tire sizes
 

bike specs: early to mid 80s maruishi 202 road ace with stoke components (sorry, cannot remember the brands but they were not cheapo huffy stuff)

i did some googling and some searching here on the forum because i had a weird incident happen while on my first ride with my road bike. i had a "blow out" on the highway yesterday topped out at speed. the weird thing is that it didn't "blow out" but more "wooosh" out. it made a very loud wooossshhhhhh and took about 40 seconds to airdown. it was extremely odd.

anyways, i came home from work today and went out to the garage and took a picture of my tire size because i had never heard of it or even knew where to look but it says 32-630 (27x1 1/4). anyways, i put some of that green slime stuff in because i wanted to see where i have a leak and see how i had such an odd sounding leak because i had never heard such a weird leak. i filled the inner tube and picked up the back end of hte bike a bit and spun the wheel looking for green junk coming out but i could find nothing. the tire was staying solid and not leaking. i set the back down and started adding a bit of air to the front as it felt kind of soft and suddenly the rear tire exploded and covered me and my two bikes with green slime.

i cannot believe this sucker just blew up next to me and i am covered with crap.

i check out the back again and the tire has come off the rim and the inner tube must've blown out at that point, i don;t know. all i do know is there was green slime coming out from under the tire along a section about 6" long on one side of the tire/rim and everything on the drive side of the bike was slimed. oddly, i was not on the drive side but i was slimed too. i took everything out of the garage that got slimed and wash it all off in front of the garage and rinse the floor too.

i went to the store and found two tube sizes that seem like they are the same, 700xsomething and the one is on the side of the tire. so i grab the one thats on the tire but am wondering can i use that other size tube if this odd size ever become hard to find. my googling says no, they are not interchangeable so i am worried that i might be stuck some day.

can i use a non slick tire also? like is it ok to put a tire that has a little grip on it on the rim? these tires are like racing slicks and i feel like if i run over a small sharp rock i am going to blow out my tire. i ride on the causeway to padre island and going out (into the 30 mph wind) there is a lot of debris on the side of the road. coming back can only be done by riding in the break down lane on the highway. the lane is 15 feet wide and i have never once worried about being clipped by anyone because i have plenty of room and ride by the wall but the whole break down lane is full of debris also, pieces of glass, etc. it makes me really anxious to be doing my rides and seeing those little things and i am subconsciously trying to avoid every little thing on the road because i have to force myself to ride straight. i feel like a smooth treaded tire will have a bit more protection then that smooth high speed tire. my other bike is a specialized expedition sport and has oddly treaded tires that are not knobby like a mountain bike but still have ridges and stuff to give you a bit of protection.

give me your thoughts on the tires and everything. i really like the road bike and want to run that instead of the hybrid on the super long rides but i don't want to keep having tube issues either as that will definitely ruin the fun of riding.

Your bike has perfectly ordinary 27 x 1 1/4" tires. People have ridden tires like yours for thousands of miles on all sorts of surfaces without problems.

Your tire exploded because it was not seated properly or because a piece of the inner tube had gotten trapped between the tire and the rim. Please read up on correct installation of bicycle tires, and give special attention to proper seating and adding air.

I'm not going to give you my thoughts on "everything" because, well, that's a lot.

Wondering what stoke components are.

630x32 and 27x1 1/4 are two ways of specifying the same size. 27" wheels were the norm in the 80's. Most/many tubes for 700c tires will work with 27" tires. They will be labeled for both, most likely. They might say 630, also.

Taking off the tire and tube after the first puncture and looking for the problem would have been a lot less messy than fooling around with green slime.

Tread doesn't prevent punctures. 'Slick' tires are fine for paved roads and many other surfaces. A lighter flimsier tire, however, will be less durable than a beefier, heavier tire. A compromise is a light tire with a kevlar belt under the tread.

SuperJ you sound more like SuperDave. That was one funny story, as SuperDave usually amused me. Although the 27" tires were used from around the 50's through the 70's, except for some touring bikes, it is a solid and sturdy design. I wouldn't think anything less of it compared to the 700c tires.

