Tpgun101

My pump accepts CO2, but works as a pump......just a lot more work.

noglider 

I took a ride with @ascherer today. I started at my place and rode six miles to his. Then we went to Van Cortlandt Park in da Bronx and back. It was 32 miles for me and I guess about 20 for him. He got three flats! The first was on the rim side, not the tire side. We looked and couldn't find a cause. Changed the tube. Second flat, same location. I looked carefully and saw a tiny gap between edge of tape and edge of spoke hole. I moved the tape and advised wider tape. Changed the tube. We went less than a mile, and his tire was down again. We were around the corner from a shop, so he bought a new rim strip and a third tube. I suspect his problem is solved.

Wider rim tape is better than narrower rim tape, I guess.

jimmuller 

Indeed. If the rim tape can migrate then it won't do it's job, at least in my experience

Two nights ago I patched up the Motobecane's Vittoria sew-up. So after we returned from our tandem ride today I threw it back on the bike, pumped it up to 140psi (it held!), and rode it up and down the block. No bumps, noises (except squealing brakes), no odd sensations. So I'll consider it fixed (until it isn't). Let us give thanks for small victories and small Vittorias.

noglider 

I think your repair will hold for the long term. Congratulations.

Today, Andy's flats would not have happened on sewups.

ascherer 

Bloody annoying! As it was I was slowly melting - I have a lousy cooling system - but having to stop and change tubes was insult added to injury. Thanks to @noglider 's encyclopedic knowledge of bike shops around the city he knew that the last one happened literally around the corner from a shop.

Follies and foibles notwithstanding that was a good jaunt. Ride With GPS clocked me at 24 miles.

ascherer 

I knew I shouldn't have switched!

noglider 

I guess you were suffering a little more than I knew. I was still feeling cheery at the time. I recommend carrying two bottles at a time and drinking more rapidly.

ascherer 

Yeah I was pretty bad when I left the path, my vision was weird and I took another break before I got onto Riverside Drive. It would be great if drinking more helped. I've been managing this for over 30 years and in my experience the liquid intake doesn't add much a difference as I'm not sweating much in the first place. Generally I don't ride if it's 85F or above. This runs on my maternal side, my mom was like that and so is my daughter, who has a lot of her/my physiology. I'm going to chat my my doctor again next time I see her. She didn't make much of it before.

rhm

Rear tire on my folding bike was flat Saturday morning, must have got punctured on the commute home on Friday.

Finally got around to fixing it Sunday evening, and found the tube punctured right through the middle of an earlier patch. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but that patch has been on there since last August; though apparently I didn't mention it here at the time. Anyway, my spare tube doesn't fit very well, it's for a 1.75" tire but I have a 1.25" on there, so I just scuffed the patch like crazy and stuck another patch right on top of it. Then I thoroughly checked the tire for anything that might have caused that puncture. I checked that particular spot very carefully. Nothing.

Moments later, just as I was popping the last bit of the tire bead over the edge of the rim, I found a piece of wire in my hand. It had just come off the tire somewhere. I didn't see where. Pumped it up and went to bed.

Panaracer Minits Tough 20 x 1.25.

seedsbelize 

I've been there a time or two. One ride in particular--we knew we should have turned around, but pushed on. Going through the city, when stopped at a light, I had to put both feet on the ground, and stare at them in order to stay upright. When I got home, I had a great deal of trouble getting the key into the lock.

gerard2013

Is that low blood sugar?

noglider 

It could be. It's depletion of something or some things. On long rides, it can be hard to keep adequately fueled.

seedsbelize 

I find it's usually a salt deficiency. In hot weather I make it a point to eat salty foods frequently. That time though, who knows? About 10 km from the city, the air felt like hot rubber foam trying to force its way into my lungs.

jimmuller 

I picked up this extra hardware yesterday. Surprisingly it didn't go flat and I rode for another mile and a half.



Then it went flat.

Tpgun101

So, the tire gods got even with me yesterday. 20 miles into a 30 mile ride my wife's rear tire exploded. Sounded like a gun shot! I inspected the tire and found a inch long cut in the center of the tread. She must have hit a piece of glass or really sharp rock.

