I've been good for a month or so, but got a flat about 200 yards away from the train station that takes me to school. No worries, I've got a full sized hand pump and an extra tube! So I replaced the tube later in the day right before biking home.

3 miles from home I almost fall off my bike while going down a slight, curvy incline due to my front tire being dangerously low...a small thorn puncture that I guess slowly leaked air on the way home.

Not a fun commuting day! I can't wait for my pasela protite tire to arrive for my 80s mtb because commuting on conti grand prixs in the southwest in fall is a recipe for frustration.

Spare tube, full-size frame pump, and patch kit. Essential commuting items. I tend to look at my tires fairly often because I just know that a shard of glass is going to ambush me eventually.

On our CCRT ride this Saturday I rode on fairly new tubulars. The next day I discovered that one slowly goes flat. That may even have been its first ride. Pinhole leak? Latex tube leaking air even faster than usual? I dunno'.

[MENTION=190941]jimmuller[/MENTION], how is that tire now?

I do carry two patch kits with me (glue and stick-on versions), but it was just incredibly annoying for it to happen twice on the same ride.

I just patched two flats on two different bikes. Fortunately, both last air after I rode them (i.e., overnight or over a couple of days in my basement). The first was the front tire on my RB-T. I noticed it was flat the other day, pumped it up to pressure, but it went completely flat again overnight. I couldn't find the culprit in the tire, and the hole in the tube was quite tiny. The other was the rear tire on my Lemond Buenos Aires. This one has been losing air for several weeks now, but I've been just pumping it up and riding. After patching the RB-T tube, I figured I might as well have at the Lemond. Well, the culprit on this one was a small wire sticking through the tire tread, and the hole in the tube was much larger than the one on the RB-T--yet it lost air much more slowly. Maybe a difference in overall pressure? Odd.

Flat. Was flat this morning. I need to test it again though.

One advantage of the wife having horses is that there are 100 gallon water troughs around. Always ready for inner tube testing, even in winter as we keep the tank heaters going to keep them from icing up. Of course all that horse poop is nice too.......

I found at least one chronic slow leak being caused by an insufficiently tightened "removable" valve stem.

On yesterday's "Fall Classic" brevet with the Eastern Pennsylvania Randonneurs I had a suspicion my front tire was low on air, and tried to remember to put air into it, but forgot whenever we stopped.

i finally remembered, and pumped it up. Much better handing after that! But after the ride I noticed the tire was squishy again....

Today it was almost flat. Took the tire off, pumped up the tube and held it under water, and sure enough there was a puncture. I patched it and find a thorn or something stuck through the tread of the tire, imperceptible outside, just a tiny sharp point inside. I removed it and glued a piece of Tyvek inside the tire just in case.

Pacenti Pari-moto 650x38b.

I carry a patch kit and a spare tube as a way to ward off flats. It doesn't work very well. We took that tandem out today, didn't have any flat. But in moving bikes around yesterday I discovered a flat on the Tommasini which has been sitting quietly in the garage. I also checked on that sew-up on the PFN-10. I had tighten the removable valve core and pumped it up. I hadn't gone flat, but did lose some air as expected with a latex tube. So maybe that doesn't quite count as a flat.

My wife went out with her girlfriend to a concert last night. We were going to ride the Tour De Bronx today (which we did end up doing). She asked me to change the pedals on her bike and move the saddle forward a bit. I got the bike out of the basement and found her front tire flat. The rip in the tube was on the rim side, probably from using a too-narrow tube. My bike crap is a mess, so I couldn't find my home patch kit and didn't want to use my on-the-bike patch kit. I was able to find one spare tube, but it was made for 25mm tires, and she has 37mm tires. So I was making the problem even more likely to recur. But we rode the ride, and no problem so far. I hope I remember to change her tube(s) before too long.

