jppe

The short version, flatted 30 miles from home, the stems on both my replacement tubes were too short for the wheel depth so the tubes wouldn’t inflate. Dead in the water. My wife came and picked me up.

The more than you probably want to know version:

For various reasons I’ve ridden less this year than in forever. That’s a whole another story. But we were going up to Boone to watch my young grandson play in a soccer game late yesterday and it was going to be a nice sunny day. Plus I wasn’t planning to play golf that morning as the more expensive Holiday Rates applied at our golf course and I’m on fixed income! So the plan was for me to ride 70+ miles and my wife would pick me up in the van for the rest of the trip.

All started well. I was dressed perfectly for the 50 degree start with temperatures headed towards the low 70s. I knew the wind was going to be a headwind for the whole trip but just thought I’d not push it. Plus going north towards the mountains meant even more rollers than normal. After about 15-20 miles my body was telling me this 70 miler might be more than you want today but I’d been in that position many times before and knew you just have to push through it. But my riding time, HR and other metrics were where I thought it would be so all was good. In the long run I’d be better for it.

About 28 miles in while pedaling It felt like the rear tire was a little bouncy or squishy. I dreaded getting a flat as the rear wheel was my one wheel where there had been instances where I couldn’t budge the tire bead away from the sidewall to change a tube. But, I had brought along a putty knife to help pry it over just in case. So I stopped and reached back and squeezed the rear tire and sure enough it was losing pressure. Darn. Darn. Darn. I rotated the tire looking for a nail, glass etc. but didn’t see anything.

I knew there was a store about a couple miles ahead and if I had issues changing the tube I’d rather be there versus on the side of a road in someone’s field. So I decided to pedal on to the store. The tire went down a lot faster than I was thinking……so it was almost completely flat the last half mile. I wasn’t carrying a frame pump and didn’t want to use any CO2 just to get me to the store. I went to really easy gears and rolled into the store doing around 10 mph.

It’s a really nice fairly new convenience store/gas station with nice benches out front so a good spot to sit and change a tire. I got the rear wheel off and got out all the stuff needed to change the tube. The moment of truth was to see if I could roll the bead on the tire away from the rim. There wheels are very lightweight (1330 grams) and designed for tubeless but I use tubes. Thus they have a small depression or “well” where the bead sits in and they are pretty snug. But at the advice of a friend I’d changed tires from Continentals to Vittorias as they seemed slightly easier to get on and off.

To my pleasant surprise on my first try I was able to push the tire bead out of the depression using a rolling method my friend had showed me. Hooray! My fears were over. Maybe riding on the tire flat warmed it up plus loosened it up a little? Now to find the cause of the flat, pop in a new tube and I’d be on my way. After removing the tire from one side of the rim I rolled my finger along the inside of the tire and about 1/2 way around I felt something sharp sticking out of the tire. But it was barely through the tire leaving very little to grab a hold of to pull it out. Plus there were still no signs of it going through the outside of the tire. The folks in the store loaned me a set of pliers and after a few tries I was able to pull it out. It was a wire and only about 1mm long. I showed it to the workers and they were amazed.

Whew, another potential issue resolved and now to just put in my spare and off I’d go. Getting the tube in went easier than normal…….no twists, the tire went back on the rim okay plus there weren’t any issues where the tube was sticking out under the tube. I got out my CO2 cartridge and inflator and tried to reinflate the tube. What happened???? All the CO2 came out but the tire was still flat???? Well, the darn tube stem wasn’t sticking out of the rim far enough for the tgr inflator to fully seat. So I pulled out my second tube, CO2 and tried again. Darn. Same results. Darn.

Had to reach out to my super sag lady to pick me up sooner than planned. She was out hiking with my son and haven’t even packed. So I made myself comfortable and waited. I guess I’ll add some valve extenders and Teflon tape to my kit??? Interestingly if I’d been running tubeless I’d still be rolling. But this was the first wire I’ve picked up riding in my area in 20 years. I’ve flatted numerous times from wires riding shoulders west of the Mississippi and on my cross country ride but not locally. Oh well, at least I got in a 30 miler.

