(*&^%$# flat
 

Cruising along at 4:05 a.m. and I flat the rear tire. Don't know what I hit that caused it, maybe a pinch flat from a steel plate over the hole at the construction site on my route about a half mile away. Its too dark to see well enough to change the tube and I'm less than a mile, but not by much from my house. Do the walk of shame contemplating (grumbling rather) whether I'm gonna drive and be to work on time or change over my panniers and Magicshine light to another bike and be late. Yep I'm a bike commuter most of the time so I sucked it up and rode the other bike. It was a really nice ride, cool morning but not cold and no wind or rain. As it turned out I was 8 minutes late but I didn't care cause I got to ride today and I can cover the 8 minutes with sick leave. If they ask what was wrong I'll just tell em I was sick about the fact I might have to drive. Fortunately we have a very understanding boss and a liberal sick leave and vacation policy so if I have time to cover I can use it.

I hate it when that happens!

Mr. Tuffys, thorn resistant tubes and kevlar belted tires for me. Haven't had a flat in last 5,000 miles with this setup. Yeah they are heavy, but my legs and conditioning are stronger because of it. :-)

Ride safe,

Jeff

Shoulda seen the time I was riding to my internship and my entire tire got this MASSIVE slash down it. It was so large that after I tried to repair it later that day the new inner tube actually blew out through the slash. Anyways immediately after the blow out when I am pretty much cursing my bad luck (although I was like 4 blocks from work at this point luckily) this really nice guy and his wife walked up to me and handed me this small razor and told me he saw it sitting on the ground right where my tire blew (He was right next to me on the sidewalk at the time of the incident). Never would have though a razor could have been in such a position to slash a tire like that but from what I can tell that is what happened.

But in your case I could definitely see a pinch flat being possible. One thing you might try to avoid that is getting your tires around 100 PSI. That seems to have left me pinch flat free for years. Another guy I was riding with consistently only put his tires to 80 PSI and he pinched one on a 30 mile ride when we hit some torn up road. Best way to avoid pinch flats is to just keep the tires near maximum pressure ive found but dont rule out other weird things like glass shards or razors in my case. First time I had ever seen a whole tire go like that so you never know what might have caused that flat.

1) Descending a hill at 35 mph and ran over a 1 inch nail. That was fun.
It trashed the inside of my rim and my tire. I was able to fix it with a tire patch as a tire boot and a piece of plastic covered in paper on the inside of my rim from trash found alongside the road.

2) Flatted at 10F at 5 am. My spare tube's valve fell apart and I couldn't path the tube very well while overheating and then freezing. I put the original tube back in the tire and rode quickly for a few miles to stop and pump it up again. Repeat for 10 miles.

I've just started commuting on a slightly regular basis and have about 350km on the tires so far. I'm dreading that first flat tire as I don't have even the first clue on how to do the tire/tube change. I'm hoping my LBS guy will let me watch the process, when/if it happens. I'll get the puncture resistant/kevlar stuff at that point, or airless tires, whichever seems like the better option.

Practice at home before you get one on the road.

http://perryrubberbikeshop.com/artic...tire-pg139.htm

Mine was Monday when I got a slow leak about 4 blocks from work. It went totally flat later in the day, the air loss exacerbated by my Topeak minipump failing on it's 4th use. My GF brought the floor pump I left at her place over, and after changing the tube and reinstalling the wheel I see I'm going to need to readjust the brakes - or get a ride home and get the car to bring the bike home. That's all in the plan for later today.

Changing a tire is not very difficult. You just need practice getting the tire on and off the rim. The first time I changed a flat (rear tire) it took me 45 minutes because I had to figure out how to use tire levers and how to get the rear wheel back on with the chain and derailleur. Now I can change a flat in about 6 minutes.

As for changing flats in the dark, I highly recommend this LED keychain. It's a tiny little thing but it puts out an unbelievable amount of light.

Not a very good place to pull off to change the tire,I'm pretty close to the house so I think it would have take me longer to change it than walk home and get the other bike.The tires are Panaracer Pasela TG"S running 105 plus PSI. Just my time to flat I guess. Good thing I had a back up bike at home. I've been having small issues with this rear wheel since the last flat I got on it about 3 weeks ago. I put the bike on the stand took off the rim and looked it all over for something sticking in the tire. I did the old cotton ball trick and could not find a problem. I'll take another look at it tonight when I get home but I'm thinkin pinch flat from a rut I hit about a quarter mile from where I flatted. Hacked me off though cause it was a great morning to ride and it turned out fine just a bit later than I intended. Gonna go over that rim with a fine tooth comb so to speak after work.

I can change a flat in 5 min. However, I tend to take it as a hint that fate wants me to take a break. Thus, it turns into 15 min while I relax.

I got a flat on Monday.. i was about 1mile from work and had to walk the whole way back. I had an extra tube but i havent made time to purchase a mini pump.. so after walking to work on Monday morn, first thing i did was order a topeak pump that i know had good reviews.

Next on my list is Mr.Tuffy... but once again i gotta make time and convince myself its worth dropping $15-$20.:twitchy:

Schwalbe marathon plus have a good puncture protection band, but are tour/commuting , not race style Go Fast tires. are 28 and wider
need a Kevlar band in tires plus perhaps,
Thorn resistant tubes ? thicker rubber in the tube..

{voice of experience)
Mr Tuffys wear holes in the tubes at the end of the overlapped strip.
a little bit every time the wheel goes around..

The culprit was not a pinch flat or a nail or a piece of glass and it wasn't a lot of stuff that normally causes flats for me. It was a piece of sharp gravel glazed in that tar the city uses to chipseal the roads. Of all the crap that could cause a flat it had to be this. I had to boot the tire cause it put a nice 1/4 inch slit in right in the center of it. Don't know how long thats gonna last, I'll see soon enough I guess.

Whaaaat?
 

What kind of employer asks you to explain 8 minutes and then charge the time to sick leave??? Why not just work 8 minutes longer at the end of the day? Or not go to the bathroom... Or take a shorter lunch break?...

Do I live in a fog, and is this miniscule accounting for time a common thing?

Seriously...
PG

Really depends on the work environment, but to take the "devils advocate" position; if you have a large workforce, and someone shows up late, and no one cares, you're inviting chaos. 8 minutes seems ridiculous yes, but it can be a slippery slope if the work group sees an opportunity.

I could see that being an issue if people were just cruising in late because they just felt like it and not for a legitimate reason. I think explaining that 'I had a flat tire' would be ok with any reasonable boss.

I work for a major commercial airplane manufacturing company in the Seattle area. I punch a time clock and the system knows all right down to the second. Our time is clocked on any particular task by the tenth of an hour. If I had been 3 minutes late it would have been on the grace time but after that it starts counting tenths of an hour so I took two tenths of an hour on sick leave. Its no big deal but thats the timekeeping system we have so ya gotta deal, we can flex our time but its gotta be for a good reason and I can't see flexin my time for 8 minutes when I can cover it with sick leave. I don't stay any longer than my shift unless I have to and I didn't have to. No biggie to me really