Yaay!

Now, anyone try loading a TUBE with Stans or similar sealant?

I have challenged flat tire Karma..... just put a pair of Michelin pro4 service course on.... way nicer ride than the michelin Lithion2 i had on.

I really like the Michelin Pro 4 Service Course. Seems its discontinued :-(

I've got Michelin Pro4 Endurance tires on 2 bikes. Far better than the Gatorskins I used to have. The Michelin site shows 3 bike tires currently: Power Competition, Power Endurance and Power All-Season.

On the subject of flats . . .

Riding the Pro Tour with Paselas, coming down a hill at about 35 MPH and hit a sneaky, sneaky pothole at the bottom of the hill. It was one of those ones that's eroded in a downward cone shape and not immediately visible. Had to pass a car in the right turning lane and hit the pothole, which was right between the lanes. Snake bite holes, front and back. Good thing I carry a tube and a patch kit. Luckily, I didn't go down and slide into the intersection at the bottom of the hill.

I've been using my ti motobecane with vittoria Eva corsa 28s pumped to 90lbs with no issues through the spring splough.
last weekend took out my miele with gravelkings 23s at 100lbs and ran over some coiled steel strapping in the middle of a bike path that ruptured the sidewall. The following day I took out my vitus with Michelin pro 3s 23s at 100lbs and again a flat...Monday I took out the corsas again...no issues, except for a thunderstorm. Oh well..:-)

Noop. Not yet.

Not long after I fixed that PFN10's tire I had occasion to test it out gain. I had put some in all my sewups as a backup, or more accurately as a frontup, with spare tires carried as backup. Then I had a tire event on the Masi as I was nearing home. Stan wasn't so helpful, wouldn't seal the tire though I did manage to limp home with several re-pumps. Later I put more Stan's in, rotated the tires so the hole was on the bottom where the fluid would congregate, pumped it again, watched a small puddle of white fluid form on the ground. (We are not amused.) At least it sealed but then opened up when I rubbed my hand over the hole. Okay, let it sit, tried again and waited.

Overnight it seemed to have held most of its air, so I took the bike out for a spin today. Half a mile later it had gone soft. So I swapped it out for a backup spare, finished my ride with no further tire event. However I think that tire might not wish to be saved.

I did discover one irritating feature about using Stan's. If the tire has any pressure at all when you open the valve it can spew fluid out, especially if you open it while the valve is near the floor. It gums up the workings of the pump head and the valve stem, and creates a minor mess too. Pfooey on that. Something to be careful of.

so let's see ...
Sunday, after a long day of physical work, on my feet, sweating my arse off ...
came home & decided because of the noisy freehub, to swap tires so I could use a better bike the next morning, but then realized I had to put them back where they were
unmounted 4 tires
remounted 2 tires
discovered a problem (the 45mm Riddlers don't fit on the back of the Trek FX 7.0 Alpha even tho I was able to squeeze them on the '91 Schwinn CrissCross a cpl yrs ago)
unmounted 2 tires
remounted 2 tires
in the morning had a low tube
unmounted 1 tire
remounted 1 tire
then I went for a 3.5 hr bike ride! (& when I was done, the rear was low-flat, probably due to running the rear too low on soft ground, it's happened before)
still have 1 bike with no tires mounted (& haven't swapped that rear tube again yet, ugh
:troll: :troll: :troll: :roflmao2:

On a ride a couple of weeks ago, experienced a flat. Replaced the tube but didn't check installation. Blew out while charging with a CO2. I don't carry a pump for many rides but do carry two bottles. It was too hot or should I say too humid and I didn't have a patch kit. Called the wife.

Got it home and replaced the tube. Then I noticed that the rim was not true and the runout was demonstrating a "flat spot." Decided to fix it. Ended up unlacing, bending rim, both lateral and radial. laced it up.

Most of my flats in this thread are related to this rim. Waaaay too many flats. I decided last year to try out the Velo Plugs. This rim had three layers of rim tape on it the first time I got a flat. All of them were removed and the Velo Plugs install. They come in two sizes and I purchased the small ones (red), mistake, too small. The were held in place with velox rim tape until this flat.
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1890/...f0ce8318_b.jpg
P1010559, on Flickr

Since I had to remove the tape and plugs, I installed the yellow version as replacements without any tape. The problem presented was that the spoke reinforcement cups in the rim were a bit rusty and made installation a bit challenging. I used a large flat punch with a small hammer to seat them. One fractured but did not come apart. Put it all together, pumped it up for the next ride.

Last week, another flat. Very slow. noticed that it felt slippery when passing a ped. Bounced on the saddle gently and felt the rim (very low pressure). This is about 4 miles into the ride after pumping to 120. Replaced the tube, used the CO2 and finished a 24 mile ride with no problems.

