Chris92009

Interesting that you believe it not too high of pressure or too narrow of a tire...good words of encouragement! However, it must be that somehow I am getting pinch flats...I have put Forté Road Puncture Resistant Presta Tube 700c x 23-26 - Road Tubes these puncture resistant tire tubes in now...they are seriously beefy so hopefully they will help at the same time?

indyfabz

IME, a pinch flat does not leak slowly. My guess is that there is something stuck in your tire, such as a piece of wire or staple. They can be very dificult to find. I rarely get flats. Last year, I had back to back flats. Sure enough, I missed what appeared to be a tiny piece of staple when I changed the first flat. The cotton ball or bare finger method is good for detecting objects. Also try inverting the inside of the tire while feeling.

TrojanHorse

+1. Pinch flats are immediate and usually right after you whack a rock or something hard enough to deform your tire enough to hit the rim.

It's also possible that you're damaging your valve stem when you inflate your tire but finding the leaks will help you determine that.

I get flats in groups... usually pretty infrequent though. It seems like I'm more likely to get a flat after replacing a tube because I missed the cause or installed the tube wrong.

And definitely pay attention to what you're riding over!

nkfrench 

OP, I just want to check the basics -
When you say "slow leak", how long does it take to deflate? Is it a complete loss of pressure or just a few PSI ?
How often do you pump your tires and how often do you ride?

It is normal for high pressure tires to lose some PSI each day. I pump to 120 psi and a day or two later it is at 100 psi. Normal behavior.

Null66

Once had a thin bur in the rim, nearly invisible. Did a good job slicing my finger. Which is how I found it...

Weatherby

When you get a flat, you must find or know the reason unless you carry several tubes or enjoy repairing them in the rain. A pinched tube should be obvious. If it is not a pinched tube, you must find the offending piece of junk, thorn, glass, staple, finger nail, etc. that penetrated the casing. Sometimes the finger test does not work because a glass shard is partly thru the casing and it abrades the tube slowly as the tire compresses inwards. Turn the tire inside out and flex the casing with vigor while feeling with your finger. I have had to chase this ghost a few times. Replacing the tires and tube usually works, too. You are using velox rim tape? This isn't a rim tape issue, is it? I check my tires carefully after every ride or on long rides. Do you inspect the tread and remove any partially imbedded glass?

chaadster

Good line of inquiry!

koolerb

What he said.

Last year I had 3 in 3 days. By the third I realized that they we're all in the same spot on the tube. I lined up the tube with the tire and found a tiny little cut in the tire. Dug into the cut with a scribe and found a little piece of glass that wasn't visible, and couldn't be felt from either side.

brawlo

As some have pointed out, you should ALWAYS check your tube for the source of the flat before you install a new tube.

I'm about your weight and have been a touch more. I was running 25mm tyres until I upgraded to a Felt F4 and now I have to run 23mm tyres. The 25 were rubbing the chainstay. I have never gotten a pinch flat while running the same pressures you are. I also run Mr Tuffy tyre liners on my everyday wheels and have only ever gotten 2 flats in about 4 years. One was a piece of glass that ripped into the sidewall avoiding the liner and tyre pucture protection. The other was a piece of car tyre wire that had lodged into the tyre and over time worked it's way through the liner. It frustrated me with stopping to fix flats while on training rides and this has been an awesome answer for me.

Seeing as you are using new tubes and the leak is slow, can you find the leak by submersing a the inflated tube in water. Recently I have seen 2 new tube leaks that weren't rim related (check your rim tape and rim for burrs as mentioned) in other riders. One was air leaking out of a join in the rubber tube. Very small hole and slow leak and just a dodgy tube. The other was due to the rubber around the valve being too thick. The tyre wasn't seating i the rim properly as a result and so the tube was pushing back under itself when inflating and blowing itself out.

The only other thing I could think of is a dodgy valve. Are the valves replaceable? Maybe they aren't tight enough or the rubber seal has a fault.

Chris92009

What are mr turfy tire liners?

brawlo

Mr Tuffy - The original and still the best tire liner in the industryl

They're not a new concept, nor are they the only ones available, they're just the ones I use and are highly recommended. I remember back on the olden days when I was young, my dad got sick of fixing my flat tyres and stuck a plastic strip into my tyres and very few flats. I think I only ever got a pinch flat with them in. Fast forward to current days, I got sick of changing flats on the road bike and sought out these strips again and came across the tuffys. They are one of the best things I've done for everyday riding I think.

Chris92009

Found them at my local bike store...are they hard to install??

surfjimc

There's really no telling without looking at the tire/wheel, but I can tell you I have had issues with the Forte tubes splitting at the seam. They seem to not be great tubes, with very low quality control standards. I have noticed also that the problems come in groups with these tubes. I finally quit using them and went to whatever the other LBS is selling. No problems since then.

bbeasley

Chris,

One more bit of advice about flats. Never brag about how long it's been since you had one or how infrequent you get them. It's a sure recipe for angering the flat Gods!

TrojanHorse

First rule of Flat Club - don't talk about flat club.

Ironically, I got my first flat last week after almost 2,000 flat free miles. It was a slow leaker and since my rear tire was looking a little chewed up I decided to replace the tire and find the leak - it turned out to be a miniscule little piece of wire sticking out of the tube. The tire would go flat after about 2 days, so it was definitely slow. I had to immerse the whole tube in the pool to find that flipping leak too.