Are your rims hook bead or straight wall?
What pressure did you pump them to?
IF you don't know, the GREEN SLIME is just KARMA returning the favor.

http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/tires/630.html
http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/rims/630.html

Tubes are just air bladders, and will expand until stopped by the tire. They're usually labeled to cover more than one wheel/tire size. A slightly smaller-than-specified tube is easier to install than one that's slightly bigger. Plenty of room for rideable improvisations here, if circumstances calls for it. 700C(622 mm ETRTO) vs 27" (630 mm ETRTO) is perfectly fine, just watch out for the width a little.
Tires are another matter. A 27" tire won't stay seated on a 700C rim, and a 700C tire won't mount properly(if you get it on at all) on a 27" rim.

(although you can use a 700C solid AKA airless AKA airfree tire on a 27" rim, if the width is right. Mounting it is a beast though.)

Well, that's a novel way of searching for a flat, I'll give you that.

Sure. Slicks are ideal for hard, smooth surfaces, but treads do better on pretty much everything else.

Grip in this case referring to traction against the road? See above.

Yes/No/Maybe.The things that'll decide how puncture resistant a tire is are basically the thickness of the material where tire meets road, rubber quality and to some degree thread count/thread strength.(you know there's a textile structure encased in the rubber, right?)
So a lightweight tire like the Hutchinson Top Slick has a very thin casing and will suffer penetrating flats rather easily.
A mid-range, commuter friendly tire like Continental Sport Contact will have almost three times the thickness(when new) and be a lot more flat resistant despite being pretty much equally slick.
A knobbly/ridged, light-weight tire will have a really thin casing between the knobs/ridges, so flat resistance will be hit & miss.

Again, puncture resistance is mainly dependent on the distance the tire can provide between something sharp and the tube, so smooth & thick can/will do just as well as a threaded of the same thickness.

I dunno 'bout that. If your tube was penetrated or split a little, that's about what I'd expect for a certain hole size. As long as the tire remains intact, it'll act as a flow limiter preventing the instantaneous venting of the tube.

That, however, is a bit odd. Flats usually don't repair themselves. But I have had leaks by the valve stem that wouldn't make themselves known outside certain conditions.

Did the tire burst or just come off? I've shredded a tire due to overinflation, and I've had a bead fail on me while JRA. But that's pretty much it.
I've heard that having the tube pinched underneath the bead may cause the tube to burst, but that'll usually heave the tire intact.

Make sure to check if the rims are hooked or not, as unhooked rims can hold a lot less pressure.

I am not sure on the rim type. I read the link at the top and it actually took up my hour of free time because it took me to so many other spots to read about tires and rims but I have not been able to see what rim type I have. They are araya rims from the 80s bit that probably is of no help.I bet the tube was pinched under the tire and that caused the trouble and the valve stem was cocked enough that I suspected it might be sliced a little when I looked yesterday but I couldn't get it to release air when I was wiggling it. I will pull the rim today or tomorrow and find out though and let y'all know.

sorry for any misspellings or weirdly written stuff guys, i am on an iphone and am not a great typist on that touch screen.

the tire didn't burst, the tube burst and blew the tire off the side of the rim. with what i have learned following links and form you guys, i believe the tires might not be good quality and probably weren't seating on the rim well to begin with and that might have led to everything else that happened up to this point.

^that makes the most sense, even though the outcome was humorous! Imagine, getting splattered with green slime! It appears that even the rims are suspect though. I've rarely had issues with used tires on hooked bead rims. i.e. I'd look carefully at the wheel and make sure the hooking mechanism has enough integrity all the way around the rim.

You might want to look into these:

http://www.amazon.com/TIRES-PAN-PASE...acer+t+serv+27

http://www.amazon.com/Schwalbe-Bicyc...d_sim_sbs_sg_2

http://www.amazon.com/Continental-To...words=27x1-1+4

For the tubes, consider these (they can stretch on your 27" rim, which I have done sucesfully before):

http://www.amazon.com/Michelin-AirST...=butyl+airstop

These are more narrow, cheaper:

http://www.amazon.com/Kenda-Wall-90p...rds=27x1-1%2F8

Cool, thanks

I like the continentals and those tubes

ok, i have smooth inner areas on the rim with no ridge or anything to seat a tire bead into.

I had a similar wheel that I attempted twice to put tires on. Both tires blew off when the pressure was about 80psi. Of course, I don't think I can use the rim anymore. I really don't think rims like that are suitable for modern, >80psi tires.

