Kabir

Hi guys,

I know that you can inflate the tube and soak it in water to find the leak. Is there other way to do it? I found that it is not really convenient to bring a whole wheel into the bathroom.

Thanks

rockrates

that's the most effective way that i've found to do it...you'll have better luck if you take the tube out of the tire and off the wheel and just put it underwater (sink/bathtub)

moxfyre

The much easier way to do it is to hear or feel the leak... though this doesn't work for a very slow leak. The way I do it, to find a moderately slow leak, is to inflate the tube till it's approximately doubled in size. Then I hold it up to my LIPS and slowly turn it past them. Lips are extremely sensitive to the feel of blowing air, much more sensitive than fingers, and this way I can detect leaks a lot smaller than I could find with my fingers.

caloso

I do that too. It probably looks weird to passersby but it just adds to the freak mystique.

Kabir

Haha, that is true. People may think those bike aficionados love their bikes so much that they actually kiss them.

Carrying a very lightweight collapsible water bucket may be another option. Removing the tube away from the bike can be a hassle especially if you are dealing with the rear wheel.

moxfyre

I've been known to do a little roadside inner-tube romancing, though I've sadly not gotten too many folks to slow down and watch

Carrying a spare innertube is almost certainly less of a hassle than carrying any kind of water bucket. Of course, some of us never learn and insist on only carrying patches (me! ).

Kabir

Very good point. Thanks. (Why had I not thought of that?! )

moxfyre

Probably because you're a fellow gearhead and when something is broken, your first thought is to repair it on the spot, rather than replace it

dbs

Funny thread. Too funny until my wife just called and said her front tire was flat again. Crap. She patched it once over the 'rib' of the tub without removing the rib and I felt it was leaking down the rib line. I removed her patch, sanded everthing flat and patched following standard procedure. The hole, I suspect, is again on the inside diameter up against the spokes. The spoke cover seems to be in fine shape although I suspect after pressure is put in the tube things can poke through that wouldn't be visible/noticable without pressure. I'm generally very successful with patches so I figure my technique, while not perfect, should suffice.

Any thoughts?

SerottaK

My wife lets me store a bike or two in the house, but I think that putting my wheels in the bathtub would remind her of when I washed the dog(read shedding german shepard) in the tub . I also use the lip method.

operator

The sandpaper that come with patch kits is not for this purpose. Nor does it need to be done.

vw addict

pfffft, just put a new tube in and stop being cheap.

AndrewP

Even if you put a new tube in, you need to find the leak so you know where to look for the piece of glass or wire that caused the flat. Otherwise you will be fixing the flat in your new tube before you have gone 500 yds.

froze

Let's make this a bit clearer; the sandpaper is used to clean the tube not to sand off the ribs. Excessive sanding will cause the tube to develop groves which could lead to the patch not adhering, along with the possibility of those groves turning into holes as you rub.

Usual directions is to clean the tube with a rag or alcohol after sanding, I've never done that! I just blow any loose particles off the tube.

If you still can't find the leak after using the lip method and passing the tube underwater, then make a soapy solution with regular dish soap and dilute with water about 75% then use a spraye and spray the tube. The soap will bubble like crazy even with the smallest of holes.

SerottaK

I was at a LBS last weekend and a guy asks the salesman what tire he recomendes cause he has changed his tube 3 times and it keeps going flat. Before the salesman can reply a fellow customer reaches over and pulls a goat-head out of the tire and asks, "If you changed the tube, why did you leave the thorn in?" It's hard to belive how many people forget the simple things.

Rowan

Maybe remove the tyre and tube as a unit, reinflate the tube, and listen for a hiss around the inside of the tyre. You might get to locate the puncture, and likely the source of the problem right next to it.

Otherwise, when putting on the tyre, align a significant feature on the casing (label, pressure advice, rotation arrow) with the valve so when you do locate a leak in the tube, you at least have a starting point in searching the right location on the inside of the tyre for the cause.

dbs

In my statement above, after checking, my patch didn't leak but another new hole within an inch of the patch was leakng. My issue is the leak is developing on the spoke side of the tube not the tread side. I've marked the rim, tube and tire in order to isolate the hole in the tube to corresponding location of the rim and the tire. I can find nothing - spokes, thorns, etc. The only thing suspect is a fiberous type band that covers the spoke tips. the edge of this band is quite sharp. I stopped at the LBS and got a rubber wrap. The guy told me that while these work better they have a tendency to not stay in place as well. He suggested I first cover the spoke tips with a wrap of electrical tape. I've purchased two new tubes but don't want to use one until I find the source of the leak.

