illadelphia esq

So I am sitting here at work and hear the dreaded pop and hissing sound but I haven't ridden since 8:30 this morning. The only possible thing I could think of is that I tuck my bike behind the door to my office and the door may have wedged against the bottom of the wheel leading to pressure then the blow out. But again I didn't touch the door at the time of the blow out and had been sitting at my desk for awhile.

It has me perplexed and annoyed I have to walk to the train. Anyone experience a similar issue or have a more logical explanation of what could have happen?

corripio

Could be something sharp on the inside of the rim. I've had that happen to me before at work with an older bike (thought it was the hissing of the heating system at first). I cleaned out debris and put some new tape on some parts of the rim where the stripping had started to come off. This when I started not just carrying tubes with me when I bike, but also keeping some tubes/patches in my desk.

illadelphia esq

The tire deflated so suddenly and quickly that I don't think it was debris. And of course I came unprepared today, I have a new saddle which I could not fit the mount for my old bag on, and I was rushing this morning--barely even made the train.

I guess this is more of a vent / have you had this happen.

77midget

Has the tube ever been patched before? I had this happen only a couple weeks ago when a patch previously applied failed. It was sudden and complete failure.

illadelphia esq

It definitely has at least one patch and that would make a lot of sense. I have never experienced something like that before.

tjspiel

I had this happen before. High Pressure + Old Rim Tape. The tape gave out over a spoke nipple hole causing the tube to expand into it and tear itself on the edge.

UprightJoe

I recently went through all of my bikes and trued the wheels. While I was at it, I took the opportunity to test out my new frame pump and make sure it could really get up to 100 PSI as advertised. It got there but I really had to pump hard and exert myself past about 60-70PSI. In the process, I must have really been yanking the valve stem around.

About 2-3 hours after I finished I hear a crack like a gunshot followed by a long hiss. When I took the tube out, I found that the valve stem had torn near where it makes contact with the rim. I'm not sure why it took several hours to fail but it did. Nothing touched the bike. It was leaning up against a shelf in my basement and I was sitting about 10 feet away from it.

lil brown bat

This is what I thought, and +1 if the blowout happened after it had warmed up (hot air expands). Doesn't have to have anything to do with a patch, though -- a perfectly intact tube will blow this way if it's high pressure.

Longfemur

Anybody can make any speed if they pedal harder. It's a meaningless measure in this context.

bmclaughlin807

I've had the rim tape fail once allowing a blow out through a spoke hole, and a tire sidewall fail once allowing it to blow out through the sidewall... both times the bike was sitting with nobody/nothing near it... the component just chose that moment to give way.

gz_

Something similar happened to me recently and after checkout out the tire, I saw the sidewalls were pretty worn and in one area there was even a hole. So I'd check the tire as well as the rim.

ECDkeys

I haven't yet experienced the rim tape failure, knock on wood.

But I have experienced the worn sidewall blowout. I stopped for groceries, and when I got back to my bike, the tire was flat. At first I thought it was a prank played by mischievous kids, letting the air out. It was a really old tire with hardly any tread wear.

I've also experienced the pinch flat several times. Very annoying. Sometimes the tube doesn't blow for hours after you pump it up. You really have to be careful when seating the tire back on the rim.

pirate

This happened to me when I pumped up a tire and the bead wasn't seated properly. My bike was in the same room as my roommates playing foosball when the tube popped- it sounded like a shotgun blast. The look on their faces were priceless, but I felt like a dumb ass.

illadelphia esq

I think this was the closest because I had filled them up in a rush last night before heading across town and the tare was at a 90 degree angle near the valve stem. The weird thing is that it was almost 20 hours since I filled the air before the blow out. Just bizarre.

Fribley

I had that happen. Bought a project bike from '79. No idea if tube was original or not but the rim tape hole wasnt centered over the rim hole and it had to wiggle the stem through and pull probably alot harder then i should have to get it through after i cleaned the rim. Pumped it up to the reccomended 90 lbs and set it aside to work on some other parts of the bike. 2 hours later i went to pick up the tire to admire how well i cleaned up the rims and BAAAMMMM. The tube blew up in my hand, it blew the tire right off the rim and sent a pretty good blast of air in my face (i got lucky it was only air). The tube had about a 2.5 to 3 inch hole right near the valve stem.

HamGunner

Had my first experience like that this morning. I rode 15 miles yesterday and when I returned home, the tire seemed fine. This morning, the tire was flat. I pulled the rear wheel and found a 7 inch gash in the tube. I checked the rim tape and did not see anything sticking through it nor any debris in there that could have caused this damage. I'm still a little baffled as to why it blew. The tube was probably only 2 months old and had low mileage on it.

HG

Popeyecahn

Not just rim tape failure, but the incorrect size. I learned the hard way after having the LBS change this and at the same time putting on Gatorskins (finally got the hang of changing them...) and tubes. I had 4 or 5 flats and all of them were rim side. The tape was poorly placed and looked too thin to properly cover all the spoke holes. I got the proper size at a different shop and so far so good.

In the 2 months of riding again I'm having to learn and re-learn lots of maintenance stuff and then do it mostly all myself if I want it done right...

rednek426

I put new tires on my mountain bike once, but kept the couple-year-old tubes I had. The new tires were rated for higher pressure than the old ones, so of course I pumped them to the higher rating. The next day I rode to work, and didn't have a problem until I went to ride home, and the rear wheel was flat, and the valve stem was missing! I found it 15 feet in front of the bike.

I've also had a few tubes with sealant flat for no reason while sitting, and air back up fine and hold air fine for about a day then completely flat again while sitting.
One reason why I no longer run tubes with sealant. If I get a flat tire, I'd like to know about it, please.

seeker333

i've had 2 "glueless" patches fail spontaneously when i wasn't riding, once when it was in repair stand and i happened to witness it.

i quit using glueless patches.

Popeyecahn

Do not pump a tube with a glueless patch to anything close to normal operating pressure. I too had one fail on me before I put the wheel back on, I made the mistake of pumping it up to 90 or so psi.

They're a 'get you home' stop gap measure, try 'em at a lower psi and they should hold. I put 60-70 in a patched tube the other day and it held fine for 10 mi. When I pulled the tube to change it, I could see the patch wasn't gonna hold too much longer.