JohnJ80

It's likely pinch flats. I had similar issues being no tiny guy either until I switched to (tubeless) tubulars. Now I wear out tires without ever getting a flat. And it's a better ride plus lighter.

Presuming you don't want to buy new wheels, then what I'd do is the following:

1. Replace the rim strips - super easy and cheap. it's a no brainer and it rules out that issue.
2. Step up to a 25 or even 28 tire.
3. Finally, to stop pinch flats you could go tubeless but that would likely require a new wheel again and it's probably a bigger project than you want to get into and if you did, I'd be recommend tubulars anyhow (worked for me).

There are some really cool tires out now that make this nice. For example, I have on my cross bike, the Vredestein extreme Senso (or whatever its called - something like that) in a 28C. It's just as fast as my 23C tires were and the ride is much better. There won't be a pinch flat on these unless I really drop it into a deep pothole.

If you were, for example, getting a flat as soon as you pumped up the tire that can be because you caught the tube under the bead of the tire. A quick inspection before you pump will be show the obvious problem. Same thing if you damaged the tube with tire levers etc... it would be pretty obvious pretty quickly. All presuming you had checked the tire for a protruding piece of something to puncture it. Installing a tire is not difficult and it's pretty obvious when you get it wrong plus you usually get pretty quick feedback. So I think it's likely pinch flats (almost certainly is).



J.

bbeasley

Null66

Cotton ball is such a great idea.
I've always used my fingers and that tell tale red marking fluid...

brawlo

Quick and easy. I read of people having them wear through the tube over time where the liner overlaps itself. The fix for this is simple. Buy a cheap 32mm tube (next size up from road bike tubes, and cheap because they are usually thinner), cut a smallish 3inch section out of it. You can trim the liner to take off the sharp corners, or not worry as if it's inside the tube sleeve, they won't contact your inner tube. Place the liner insode the tyre and trim the length so that there's an inch or so overlapping. Insert both ends into the sleeve and put the tyre on the rim. Place the tube in and check that the liner sits in the middle of the tread. For me it basically found itself there anyway, so if this happens for you it's easy, or a little manipulation may be necessary. Seat the other bead and inflate and ride into the sunset.

I float in between Conti GP4000 and GP4000S's. When I ride the thinner GP4000S's, I can feel the sleeve as I ride over really smooth surfaces like nice hotmix bitumen and smooth concrete. Nothing major, just a small recurring bump as the wheels rotate. I don't feel them when I run the thicker GP4000s regardless of the surface.

cyccommute 

There are a few reasons to repair tubes rather than just replace them. First is economical. Sure a tube can be found for $4 or $5 but that's a lot to pay for fixing a flat. A patch kit costs about the same and can be used to fix 5 to 6 tubes.

Second is environmental. A tube takes some petroleum to produce. There's no reason to just waste the materials because you don't want to be bothered with patching it.

Third, and more germane to your problem is that a patched tube will tell you where your problem occurs if it is a recurrent problem. Lots of people have told you that your problem is with rim tape but if the flat is a rim tape problem, it will show up in the same place all the time. You can't tell if the problem is a rim tape problem without knowing where the flat is occurring. Repairing the tube will tell you if the flat is on the inside of the tube (against the wheel) or on the outside. Even if you have something imbedded in the tire that you are missing, patching will help you find it.

Finally, with the exception of some systemic problem like a rim tape issue, flats are random events. You can't really predict when or how often you'll have flats. You can go for years without flats or minutes. Try to avoid rolling over sharp objects you can see...broken glass, nails, razor blades, etc...but realize you can see everything. Flats happen. Just be thankful that Ohio doesn't have Tribulus terrestris.

Hambonio

I vote rim strips.

JohnJ80

I'm pretty sure it's pinch flats. I'm also a big guy and that's the problem I cured by going to tubulars. But rim strip replacement is easy and cheap, so do it anyhow.


And I agree with this as well as the economics/recycling argument. Knowing where the flat is occurring will do a lot to help figure out the problem.

I rid 2-3K miles per year. I used to get a flat every few hundred miles or so. When I switched to tubulars, which cannot get pinch flats (for all intents and purposes), this went to zero. I've always been meticulous about tire pressure so wasn't it either. Now, with the tubs, I have not had a flat in two years with the exception of one last year when I tried to push a worn out tire too far (cords were showing) and one this year where a valve extender broke. In that case, the tire is fine, I just have to get the broken extender piece out of the tire stem with an easy-out or something. I don't count that as a tire failure.

Big guys are just a lot more prone to pinch flats than others.

J.

Wilfred Laurier

then you are wasting a lot of money

the only time i have ever had a conventional tube patch fail
was when i didnt remove the object that originally caused the flat
and it poked a new hole through the patch and tube

i fixed a flat on my winter bike the other day
caused by a cut in the sidewall of the tire
and realized that there were already two patches on the tube i had forgotten about
one was a normal orange and black tip top or park tool or something
and the other was a piece of an old tube i made a patch out of when i was stuck last summer

next time i get a flat i will probably be amazed that there are three patches i forgot about

JohnJ80

If I recall, the pre-glued Park Tool patches have some kind of whizzy 3M adhesive on them (both Park and 3M are in St. Paul) that is supposedly stronger than the original tube.

J.

tmac100

THAT was the killer for me! Made a replacement rim tape out of a multi-punctured-and-fixed inner tube and after removing the burrs, the irritation/problem was solved. That was in 2006 in outback Australia and I still have that same home-made rim tape simply because it still works fine.