Originally Posted by
DiabloScott
True blowouts like you describe are hardly ever the fault of a tube - it's the tire or the mounting of the tire, too much braking on a hot downhill, or once in a while the rim. A bad tube will just go flat without an explosion.
+1 Blowouts are are rare unless there is a mounting error. I have only had 2 in over 40 years of riding and they were my fault; too much tire pressure and the tire popped off the rim, and a "heat related injury".
Originally posted by crazyb
Could have been heat. Hear them explode all the time in the pass thru towns on Ragbrai. Inflate a tire to maximum pressure, ride twenty miles on hot asphalt, sit down and wait for bang.
When I was racing, we went up to Seattle for a race on one of the nearby islands. We arrived early the night before, so I thought I'd get my bike ready, including pumping up my tires. My sew-up tires used 120 psi for best results. I pumped up my tires and wheeled my bike into the motel room and leaned it against the wall, fairly close to the heater. About midnight there was a loud explosion as my front tire reached the bursting point.
While the other guys enjoyed an early breakfast on the ferry ride over to the island, I was down on the car deck(in February) patching my only spare tubular tire. It all worked out.