It sounds like you have tubular tires/wheels. http://sheldonbrown.com/tires.html has good information on the subject. Basically, the tires have an internal inner tube and are glued onto the rim. This used to be more common, and now is mostly seen on high end racing wheels and cyclocross bikes.

Tubulars are probably more trouble than you want to deal with; maybe you can find someone who will trade you a clincher wheelset for your tubulars?

I disagree, it sounds more like a straight-edge rim for a standard clincher tyre. The OP got the tube out, which is rather unlikely to happen with a tubular...

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c8...s/IMG_0023.jpg

See, they are smooth

Appear to be steel rims, certainly still should be able to hold 75psi or so w/out a problem if tires are correctly mounted, BUT it looks like your rim strip is too wide, so that the left portion is sitting where the tire bead is supposed to sit. That could certainly lead to a blowout. You need to get a rim strip or rim tape that is narrow enough to fit in the valley between the two shoulders of the rim.

i will check that out.

i spoke to a guy at the local bike shop that has been riding for about 30 years and he said its very possible that when the tire was aired up, the person airing it up was pushing the valve stem out by pushing on the tire so that they could get the nozzle to seat and that maybe they pushed it out enough that it allowed the tube to get under the ends of the tire and it pushed the tire up enough that with centrifugal force pulling the tire outward, it pulled enough that the tire popped off the rim.

this sounds logical to me because when i put the new tube in the rim, the area around the valve stem keeps being pushed out of the rim and i couldn't get it to seat evenly around the rim. i thought it was just a cheap tire but it appears it could just be an improper way of airing the tube up. i will find out today because i am going to deflate both rims, check out that piece on the inside of hte rim, and then air the tires back up using a hand pump instead of my compressor.

1. Either you did not understand what he was saying or he is inaccurate. Pushing down on the tire will not make the tube go under the tire beads (not "ends of the tire") if the tire is initially mounted properly.

2. Centrifugal force has nothing to do with the tire seating or blowing off - no effect at all.

3. You need to push the valve up into the tire until the valve reinforcement is completely inside the tire, then press the tire down to the rim. Then you can pull the valve back out to its proper position.

4. You don't need to "check out" the rim strip (why use "piece inside the rim" when you have the right term available?). It needs to be replaced with a narrower rubber rim strip or good rim tape.

so rim strip or rim tape is the piece on the inside of hte rim that protects the inner tube from spoke nipples? or it is supposed to keep the inner tube from sliding around the rim and making your valve stem crooked? i never knew that piece was called rim tape or strip.

It's there to protect the tube from the spoke nipples, no effect on the valve stem. The valve stem gets crooked from riding on underinflated tires.

cool. thanks

i checked out rim tape and its good, it sits in the groove in the rim like that right side is showing, but on both sides.

i aired down the rims and tires and then pushed the stem back into the tire, through the rim and filled it slowly with my ball pump. the whole time i was filling i watched the tire and rim and rotating the assembly to make sure the tire seated properly. airing slowly and massaging the tire back into place when i noticed little spots coming out of the rim, i was able to air the tire up to 55psi without any bubbles or funny bulges so i think it was just not put on properly the first time and then when i put a new tube in, i didn;t put the tube in properly either. i didn't want to push it so much until i rode it a bit and let the tire sit on the rim for a while.

so, thanks guys, for all the links and sharing some information to help me get back on the road. today, i was able to shave a whole minute off my 8 mile time. i started off riding on my hybrid commuter and doing the route out to the island (head wind of roughly 30mph) and then back in 37 minutes. moving to this road bike and getting it straightened out fairly well has gotten me down to a 31 minute 8 mile time (with the 4 miles of 30mph head winds and 4 miles of tail wind). i am very happy about that. thank you.

Glad to hear you're back on the road, but I'm still a bit concerned. It's unlikely that a 27x1 1/4 tire would take 55lbs as proper inflation. You should inflate it to whatever is listed on the tire. If you are lighter you may be able to get away with a bit lower pressure, but you risk more flats and damage to your rims - not to mention having to work harder. Actually, 55lbs on the front may not a concern, but the rear shojuld be close to 70lbs.