DanBraden

A friend of mine came into a spot of good fortune on fathers day when his great kids chipped in to buy him some manner of road bike. Since I'm the only one he knows who even has a bike, he's been asking me for advice. Most of my advice is coming from long distance and consists of me walking him through some pretty basic stuff over the phone. For instance, his bike is equipped with presta valves, which are completely foreign to him. I told him to go out and get a decent pump and some adapters for those valves and take that puppy for a spin. I call him later to see how the inflating is going, and he tells me he inflated the tires to 6.5 psi and went on his maiden voyage...
"You inflated your tires to 6.5 psi, and you went for a ride?!?" I ask (and to think I told him to buy a hand pump to avoid over inflating by and electric one!!!).
Sure enough, he inflated the damn things to 1/10 their required pressure and rode for as long as his tired little legs could take him. Obviously he misread the tire, and not having any experience with bikes, thought nothing of his obvious under inflation even while riding.
"Now the rear wheel won't hold air", he tells me. This sort of thing has never happened to me before and even if it did I'd lie and say it happened to someone else, so my questions are:
What sort of damage is likely to have occurred?
I'm sure he'll need a new tube, but would this sort of abuse bend the rims out of true, or cause burrs on the rims edge?
How likely is it he'll need a new tire as well?

Thanks in advance for the sage advice, and when you spit whatever you're drinking all over the monitor at the image of some old guy riding around on flat tires feeling like he's the cock of the walk, and thinking "boy, this biking business sure is harder to do than I thought" remember that's my dad, so umm.. shut up...

AEO

6.5psi? sure it wasn't bars?
that's about 95psi.

DanBraden

positive, it was 6.5 psi.

prathmann

No guarantees, but I've ridden a few miles on a flat and there was no damage to either the rim or tire. The tube needed to be patched - but it obviously needed that before as well. How far did he ride, and about how much does he weigh?

DanBraden

160ish, I'm not sure how far he made it. Couldn't have gone too far, who could?

Panthers007

Give your friend the links to websites such as Park Tool repair, The BicycleTutor, and - of course - Sheldon "Our Lord and a Good Writer" Brown. Unless your a Master of speaking in ways that can paint visual-images, this will help him comprehend what and how to work on his bicycle and start enjoying it. Through Good & Evil.

I'll get you two started:

Park Tool repair:

https://www.parktool.com/repair/

The Bicycle Tutor (Alex Ramon - a member here):

https://bicycletutor.com/

And good ol' Sheldon:

https://sheldonbrown.com/harris/#articles

Your friend will think you're a genius! Unplug the phone for awhile.

DanBraden

hah hah, thanks man, great compilation, I'll send it over to him.

EDIT:: Don't know why I didn't think of that sooner.

Joshua A.C. New

If the tires won't hold air, he probably has a pinch flat, but it might be that he just can't get the pump valve on when they're that flat. If he presses the valve into place by squishing the tire into the rim, he should be able to get the valve on all the way.

Boy, is he going to be happy when he gets those tires up to pressure. The 7.5 is a cool bike.

FlatMaster

I've ridden a flat before. The tire flattens and protects the rim. When I did it, the tire survived.