My worst flat was my own fault. I bunny hopped railway tracks at the bottom of a hill on a fully loaded touring bike.

I didn't carry a tube, I broke out the patch kit.

It held for a while until I rode a ferry across, and came to the most isolated and desolate part of the whole tour.

I walked about 5 miles till I got to a general store (pre cell phones). I called my aunt who lived in the same town as my destination, about 30 miles away.

My recent issues have been with no glue patches, I recently threw them all away.

My personal savior would have said "it's a nice day for a walk"

On a recent ride, I got a flat on my racing bike along the bike path. No problem, I thought, and I proudly took out the tool kit I had so meticulously packed. I pried my tire off and took out the tube. I had a choice of replacing the tube or patching the punctured one. Then with my hands dirty, I realized I had forgotten my pump.

I was only about a mile and a half from home, so I walked it. I did bother to ask one roadie passing by if he had a pump, and he said no. I didn't want to spend much time asking when I could be walking. It was a nice walk anyway.

I had just picked up a nice bike I'd bought. It was old but complete and everything looked to be in good working order. It was a nice summer evening and I couldn't wait to try out the bike, so I added some air to the tires, strapped my repair kit with spare tubes beneath the saddle, mounted a frame pump and off I went.

About five miles from home the rear started feeling funny. I stopped, got off and sure enough, the tire had gone flat.

But it looked kind of funny too.

It was then that I realized I had been riding on tubulars for the first time in my life.

Were you carrying a spare?

First long ride I took on my tubulars I didn't get a flat, but wondered what would happen if I'd gotten two. Now I carry two.

One an unassisted century I did earlier in the summer I got a flat (on clinchers), stopped to fix it, had the tire nearly pumped up where I wanted it when the head of the pump flew off. Somewhere on a grassy island in Dunstable it lies lost forever. I had patches to fix another tube but no functional pump.

The good news is I've ridden the Masi to work with Veloflex Masters several times and they haven't flatted yet!

I was riding at a brisk clip when suddenly:

PFSSST!!!!CLICKETY-CLACKETY-CLANK-CLICK-CLACK-CLACK

I had run over a huge rusty three inch nail which somehow had completely pierced the rear tire of the Centurion and managed to do several revolutions through the narrow stays before I realized what was happening and was able to bring the bike to a halt. The amount of paint chips the nail removed from the chain stays and seat stays was remarkable.

on a related note ... i broke my first ever spoke recently...

it was on the rear, putting the wheel greatly out of true. i was only a mile from home, so i just walked it home. but here's the rub ...

the quick release side-pull would open just barely enough for the warped rim to make it through the calipers, allowing me to push it home. it rubbed, but made it through. but what if this wasn't the case? what if the rim was so warped, you couldn't push the bike home? what do you do then?

maybe see if moving the wheel in the drops would help? that would really suck if you had to lift up the rear and walk five miles home (or more).

Got one yesterday - first in a very long time. Only maybe 200 miles on the tire. Riding my usual route, which I'd ridden just the day before... A slice right across the tire, between 3/8" and 1/2" long, tire saver didn't help on that one! Probably curtains for that tire. This circular route keeps me pretty close to home, I've not bothered with a spare, so I had about a 15 minute walk, in cleats...

My wife got some of these tires for her go-fast bike. They're niiiice. But being so small, they need frequent inflation. She went out one day without inflating and got a pinch flat right away. Lesson learned, I hope. I wasn't around so she got it fixed at the LBS! After all I've taught her! :troll:

Two spare inner tubes, yes. :(
Walked the five miles back home. With my nice bike.

I got my first flat in three years it was a double flat I was riding at a good clip when I sunk into a pot hole about 1foot from the edge of the road about 1 inch and a half across and 8 inches long I had pumped up my tires before I left so they were good and hard but they were no match for that pot hole. I was 8 miles from home and I began to walk people were driving by when one person going the other way slowed a bit and then went on its way. a little later the person pulled up beside me and asked if I needed help. They offered to take me home and I said sure so I arrived home about the same time I would have if I were able to finish my ride.

