notfred

On wednesday istayed late at work, and I was riding home around midnight. I have a sectionof my commute that's about 6 miles long with no lights whatsoever, no street lgihts, and very little traffic along a rural road. Anyway, right in the middle of that, about three miles from town in either direction, I turned off a bike path and onto the road, and hit a rock on the edge of the road. The tire went flat and I was stuck.

Trying to find a hole in a tire with jsut a bike headlight is a pain. I neded up having two seperate sets of snakebite punctures in the tire, so four seperate holes! And I only had tow patches with me, but the holes were close enough together that I fixed them with two patches.

It ended up taking me an extra 40 minutes to get home.

Also, after I spent half an hour fumbling with my tire in the dark, jsut as I was finishing, a guy in a truck drove up and asked me if I needed more light. It would hafve beenreally helpful if he had showed up earlier, but I still thanked him for stopping. About 6-8 cars had driven past earlier, and none of them stopped.

max-a-mill

i put one of these in with my flat kit during times when i know i'll be out in the dark (oh and a spare tube so i never have to actually use the flat kit ).


https://www.petzl.com/petzl/LampesPro...roduitAssocie=

recursive

Next time, carry a spare tube.

HiYoSilver

Interesting. Thank you for posting. I had to reexamine my bag lights, and opps as another poster said, I've been riding half naked. The night tire repair light is NOT in my bag, opps.

My bike repair light is a small 1.5-2.0 inch light with a tab for holding in teeth. I've got to find it.

I always carry 2 spare lights.
1-- a 7" energizer with light focus, powered by 4 AAA batteries
2-- a 6" everready fixed focus, powered by 2 AA batteries. I use a nite ize velco strap to hold this on head like a mining work light.

Yeah, I know it's heavy to carry that much, but want back up lights I can use if head lights go out.

By the way, what is a snake bite/pinch flat. A flat you make by pinching the tube when you're mounting it?

oboeguy

That sucks notfred. I, like max-a-mill, have a Petzl which I got for camping and have thought about taking as a spare light for night commutes. For now I have a 3AA Cateye head light attached to my helmet as a blinkie which I think would be great for roadside repairs (all this would be in addition to my Performance 30W headlights). The ultimate back-up, though, is on my key chain. It's one of those watch-battery powered mini-LEDs. It's amazingly bright and useful. I've even used it riding one-handed to get home in the dark in a pinch (albeit riding quite slowly on a MUP).

But yes, BRING A SPARE TUBE NEXT TIME. Patching is for home and emergencies, IMO. Plus, sometimes you simply can't find the hole in the tube (without resorting to putting the tube underwater to see the air bubbles).

chroot

I have a CatEye headlight (EL400 I think) which can be mounted either on my handlebar, or on my helmet. I like the versatility.



- Warren

oboeguy

Ah, there you go. Chroot posted the same one I have on my helmet. I actually have a spare at home too. Been thinking of going dual.

truman

My sad, sad flat in the dark story follows. I'm recounting it to point up the purely preventable reason for the flat as a cautionary tale.

Last Wednesday, I started out early to add some miles onto my morning commute. I made a miscalculation and wound up having to traverse a busier-than-is-comfy-for-me street for a few hundred yards. Naturally, I was keen to get thru it as quickly as possible, so I was hammering at a good clip. I realized I had a Suburban to my rear as I passed under the green light of an overpass that crosses Interstate Highway 20, and glanced back to get an idea of the distance behind me it kept. As I looked back to the front, my front tube popped like a .32 caliber pistol and the tire, a 29x2.0" IRC Notos, pulled off the rim and started wrapping around the axle. I went down hard on the pavement on both elbows and one knee (pic below).

The Suburban driver slowed and asked through the window if I needed help, I declined and she passed by, leaving me to drag my bike off the street -the only illumination being a feeble streetlight a half block away. I detached my cateye halogen light and replaced the flat tube with the spare, noting that the slime filled tube I removed had a 6 inch gash in it. I checked the inner casing of the tire for puncture hazards anyway, as my last flat had taught me to do, remounted the tire, pumped it up to usable pressure, replaced it on the bike, policed up the broken glasses and smashed wristwatch that I just realized were still in the street, and had started the bike out to the road, when the front wheel jammed and wouldn't roll. I checked and noticed that the rim's edge had been flared heavily by the contact with the pavement and it would no longer pass between the brake shoes. I disconnected the front brake cable and spun the wheel. It was still almost true, and the flared portions of the rim passed through the open calipers without issue. I let some of the air our of the tire, to try to keep the tire from being blown off the flared rim. and rode carefully, the 2 or so miles back to the house, where I took the picture, showered, bandaged up and drove in to work. Long sleeves were the order of the day.

Examining things by daylight later, I saw a gash in the sidewall of the tire, just above where the rim would be, and an attendant line of lesser abrasion all the way around the tire in line with the gash. What I believe occured was this: Prior to that morning I had ridden the bike in its MTB configuration at a local trail. Near the end of that ride, I had slipped laterally on a rock during a climb, and gone down. A quick look showed no problems and I rode on. Next morning, getting ready for the commute, I had added 20 pounds of air to both tires, for better pavement behavior. Doing this had expanded the width of the tire, so that it would now rub ever so gently against the slightly misaligned brake pad on one side, that I had not noticed after the first crash. As I rode that morning, each revolution of the wheel ate a couple of microns of rubber out of the sidewall, untill it split at its nearest point. As I headed through that intersection, the highly pressurized tube protruded through the rip and was ruptured on the brake pad.

I think I'll glue my smashed Swiss Army watch carcass to the headtube as a reminder to check things more carefully after a crash.

mwmistak

A Glo-Toob FX Light would probably provide plenty of ambient light to fix a flat.

https://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/6536/

truman

You see the glo gel ant farm there? My kid's getting one.

david.l.k

I actually use a powerful headlight as my headlamp, I use a Nite hawk headlamp that is wicked powerful. It has a high and a low setting, when I ride on streets I use the low setting and it helps me see glass and other nasty stuff .The day before I got it I popped my tire on a 2 inch screw that was on the road I fixed it up by the light of my small led headlamp that I was using for night riding, it worked fine for fixing the tire, but it just wasn't up to the role of dark riding. See I also happen to love bombing around bike path's late at night.
Oh and snake bate (or pinch flat) is where your rim bottoms out on the ground and cuts the tire. The best way to avoid this is to keep your bike pumped up within the recomended range of the tire, better yet if you're commuting you should keep it pumped to the recomended maximum as this will reduce the rolling resistance significantly.

2manybikes

Good post, I might add the easiest way to handle flats in the dark is to have a headlight that will allow you to see the holes and small items on the ground. That will also supply you with a light that is easy to fix a flat with.
Not always the cheapest, but the easiest. A bright headlight will provide a nice work area so you don't have to hold a small light in you hand or look for things on the ground with a light in your hand.