Al1943

These types of problems don't just go away. Replace the old rim strips with Velox rim tape.

Al

Al1943

These types of problems don't just go away. Replace the old rim strips with Velox rim tape.

Al

jsharr

Take the tube out, inflate it a bit and spray it with soap and water solution, windex, spray cleaner, anything that will bubble up at the point where air is escaping the tube.

froze

Your LBS is kind of odd! All LBS's I ever known would have never recommended the rubber wrap not alone cover the spoke tips with electrical tape in addition to the rubber wrap! Rubber wraps are thick, there should be no way that a spoke would come through that wrap. Plus rubber wraps do move and will move, or creep, slowly as you ride the bike; and can move a lot if you have flat and your still moving on it for a very short distance.

If the spokes were sized right then they should not be high enough in the eyelit to come into contact with the tube; did they build your wheel? If so they screwed up and are now trying to micky mouse a fix so they don't have to rebuild it again for free. Fiber rim wrap such as the Velox one poster mentioned have been used by more road rims then any other wrap and are very reliable, and their lighter then the rubber wraps and are very thin-much thinner the rubber wraps; and because of the thinnest, you won't experience any sharp edges. But again, even though the fiber wrap is very thin spokes won't poke through the wrap "IF" the spokes were done right.

dbs

Last night I pulled the wrap off of the rim. None of the spoke ends protruded above the eyelit. Most if not all were slightly recessed in fact.

The material I pulled off was a like a thick fiberous packing tape. Not sticky backed but very fiberous and very stiff. My concern with this wrap was what the edges in some locations had pulled away from the inside of the rim leaving this sharp edge exposed. This was the only sharp object I could find that could have puncture the tube.

One other discovery, however, the last tube my wife purchased, from the same LBS, was the wrong size. It was too small. The guy at the LBS said that this would for the tube to over inflate and cause problems.

Anyway, I covered the spoke tips with the electrical tape, installed the rubber cover and a new, correctly sized tube and we'll see how things go.

Regarding the Velox product... does this stuff last forever? If not, how long should one wait before replacing it? I believe the stuff I took off last night was the original wrap and, therefore, was 6-8 years old.

froze

Ok, the wheel was built right, therefore electrical tape and thick rubber band is completly unnecessary.

Replace the tape with the Velox tape we already mentioned, it's better then the rubber.

The tube being to small caused problems? What size of tube were you suppose to have and what size did you get. If it's just one size in circumference smaller, that would not create any problems, if in diameter then you should have had problems getting the tube in the tire and rim since you would have resorted to pulling and stretching the tube in place. When we raced in the old days ultralight rubber tubes were not as light as todays tubes so racers would buy one size smaller to lose some weight and we never experienced any problems. For example if your rims and tires required a 700x20/25 and you got a 700x18/23 the smaller size would fit and not cause issues; if you were suppose to get a tube made for a 700 rim and instead got a 26 then you should have been able to tell this right away since you would had to stretch the crap out of the tube it you could even get it on; if you got a 650 instead of a 700 I think, though never tried this, it might cause a small problem. If you got the 700 for a 700 then this sounds like more fooey from your LBS and perhaps it's time to find another.

Does Velox last forever? NO, nothing last forever, but it will outlast the rubber wrap. My velox rim strips were installed when I built the rims new over 30,000 miles ago! and still going strong. Is that long enough?

toolboy

On the road, I do what most do, but in the shop I never buff the tube. Several years ago I bought a little bottle of Rema Tip-Top "Prebuff Cleaner" that I use to swab the patch area. Apply with a clean rag, allow to dry (seconds) and apply glue and patch as usual. Great stuff but don't go sniffin' it - kinda deadly.

froze

hmmm, seems potent, is environmentally safe? I would think that simply carrying around a piece of fine emery paper that last and last would be sufficient.