JanMM

Ouch! Good that you had an Uber Spouse to help out.
I carry self-adhesive patches in case the spare tubes I carry aren't enough for the ride.

downtube42

Option 1: phone a friend

Option 2: self sufficiency.
Pump, for n+1 flats
Small pliers
Patch kit, for n+1 flats
Tire boot
Proper items for your bike (i e. tubes)
Tools
Other items specific to your situation e.g. warm clothes.
Experience using them

You executed option 1. Well done.


The thing about option 2 is, something can always break that you can't fix, so self sufficiency includes what to do then.

_ForceD_

In the photo above it looks like there’s plenty of valve stem exposed for the CO2 inflater to seat properly.

Dan

jppe

There certainly is!! But that’s the original tube which flatted.

Bob Ross

I learned this Tough Love technique after wasting an afternoon with a friend who was in your position: Now when a riding buddy with deep dish rims flats, the very first thing I ask him is "Do you have tubes with the correct valve stems for those wheels?" Because if he says "no" --- or even "I don't know" --- I'm outta there. I might let him borrow my phone to call his wife or an Uber...because if he didn't bring the right tubes, he probably also didn't bring a phone.

I'm happy to help a fellow cyclist with their mechanicals if they at least brought the right spares. But I've completely lost patience for cyclists who don't even have the foresight to be prepared.

Bici Veloce

Bike still looks awesome though...even draggin' on the ground.

I ran into the same issue with a short stem on a spare. I had a $1 presta to schrader adapter that added just enough length to attach the inflator.

zacster

Pump is a must no matter what. Patch kit too. I always carry the patch kit and 2 spares now. I want a quick change with a flat so I carry the spares, but one flat leads to another to another, and by the third flat I'm in no rush anymore. And I gave up on cartridges when I one time helped someone on the road, used a cartridge and then got a flat myself and wasted half of another and had to limp home. Good thing the long silver sag wagon was there (NYC subway).

rumrunn6

putty knife?
I carry a pump & co2. it's rare but I've come across a dud cartridge
yeah, patch kits are cool. fyi, if you know where the object is, you don't even have to remove the wheel. just slip the bead off in that spot only & sneak the tube out, in that spot only
yeah, tiny wires ... where the heck to those come from? don't like them ;-(
I much prefer thumb tacks

glad you kept your humor & had a crew to help. my Daughter bailed me out a cpl times. a cpl other times I took a taxi

Biker395 

Years ago, a friend got a flat from a small staple, and we could NOT get that staple out of the tire, no matter how we tried. It was set in there really well, and only sticking out enough to flat a tube, not enough to get it out with our fingers.

We were rescued by a friend who carried tweezers with him for just such an occasion.

Since then, I carry one of those swiss army knife tweezers with me ... I just put it in the patch kit. I'm not sure that will be enough to take out something REALLY stuck in the tire, but it gives me a fighting chance.

I've only had to Uber home once, and it was only a few months ago. I was riding up a hill with friends and I felt some kind of "dead spot" in my pedal stroke. I stopped and noted that the rim was occasionally rubbing on the brakes. Odd, I thought ... maybe I broke a spoke? I checked and all the spokes were there, but one was inexplicably loose. WTF.

I got on the bike and rode to the top ... still having the dead spot problem. Once up there, I decided to have a closer looksee. Check it out!

Litespeedlouie

Around here, AAA will give you and your unrideable bike a ride home. It counts against your AAA service call allotment.

gthomson

A cracked hub? how the heck did that happen?

To the OP experience, I feel for ya getting all excited to get on a spring ride on a chilly but nice looking day and then running into problems. Seems to happen more at the start of the season than half way through when the bikes are in a groove.

Last spring I bought a new set of wheels for my Cannondale CAAD 8 and was so excited to get them on the bike and out for a ride but near the end of the ride, rear tire nearly flat. Got the uber ride wife to pick me up (it was so close to home, wasn't worth making the effort to change the tube). Put on a new tube and went out the next week and same thing happened. WTF?

Got home an ran my finger along the inside of the Gatorskin tire until I got a prick. Same thing as you, tiny little piece of wire embedded in the rubber which would puncture the tube enough for a very slow leak. Came out with tweezers and good to go.

Let's see what happens when I get out this year!

Biker395 

I have no idea! I'm not a clydesdale, and those are pretty decent Reynolds wheels. I've had so many hub failures ... odd stuff like that too.