how small, they should be tossed?
7km into my ride BAM!!, something is horribly wrong, I stop, and sure enough front is flat. I've never had a real flat before in some 8 years of road biking.
Anyway, judging by the color of the glass shards I pulled out of my tire, I ran over the remnants of a beer bottle. Front and back both took a couple of cuts each, but they are tiny little cuts, maybe 2mm-3mm max, no big slices or gashes, one made it all the way through and punctured my fronts tube. My tires are a set of GP4000s, and relatively new 1.5 years, in excellent condition plenty of life/tread left in them.
Tube replacement aside, do I also need to discard the tires after this? is it ok to continue to use a good set of tires after a puncture? I've heard stories on here of people booting sliced tires with dollar bills in an emergency to make it home. What about small repair? Is it acceptable to say, use my tube patch kit on the inside of the tire(not the tube) where the puncture is and continue to use the tires?
Or is a case of, once they've been pierced through no matter how small, they should be tossed?
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Toronto, ON
I did ride on Saturday when it was warm and thank God I didn't get any punctures/flats. Maybe I'll change to some Gatorskins/Slicks next Winter. These tires are going to be used exclusively for the trainer/winter use until I do club rides again sometime in May.
To answer your question: it is entirely up to you.
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Can you see a hole in your tire? Can you see daylight through the hole? If not, don't worry about it.
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Put a new tube in and pump it up, if tire has bulge or you can see tube coming through get a new tire, if not keep on riding.
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You can use some super glue to close up the gashes in the tread but if the casing is cut it will unravel over time.
On the plus side, you may have just found your trainer tire.
On the plus side, you may have just found your trainer tire.
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Check that there are no remaining bits of glass in your tire that may cause another flat.
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#8
Throw the stick!!!!
"Relatively new 1.5 years" doesn't mean much. How many miles (or km's) do the tires have on them? If you start getting more flats then you will need to change them. Time means nothing (unless they are dry rotting) when it comes to your tires, I wouldn't know what to do if I got 1 1/2 years out of a tire.
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