At home, pumped up the failed tube and found a hole in the inside of the tube. Had a lot of those as captured here. Decided not to take the risk and pulled the new tube out. The fractured plug had fractured into 3 pieces from the stress and strains of riding. Replaced it and now all is fine. Patched the failed tube and put it pack in with the good one for the spare.

How do I like the Velo Plugs? Well I am moving to tubulars and not enough miles yet to say definitively. They stay on the rim like rim tape but don't move around like tape can. Impact on tire mounting is about the same.

Hmm, rim plugs? I dunno'. I've never had rim tape fracture or even move, except the one time I tried 10mm tape when I should have stuck with 16mm. I didn't know what size to get.

Last weekend we found an earring.

http://www.theworld.com/~muller/pics...18/Earring.jpg

Unfortunately we found it in the tread of the tandem's rear tire.

http://www.theworld.com/~muller/pics.../FlatFixin.jpg

Fortunately the hole was easy to find, easy to patch without pulling the wheel off. When we are riding through civilization I refuse to carry the 19mm wrench needed to pull the axle nuts.

I tend to re-use rim tape and it doesn't always stay where it should with more tack. Since I was getting flats on the inside of the tube (rims side)….I know there are only two sides of a tube, inside and outside..... I thought I would try an alternative approach. I am also aware that audio records only have two grooves.

Last week I found a really nice pump beside the road. I was carrying a cheap Walmart pump so I took it off to use the found one but the mount didn't work. Ordered up a mount. Meanwhile my last two rides were on the gravel bike.
Today I grab the road bike for a ride. About five miles out I notice, no pump. I haven't had a flat all summer. A couple of miles later, flat. I was about two mile from a bike shop so I just walked it there, changed tubes, and got some air.
What are the odds?

Yesterday evening before I ride home from the station I noticed my rear tire was a little squishy, so I pumped it up to 25 psi or so. Several hours after getting home, I noticed it had gone completely flat. Doh! Well, better at home than on the road.

I needed a sink full of water to find the tiny puncture, which I patched, and I then examined the tire itself until I found a tiny piece of debris poked through it. It vanished when I popped it out with the point of a knife, so I don't know what it was. I booted it with tyvek for good measure.

I took the opportunity to apply dish soap to the beads and get the tire seated just right when I pumped it up.

Compass Rat Trap Pass tire, somewhere over 1000 miles on it. I think this was its first puncture.

My favorite flats always happen at home! 😊

Don't worry about it. I'll find it soon enough and let you know what it is.

I had another flat in the rear sewup on my PFN10 during this morning's commute. Don't know what it was, just heard the pfft...pfft...pfft. Stopped, looked for it, heard the noise stop, which is to say I heard what I didn't hear. The tire seemed to have stopped losing pressure with maybe 40 to 50psi still captive. I pumped it up, still heard what I didn't hear, rode the rest of the way to work. Good job, Stan!

I got two flats on a century ride in Maine last Saturday. I was patching the tube and the SAG wagon stopped and gave me another tube instead. Pumped it up and off I went. By the time I got to the second pit stop, my tire was low. Turns out the Presta valve was cracked around some of the threads and slowly leaking. Luckily for me, that pit stop was at the Kennebunkport Bicycle company. They put another tube in for me and I was good from there. Long day, but I finished the ride.

You swapped out the tube for the one they gave you? You should have swapped out the valve too and be done with it.:D

Ha! I wish they had given me a tube that had a good valve.
My tube got punctured and the tube from the SAG had the bad valve. Wonder what the odds are of that happening? Third tube came from the bike shop.

Wow, I'm seeing some really good testimonials for Stan's sealant. Maybe I'll try it.

I've been out and about on my commuter bike ('94 Bridgestone RB-T) quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, including long errand-related rides, commutes, and multimodal transportation (bike to train to bike; see below). When I went to ride home from work a couple of days ago, I felt that the rear tire pressure was quite low just as I started up. It wasn't completely flat, so I pumped it up and made it home without much loss. By the next day (yesterday), it was completely flat. I'll investigate this weekend, but that's my first flat in quite a long time (and first on those tires, I believe, Soma Vitesse).

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1899/...6e71e392_c.jpg

I have a general distaste for flats, because they interrupt my ride. But they don't take all that long to fix. Hate is a strong word.

The only thing better than having a flat out on the road is having one in your garage. Three times in the last two weeks, I've finished rides, got home with no issues, then found a flat on the bike, later in the garage. Today, I did a 34 mile ride, put the bike in the car, drove 1/2 hour home - flat rear. Last Sunday, did 10 miles on Saturday, put the bike in the car for next morning's ride. When I got the bike out next day - flat rear. Earlier that week, I did a short local ride, next morning hanging in my rack, flat front, no issues during the ride. The only good thing is that I can change them in the air conditioned comfort of home, with floor pump, tools, etc. at hand. These were on three different bikes.

That's what this thread is all about! If you read it all ( not recommended) you'll see that most of us have a run of bad luck now and then.