I patched the tire and replaced the tube, inflated the tire using a CO2 cartridge, thought the tire felt a little soft and added just a little more and blew up the tube! My wife looked at me and asked if I did that on purpose! Then...... Do we have another tube? Because it going to be a really long walk if you don't !

I did have one more tube, but it was for a my bike that has 35 mm tires and hers are only 25mm. I put it on and carefully inflated it, now worried about splitting her tire with the larger tube. We carefully finished the ride and celebrated with fresh made apple fritters and a local bakery.

upon inspection at the end of the ride, the cut in the tire had opened up to about 1/2 inch wide, so now I'm looking for new tires.

I would love a recommendation for a narrow tire with a little tread the is better in loose gravel then the normal road tire.

rhm

Lovely day here on Long Island! I rode east rather aimlessly, talking to people, taking pictures of birds and bad art, nearly got creamed by a car turning left... at Easthampton decided to turn left and had up to Sag Harbor. Got in the left lane, signaled a turn, saw a freshly broken bottle below me, and pft. It wasn't loud, but I knew the sound. Patched the tube in the shade of a windmill, pumped it up...rode a hundred yards and PFT. Louder this time. Tube blew through the gash in the tire. Patched it, put a dollar bill in the tire as a boot, pumped it up, got ready to ride, and heard an ominous creaking sound. Deflated the tire as fast as I could, and found I hadn't seated it right. Seated it right and pumped it up and Pfooo, my pump was no longer attached to the wheel. The little lockring on the valve stem was still there, but the rest if the valve was still in my pump.
I put in my replacement tube and pumped it up, got on the bike, and the rear tire was already flat again. Took the tube out and found it was punctured. Patched the hole...pumped up, it still wasn't holding... Patched a second hole in the new tube, right next to the first one, pumped up, making sure my $1 boot was still in place, rode on. I'd been patching tires for over two hours by this time. A mile or two down the road I heard a pt pt pt pt sound, stopped to inspect my $1 boot. It was fine. But the tire was close to failure at another spot, casing tearing away from the bead. I booted it with a Cliff Bar wrapper and rode on. By now I had no hope of reaching Sag Harbor, and little hope of reaching home, but I took a direct route toward home. In Southampton I pass a bike shop and (glory be!) It was open. Bought an overpriced tire, installed it, and no more problems. I don't know how to count that... I guess that's one flat, though.

Ed.

Sewups 2, clinchers 0. Stopped to help two people today. One was just finishing putting in a new tube, the other had called for his ride of shame.

Looked at the rear tire on my bike; it's getting a bit worn, has a fair number of small holes, but not a flat. Tire savers at work.

rhm

I keep hearing that. My responses are as follows:

1. Sewups.
-- what makes sewups so impervious to punctures, in comparison to clinchers?
-- how far from home are you willing to ride, with one spare tubular strapped to the underside of your saddle? It's a matter of confidence, trust, faith... and I just don't have it. No matter what happens with my clinchers, I have only once had a failure so complete that I had to call in support; and on that occasion the failure was a combination of rim strip, insufficient glue supply, and then my pump broke. I'm not making any excuses here... but it wasn't the tire that let me down.
-- people rave about the comfort of sewups, but I have yet to experience it. My TUFO tubular tires for clincher rims are distinctly not comfortable. I've ridden other sewups a bit, and the experience is the same. Bumpy. I didn't feel like my bike was properly attached to the road.
-- can you recommend an affordable 28mm sewup?

2. Tire Savers.
Tire savers wouldn't have helped me yesterday. I know they're a good thing, but there are times when they won't do a thing.

SJX426 

Flatted today on the way to work. Clincher. Wished I was using sew ups to decrease the time on the side of the road. Tiny sliver of metal in the center of the tread, rear tire. Heard a noise and noticed a slight bump as I was riding. Didn't loose air until I pulled the sliver out. Good thing I carry a spare tube and have a frame pump, Silca.

Flatted yesterday, only on the Jeep. About a 1/4" rod, part of an OEM car jack crank rod with the hinge, right in the middle of the tire, BFG AT's. Trashed the tie due to the side wall damage too. Second flat on a car in about 40 years.