+1. Guys, we really need to stop talking about flats. Last night, I was talking to my neighbor about my bike commute (while driving to an A's game :thumb: ). My office moved a few months ago, and my current commute is about 18 miles round-trip over urban, glass-strewn roads. I said, "It's a wonder I haven't gotten more flats," and instantly wished I could take the words back. I knocked on my skull for lack of wood. Today, when grabbing my bike for the commute home, and in a rush to get my daughter from summer camp, I noticed that I had been stricken by my first flat tire since my new commute started. Roughly 4 months and almost 1,500 commuting miles, and all it took was a slight mention about my luck for the bike gods to put me in my place.


Take the wheel, grab it several inches both sides of the warp, and apply some pressure with your knee. Not too much pressure, but it's easier than you'd think. Won't be precision true, but it will get you home. I learned/witnessed this technique from a former teammate who is now a mechanics for Team Cannondale.

^ @gaucho777, would you ride it like that? or is this tip just to push it home?

and is the rim then bent, and requires straightening (with knee?) before truing?

ditto, the raleigh gran sport im working has been giving me fits, i recently purchased new panaracer pasela 27x 1 1/8 tires, took a bit to put on the rims, i had a pair of 700c tubes to go with them, rear went on fine and inflated up to 100psi, the fron not so much,

took it off, and noticed it had a pinch flat... patched it.. another pinch flat, patched it again.. ANOTHER PINCH FLAT.. ok new tube.. put it on another pinch flat.. (see a theme here?) i had gotten so frustrated in patching tubes and taking that damn tire off.. so finally i patched the new tube again... finally got it on and inflated... next day... FLAT AGAIN!! five flats in the span fo 12 hours.. im thinking.. ok what have i done wrong? took the tire off again and inspected the tube.. another pinch... so now i went to the LBS and made sure to get a 27" tube, i checked over the rim and noticed a few burrs here and there that im sure was a culprit once or twice, file those down, also having a 700c tube probably didn't give me much room for error... grr.. so now i put on the 27" tube, get the tire back on .. and it inflates correctly.. get the wheel back on.. and of course.. i put the tire on the wrong way.. tread is going the wrong way!!! so of course i have to flip the tire.. at this point the tire is starting to stretch after so many dismountings .. thank god... after the tire was corrected its all good now..

Yes, I'd ride it. And yes to putting the knee to the rim before truing. It's better if you have a spoke wrench with you in order to adjust the surrounding spokes, but your knee can get you back on the road if you just need the wheel to clear the brakes/stays.

Undo the cable clamp on the brake-should give you enough clearance, means you need to have a toolkit with you. Ride home without using that brake (I speak from experience, bladed spoke broke, didn't have a bladed spoke wrench).

yeah, i would if i were riding cross country or if i feared breaking a spoke again was highly probable. i already feel i bring too much stuff with me.

my knee, though, i don't mind bringing along...

I should never have posted to this thread. But now that the damage is done, I am going to bump this thread every time I get a flat tire. I encourage the rest of you to do this as well, until it becomes a sticky, and maybe we can appease the flat tire gods in this manner.

My train leaves the station at 5:25 AM and it's a 15-20 minute ride. I left the house at 5:02 and discovered the rear tire* of my folding bike was flat. Totally. Flat. I pumped it up and raced to the station and was happy to find there was still air in the tire when I got on the train. There was still air in the tire when I got off the train 90 minutes later.

But a little while ago I found it flat again. Not totally flat, but close enough. Both tires are getting on towards bald, with a few thousand miles on the rear* and maybe six thousand miles on the front.** So I figured it's time to splurge. I had a pair of new tires*** and tubes stored away for just this purpose, so I installed them. Perhaps the flat tire gods will consider this an appropriate sacrifice in their honor. Odometer reading 8383 miles.


