Hello everyone! After a few weeks of commuting, about 3 times a week, I have finally got a flat tire. I was going about 20mph when it happened, fast! Did a roadside repair, but didnt ride the rest of the way to work; the outside of the tire has a big hole in it. I get to work from home today!

Anyway, the screw went through the tire, tube, rimtape, and then stuck into the rim. Do you think some tire liners would have saved me?

wow! Now THAT is a flat!

That's your first flat? Well, you definitely seem like the type of person who goes all out when he tries to accomplish something!

WOW !! FLATZILLA !!!

This doesnt apply to the monumental devistation you show here,
but next time you get your usual, glass/tack/thorn type flat try
to fix it leaving the rim on the bike. Just break the bead and pull
the tube. 99% of the time it is not necassary to pull the rim off the
bike. This will save you time and you may stay slightly cleaner.

No.

Next time, to repair this road side, take a dollar bill, fold it into quarters, and place it between the tube and the tire. This is called a boot and is what you use if the tire casing is ripped or punctured badly like this is here.

Congrats! You'll soon be initiated to the pinch flat and the dreaded double puncture where the same bit of road debris punctures both tires at the same time. (I'm only half kidding.)

Thanks for that dollar bill tip, I was worried to ride on it so I just went home. I am guessing this wasnt a normal puncture! I was inspecting the tire and I picked out a couple of bits of glass. I was surprised to see this screw! I just ordered some Conti Gatorskin tires, so i should be back up and riding by the end of the week!

Good lord, that's the puncture of the week!

As for tire boots, I once rode 10 miles home on a folded up Clif Bar wrapper.

Holy hardware, Batman!

That's the most aggro puncture I've ever seen.

I had a nasty flat last week, a piece of metal that looked like it's used for a chain link fence put at least two holes in the tire and three in the tube. I have pics, but I don't know how to get them small enough to upload. Any suggestions?
Natually, I had decided to take the longest way home possible and got the flat about half a mile away from my office, right in front of a competitor that I interviewed for last year.

I rode for two days (About 50 miles) on a dollar bill folded in half and inserted inside my tire where the sidewall failed till I could throw on some new tires.

Once had a knitting needle enter through one sidewall, and exit through the other... Spun around with the wheel and got bent into a 'U' shape. Needless to say, the slime didn't help with THAT puncture.

At least you have a good reason (and pics :-)

Just one note though... you might want to think about where you pull your wheel off. You don't want a bad ride to get worse by dropping your stuff down a sewer as well.

I use www.photobucket.com After you upload your pics there there's a resizing option...

That's kind of a freak flat and I don't think tire liners or belted tires could have prevented that (those drywall screws are very sharp). I've had quite a few flats over the years but they have mainly been small shards of rock or glass on the road bike or thorns on the mountain bike. I've pulled stuff like that out of my truck tires, but never my bike.

That is a freak flat, I've never had that happen in over 50 years of riding including when I was a kid! Nothing would have protected you from that. The dollar bill thing works so does a candy bar wrapper, or you could buy a Park Tire Boot that is basically a patch for the tire that is applied to the inside; it's a lot sturdier then a dollar bill or a wrapper.

If commuting by bike is going to be your mode of transportation to work then you need to be prepared. I commute to work and I carry a spare ultralight racing tube (left in it's box to protect it), a spare ultralight folding racing tire (these tires are very thin and narrow thus will fit into my saddle bag), 6 Park glueless (you can use glue if you prefer they both work the same but glueless is faster) patches, the Park tire Boot, a Park MTB3 mini tool (or a reasonable other mini tool), tire irons, and a mini folding pliers. This stuff will enable you to fix most things that go bad on a commute which is mostly tire related, so your not late to work. You should also consider carrying spare batteries for your flashers in case a battery dies so you not left being invisible in the dark.

Dollar bill is good, but I don't always have any money on me (seldom, in fact). I have an old tyvek express mail envelope cut down a bit and in my repair kit. It takes very little room when folded up and is probably even better than a dollar bill for making a boot.

Ditto other opinions though; you could have been riding with kevlar belted tires and tire liners and puncture resistant tubes and that flat still would have happened.

A more obvious soloution to the dollar bill trick is to apply an inner tube patch to the inside of your tire. I've gotten several small tears in tires in the past few months and in addition to patching the tube, I've patched the inside of the tire. It will take a lot longer to wear/rip through a patch than a dollar bill.

That works very well for small tears in tires (glueless patches too).

I had an even bigger screw go through both sides of a Marathon tire like that during a rain ride. I think I used a Powerbar wrapper as a tire boot.

That's one hell of a flat, especially for your first. Yikes.

I once had to ride home with a $20 boot in my tire, since that was all the cash I had! Now I carry $1s

I finally put a Mr Tuffy in my rear tire, a Schwalbe Marathon 2.0x26. It won't save you from a flat from something like that. It will save you rim damage if you can react quickly enough. It may allow you to slow down and get off the bike before all the air is lost.

Murphy's Law is in effect! You will never run over a devil object where the tire liners overlap

Morrowman could not have reacted fast enough, because once the screw made it through the tire that unless he could stop on a hairs width as soon as the screw punctured the tire outer tread, that screw was going to do what it did. The only way he could have avoided that screw from doing what it did was to avoid the screw all together; and since I wasn't there riding his bike I can't tell you if that was possible.

Logically, a $20 should work twenty times better than a single.

Actually as silly as you thought you were trying to be, you are right however! Because a $1 bill won't buy you tire but a $20 bill could get you one!

I had a similar flat once in college. A drywall screw went through the tire, through the tube, and stuck in the rim. I still use the rim - the hole is pretty smooth, and I put a small piece of rim tape over it so the tube won't squeeze into the hole.

As I recall, I patched the tube, put it back in, and rode on the tire for months afterwards. I guess it was before I'd heard of tire boots. Kind of scary to think about now.