Two. The second was caused by the tiny piece of sharp stone that I didn't find from the first flat.

A small price to pay.

As I was finishing up fixing my flat today, a rider came by and stopped and asked me how far I was from my car (actually, my car was at home, which was about 13 miles away) as if that was the solution to my problem. I told him everything was under control as I carried two tubes, a patch kit and a great Topeak pump (Road Morph). He seemed surprised and mentioned to me that perhaps he ought to carry something - he had absolutely nothing with him. I agreed whole heartedly with him!! BTW, I had several other riders ask if I was OK, which is sort of nice - I do the same thing.

In fact, I stopped on the Waterton Canyon trail for a damsel in distress - riding a department store Magma. The pedal had come off. Sadly, the threads were stripped so bad there was nothing I could do to help, except to advise her that it was possible to ride back using one pedal and coasting (the trip back was mostly downhill).

Three front tire flats this past Saturday. First one was a pinch caused by hitting a pothole too hard. No idea what caused the next two. They just slowly lost air after 20 miles or so.

It is bad juju to even speak of this... very bad.

Stupid goathead got through the mountain bike tire today. I took the mtb because the rear tire on my road bike is worn out.

Not one all year.

Marc

One on my mountain bike, one on the road bike in about 850 miles - both "found in the morning" so no trouble on the ride, but the road tire was worn through to the casing in one spot so had to be replaced. Both pinprick punctures - don't know the cause. I'm not counting the extra puncture from pinching the tube when trying to get a new Michelin Pro 4 onto the rim.

Lots of flats commuting on the streets of Los Angeles (and Norwalk); just had another yesterday (small sharp bit of glass, that one). I use Schwalbe Marathons on my DaHon folder commute bike (16" x 1.75) and have had flats from small sharp metal wires, a nasty sheet metal screw and glass; apporox. one flat per 10 round trip commutes. Plus I had one Schwalbe tube fail at the valve.

On my road bikes, fixed gear bike, mountain bike . . . far better luck. One goat-head on the GURU on the way to climb Palomar, glass from the MUP on the fixed gear, a thorn on the rear of the muntain bike (but that may have been before April).

Rick / OCRR

This morning, I woke up intending to go to the grocery store early, but when I went to get the bike, my front tire was flat. I spent oodles of time trying to figure out WHY it was flat, there were no punctures in either the tube nor the tire, no poke-through of the spokes, no brickabrack inside the tire wall, and the tube seems to be holding air, and not making any hissing noises. I've pumped it up again, and am going to see if it is flat as a pancake again by tomorrow.

Cause of flat: Mystery! Looks like I'm off to the LBS to blow money on another set of tubes. Yay. I keep telling myself "I'm saving money on gas. I'm saving money on gas.", but the money still seems to be draining out of a leak in my wallet!

Schwalbe Marathon Plus with 1200 miles on them so far without a flat.

I'm running those on most of my bikes, the Marathons on a couple of them. No flats on either the Marathon or Marathon plus in, oh, I guess about 6 years.
Now that I've tweaked the flat fairy's nose, I better make sure I have my pump and a spare tube with me this afternoon.

I've not had any, however, I know a lot of people who have.

uh -oh, now you've gone and done it. Check your spares right now - you're gonna need them.

I had the most spectacular flat of my life on January 1 - a sharp stone kicked up by a rider in front of me ripped a half-inch wide hole in my sidewall. No flats the rest of the year but that's because I've been sidelined with injuries for much of the time.



That's a ParkTools boot under the rip - it held for a 25 mile ride home and saved my a$$. Those boots are light, cheap, and very useful. Don't leave home without one.

I would suspect a very, very tiny piece of steel wire hidden in the tire - from a steel belted radial. One that only shows if the tire is compressed against a filled to pressure tube. To find it, you are going to have to turn the tire inside out andgo through the entire tire pressing against the exterior - which will be inside, looking for a tiny piece of wire to show its ugly face.

You will keep buying tubes again and again until you find the cause.

Exactly. Which is why I have no intention of answering the question.

I am however losing a lot of sleep over posts over in the Katy Trail forum about goatheads, given that I wouldn't know a goathead if I saw it, and given that I'll be on a Bike Friday which means it's scary hard to get new tubes if whatever number I bring with me fail and can't be patched. I have brand new tires, and the spouse is threatening to add tire liners too. Maybe that will be enough.

OUCH! I guess if you get a good one - one is enough.

Denver's right.

Two sets of tires on two different road bikes with a combined mileage of just over 6,400 miles and zero f**ts. A little over 2,500 miles on the hybrid with one slow leak from a defective valve. Now that I have posted this, I may end up regretting it.

None - using Shwalbe Marathon Plus. 1784 miles so far this year, most of it since April since I had a knee replacement Jan 11.

- Ed

Sigh. Not what I want to hear! The tedium of that meticulous search puts me to sleep just reading it! And with my luck, I'll find the wire when it rips through the pad of my finger... How thick are these wires anyhow? compared to, say, a copper strand from an extension cord?

Earlier in the day, I replaced the thorn resistant Sunlite innertube (Schrader valve) with a Specialized regular inner tube (Presta valve) that I had on hand as spares, and pumped it up to about 60 bl/sq. inch, so the problem should manifest itself overnight, and I'll deal with it then. I've had enough fun just finding those stupid thorns and glass shards that keep getting into my tires, and pulling them out with tweezers. I had flattened and felt the inside of the tire, but I never thought about turning them inside out and putting pressure on the opposing surface to make submarines poke their periscopes out of the water...

Got my bike last October and put 1400 miles on it with zero flats. Two days ago I put the alloy wheels on from my son's Trek Madone 6.7 to see what light wheels feel like. I put 15 miles on them and when I got home I noticed a split in the tire so the next day I bought a new tire for him. The split was actually a hole, so I was lucky it didn't blow.

That's still zero so far.

Probably about the same diameter as a single copper strand.

It really doesn't take that long.

I do it all the time looking for goathead needle-like remnants.

Wire:
https://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...s/Royswire.jpg

https://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...latWire001.jpg

Many wire flats:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVT2H...lurksmarvelous