*rear tire: Schwalbe Marathon Plus 20 x 1.75
** front tire: Schwalbe Big Apple 20 x 2.0
***new tires: Panaracer Minits Tough 20 x 1.25 (32-406)

I call them "Michelin Wires". They come from steel-belted radials whose steel belts are disintegrating from either being run bald or being put on backwards after running forward for a while (the wires break and work themselves out of the car's tires and into ours).

I finally found out what those little metal strips about 1/8" wide and maybe a foot long are- street sweeper bristles! The more you see of those, the less you see of road debris!

Thank you for knowing the origin of those tiny wires that plague us. They are impossible to avoid. You truly live up to your title.

Now if I were to only pick up all the metal car tire balancing weights I see in the gutter I'd have a ton of scrap in a year.

My latest flat was on Saturday. On the eighth day of a tour through central and western New York State, which included countless descents at 35-40 mph, and occasionally faster, we stopped in the town of Schuylerville to snack on potato chips, hard boiled eggs, and a Twix bar. Not long after sitting down, BLAMMO and my rear tire was dead. This was a pasela col de la vie 650b with less than 750 miles on it, and it tore at the bead. Luckily I had a spare tire in my pannier!

Another one this morning. Out on a ride of maybe 30 miles, some good hills, some reason on the way home, and my front tire went flat a mile from home. The cause was a little thorn-shaped thing right through the center if the tread. Seemed to be stone, maybe steel. I patched it. Didn't have that little piece of abrasive you use to scuff up the butyl for the glue to stick so I found a little rock and used that. Classic caveman!

Panaracer Pasela Tourguard tire, 700 x 32c.

Yep. I got another this morning. Heading out on my usual route...looked down at my front tire and noticed the goatherd going round and round...pulled it and listened. Didn't hear anything, so I thought I got lucky. But just in case, changed my route and headed home. Got about a mile and a half from home...it was done. Called the sag wagon...and home again.

Oy, I'm slipping! Got a flat on the way to work on Friday. Tiny little pointy thing stuck in my Pasela Tourguard tire. I got it out first by poking it with a Phillips head driver from the inside of the tire, then yanked it out from the outside with a finger nail clipper. Alas, it fell to the ground and I couldn't find it to figure out what it was. Probably a thorn.

Patch applied and pumped it up and all was good.

I too got another today. Out on a nice ride...about 12 miles from home. Back tire goes flat. Pulled over in the shade...swapped out the tubes...on my way.

No biggie. Just another quirk of riding.
Just looked at my previous flat...it was also on the 13th....hmmm.

Have you tried adding a small bottle of this:

https://www.biketiresdirect.com/prod...ss4boc0ltw_wcb

If you are using a presta valved tube, unscrew the core with a 4mm wrench. Add fluid and re-install core. Inflate tire and spin around. In about 18 moths or so, you put a new tube in and repeat.

I went all year without a flat - even over new chip seal roads this year. Then a month ago I accidentally went off a curb in a parking lot and must have pinched the tube as it was flat 20 minutes later (Armadillo tire). The next week the tube was flat in the shop - found a small wire in the tire, almostmlike ampiece of brake or derailleur cable. Same tire was flat this morning so I swapped the tire to the front and put a newer one on the weight bearing back. We'll see

Got one yesterday. Drinking from a bottle of Gatorade on the D&R canal towpath, 100 miles into a ride that turned out to total 111, not paying attention, went over a rock that was just a little out of spec. Instant pinch flat. I patched it.

Grand Bois Cypres 700 x 32c.

Saturdand sundays are the worst, broken beer bottles of people drinking on their way to the bar everywhere. #justdutchthings

Got one yesterday. Heading east on a busy road as the sun was setting behind me and giving me a lot of glare in my mirror, so I couldn't really monitor the traffic approaching behind me, so I had to stick to the shoulder more than I like. Lots of broken glass. Front tire started feeling squishy, then flat. Pulled over, looked at the tire really close and found a chunk of glass in the tread. Popped it out and marked the spot, pulled the tire off, pulled that section of tube out, pumped up a little to confirm the location of the puncture, patched it, and was on my way. Never even had to take the wheel off the bike.

Panaracer Minits Tough 20 x 1.25