Ed.

Attitude, paranoia, I don't know. It's all I've ridden (nearly) since 1968ish.

Back when I was young and dumb (1972) I rode from Montreal, thru Vermont, across NH, and down into Boston. One spare. Didn't use it Before that, 1968, I commuted daily from Westwood to Northeastern in Boston, on tubies, over the Summer. One spare, no flats.

I can't make a comparison, haven't ridden any sort of high pressure clincher since circa 1972. (Dawes Double Blue I rode for a bit)

Of course. Last year I had a flat, no spare, had to walk home. Rear tire had a 3/8" slash across it. I guess my attitude and paranoia needed an adjustment, and there was something lying in wait tougher than a gatorskin LOL. (ugly tires, for certain)

Sorry, not much help I'm afraid.

jimmuller 

I ride with two spares, one under the saddle and one in the handlebar bag. YMMV.

squirtdad

I risk the flat karma here......

Don't know about impervious tubulars....just started using tubulars so no huge miles

I am using tufos, with sealant, am carrying the extreme sealant and a spare tire....I hope that covers me for local rides. (and I have a teenager oncall for pickups) I did a long ride I would probably add another spare. On clinchers I carry a tube and patch kit (check the glue and replace on regular basis) and have had to use both....same reason I carry a pump not co2

I am using the tufo s33 in 24, compared to the clincher gatorskins I had been commuting on, i notice a really smooth ride and I really notice it on a section that has a wood planking much less bumpy...again low mileage so far, but I do feel a difference

when I look at the 24 tufo it seems to be closer in size to the 28 clinchers on my commtter than the 25s on my miyata, Got the setup (3 tires, 3 rimtape, selant and extreeme sealant from Ribble for $124 or so shipped

don't have tiresavers....but check the tire out and found a piece of glass that they would have knocke

nlerner

RHM's tale of woe reminds me of my much minor tale of flat woe from last weekend. This was during my nighttime 200K plus ride (left at 5:30 p.m., arrived at 5:30 a.m. next day). Not long before our midnight stop and just after pulling out from a rest stop and water bottle refill, my rear tire was flat. I was kinda bummed as I have had only one other flat all season long (ran over a big tack), and that's after lots of miles. Pulled out the spare tube and installed, pumped it up, but in the process of unscrewing my pump from the valve stem, I managed to unscrew the valve core. Tried pumping again, but something was amiss (and i had two riding friends taking turns to pump up this tube). Install the second spare tube and pump it up with my friend's pump, which doesn't screw onto the stem. Get going, only to find that the rear tire has lost most of its air. We figured another try at pumping, but first tightening the removable valve core down with a wrench, was called for. I put as much air in as seemed safe, and we were on our way. Fortunately, that tube held the rest of the ride. When I checked my tire pressure upon arriving home, I saw that I had 25 psi in that rear tire (it's a 650B x 38mm tire, but that's still pretty low, and I rode about 100 miles at that pressure!). I also discovered that the valve core on the first replacement tube was broken in half. Good times!

jimmuller 

Wow. I rode the Masi on my commute today, Waltham to Woburn. It has Veloflex sew-ups. I did not get a flat.

noglider 

Bad times, @nlerner and especially you, @rhm. This summer has been good to me. I don't think I've gotten a flat this year.

My experience with tubulars long ago was that they were not particularly impervious to punctures. I gave them up for several reasons, some of them the same as @rhm's. Sometimes I carried two spares, which made me safe as estimated in a statistical way, but it didn't keep me safe from incidents that would be called outliers.

I have learned through recent experience not to skimp on rim tape. I'm back to using Velox. I even keep spares at home.

My main commuter bike has Vittoria Voyager Hypers on it. They have a state of the art puncture protection thingy. Normally, I don't spend extra on that stuff because I object to the expense and it usually interferes with ride quality. But this is a breakthrough, and these tires were highly recommended. Sure enough, they ride as if they are lighter than they really are, and I expect the protection really works. Of course, proving this is nearly impossible, which is also the case with tire savers.