I have been commuting to work and everywhere on a Schwinn 5th Ave since the beginning of March.. Ive fallen in love with almost every aspect of it.. However im running into a problem with my back tire. Granted I have just used regular grade tubes.. but since March 1 I have now blown 6 back tire tubes.. Most of those are easily contributed to hardy thorns or glass ive picked up from the side of the road/patches of sand (I live in NW Florida).. But today after visiting the bike shop for a replacement tube I return home in a relatively good mood. Until I was walking past my living room where i keep the bike and heard a hissing sound.. walked toward the bike and realized that in the matter of about 5 seconds while sitting untouched by everything but the tile floor my back tire had lost all of its air.. it sounded like it came from the valve. Now I know that im due a new tire and had planned on buying a heavy duty set in a few days after i get paid to deter flats caused by road debris.. but it seems a bit odd that i would lose so much air pressure so quickly and while not doing anything 8 hours after the new tube had been put on.. Any idea what may have caused this/how to prevent it from happening again later down the road?

1. Since you have been having a frequency of punctures, my first thought would be that you have a thorn or a small piece of glass or a radial belt wire hiding in your tire where it can continue to puncture your brand new tubes. If you always line up the tire label with your valve stem, you can compare the puncture hole in the inner tube with a place on the tire. If the you keep puncturing in the same place - that's it.

2. What have you been using to inflate your tires? If you are using a frame pump that doesn't have a hose you have to be very careful to stabilize the pump head as you work or the repeated rocking will tear your inner tube at the base of the valve stem.

TBH i take it to the local bike shop and pay him to remove, replace, and inflate.. he pulled a piece of glass from the tire before putting the new tube on.. so i assume there was no debris inside the tire before he put it back on.. it literally sounded like a gas line had been opened up.. and the thing was just sitting there!

Since you've been having a frequency of punctures in the last couple of months, how can you be sure the piece of glass he found was the only one?

I personally went through the tire and picked out what i found.. he did the same.. inside and out and found one other. id say between 2 sets of eyes its pretty safe to say it was all out.. Besides if it were glass wouldnt it have gone flat sometime during the 6 mile trek home vs 3 1/2 hours later while sitting in my living room untouched?

I had an issue like this and turned out the rubber rim/spoke strip was bad causing my flats.

What caused your recent flat? Examine the tube to find out. Is the hole at the stem? Defect, damaged by pumping, or damaged by riding with too little air pressure. Is the puncture on the outside (tire side)? Probably punctured by a road hazard. Is the hole on the rim side? Rim strip or tape isn't protecting your tube from spoke heads & nipples (single wall rim) or spoke holes (double wall rim).

As for the number of flats you've gotten from road hazards... Sounds like you should consider investing in tires with a puncture-resistant belt made of Kevlar or similar fabrics. A few examples are the Panaracer Pasela PT, Panaracer T-Serv, Continental Gatorskin, Schwalbe Marathon, and Specialized Armadillo.

it's not unusual to experience a traumatic flat, hissing air and all, while a bike is parked, if that's the concern.