Originally Posted by Brandon_01
I love to ride on an off-road, usually trips of 1-3 miles at a time. I weigh 200 lbs and do not 'dog' my bikes out- I ride responsibly. BUT my back tires pop ALL THE TIME. This is a major nuisance so I'm looking to buy a nice bike that rides well, is comfortable, and has lowered chances of popping a back tire. If that means shocks, or some special tire types, I'm willing to pay a little more for a sturdier/hardier bicycle. Any help would be very appreciated. Thanks.
A better bike is always great, but I suspect you have a different problem.
From what you describe, I suspect that you have something pointy INSIDE the casing of your rear tire. It could be thorn that you picked up a while ago and never found. Carefully run your fingers along the inside of the tire casing. If there is anything "pointy" in there it has to be removed. It it breaks off, it needs to be sanded down.
Now, you describe your tires as "popping". Basically, they're exploding. Typically tubes do this when there is some area that allows them to "bulge" outside of the tire casing. At some point the bulge gets too much for the tube to handle. There is a couple different ways this can happen. One is that the tire is sitting outside of the tire bead. Under this situation the tube can sit relatively uninflated between the bead and rim wall. Than you may shift the bike "just so" and all the sudden it inflates, than the bead cuts it and BOOM.
If you're using tubes that have an uninflated volume larger than the tire casing, this is easy to do. Personally, I use downhill tube on 2.35" tires because they are really hard to flat. I have to VERY carefully stuff that tire and then make sure that there is no tube between the bead and the rim wall. A couple of weeks ago, I set a tube inflated, than as I was testing the wheel by pressing down on it the tube spontaneously popped out of the tire and the entire bead become un-seated.
I've saved the best for last. Do you have a rim-strip? If not, you need to put one one. Cloth is better. The rim strip prevents the tire from expanding into the spoke holes. Basically the tube forms blisters in the spoke wholes without tape. If the spoke heads sit above the nipples and you have not rim strip, the tube can effectively be "popped" by the spoke heads.