I changed her pedals. I forgot to move her saddle forward, but I was able to do that on the subway we took on the way to the ride's start point. The pedals came from the box o' crap, so that's good news. She was amused, as she enjoys my stories of the box o' crap.

Well, 2 out of 3 on the wife's bike repairs is not too bad. I have the attention span of a fly and usually only get done 1 of the 3 requests before I move on to something else.

I got my first flat yesterday, I really like these Schwalabe Marathons for flat protection. I had stopped to help a lady with a flat on her recumbent( ironically also Schwalabe Marathons but 20")and as soon as I rode off I noticed my front tire low. Pumped it up hoping to get home and only made it another 2 miles before I had to re-inflate. That was enough to get me home, I hate changing flats on the side of the road.

I was on a lovely ride today, the second day of a tour of southeast Massachusetts. We were heading out of New Bedford, going southwest through Dartmouth and then Westport, overlooking Buzzard's Bay, when this object imbedded itself in my rear tire/tube:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4507/...b7e0a613_c.jpg

Upon extraction once I was back home this evening, I discovered it well fit the nautical area through which we were riding:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4508/...4145b9c2_c.jpg

My front tire was also losing air, and I needed to pump it up a couple of times with five miles to go, but I made it home without changing it out. I'll wait until tomorrow to see what sort of object caused that one. It was my first double-flat day in a very long time.

Scrolling thru the recent posts... Thorns... My front tire fell victim today, slow leak.
Found it fortunately with just a wee bit of air, it has been so long since I punctured that I need a new tube of adhesive.
Tomorrow a trip for that and decide on a stitch pattern to resew the tire closed.

I don't know if this counts... but I pumped up the tires on my Armstrong the other day, and blew out a tube. Reason: wrong size tube. Sometimes you have to use the wrong size tube, but it's often not a good idea. I replaced the tube, and that went flat almost immediately, defective tube.

Ooh, that reminds me I ought to change my wife's tubes. I put narrow tubes in her wide tires, and it's just a matter of time before they fail.

I haven't had a flat tire in recent memory.

Now that I've read the updates to this thread, and posted here... I'll probably have three this week.

I don't remember so much anymore either.

I know, man. Who doesn't love horse poop? :P

Rear tire went flat right in the darkest part of my ride home tonight. I pumped it up and rode fast but it went flat so quickly that I gave up and walked the quarter mile to the nearest bright lights of civilization. Quickly found the hole and patched it, didn't even bother taking the wheel off the bike.
I had some doubt about the patch... the plastic foil peeled off it a little too easily. But it held and even now, almost three hours later, it seems to be holding.

I've never patched a tube while leaving the wheel on the bike. I know it makes sense to do sometimes, and that sounds like a perfect example. I suppose if I had a Dutch bike, it would be the preferred method, because removing the rear wheel is very involved.

Yes, well, I usually remove the wheel too, but on the rear of the tandem that's not so easy. I refuse to carry a 19mm wrench for the axle nuts! We've had one rear flat, a slow leak that appeared about a mile into a planned day ride. I pulled the tire partway off the rim and the tube partway out of the tire with the wheel on the bike. Otherwise we'd have walked home.

I just purchased some Gatorskins for my Ebisu which gets the most winter miles and all of the rain rides. The Compass tires are so plush, however in the rain every piece of glass or road debris seems to stick to them. i've had great luck with my Schwalbe Marathon's on the Rivendell, however not much wet weather rides...really hope the gators live up to their reputation.

You live dangerously, [MENTION=190941]jimmuller[/MENTION]. I would never go out without the ability to remove a wheel. When I ride my fixie, I carry a fixed wrench. Our tandem has QR skewers.

Ya' think? I figure if I really had to remove a wheel the chances of finding a place to lend me a tool or two is pretty good around here. It's a pain to remove the axle nuts and the drum brake cable and the brake anti-rotation arm. But in maybe 8000 miles we've had only three flats on the tandem, one a slow leak that was never a problem.:innocent: