That tell-tale blast.
 

Well, i haven't done this on quite a while, but I did it again. I switched from my "winter" tires to the summer stock, rolled the bike back to it's parking spot, turned my back, and it sounded like a shotgun went off. I pinched the tube between the tire and rim didn't notice it, and didn't see it when I gave the tire a look at mid-pressure, and it went off.

dammit...

Luckily, I had a spare tube. But now I'm paranoid again.

BTW, I read somewhere that thru-axle wheels were more trouble to work with, but I beg to differ. Damned easy and a sure way to ensure that the wheel position is correct.

At least you were still at home. Last week I was taking one of my bikes out for a ride. Loaded it in the car and when I got to the trailhead and took the bike out, the rear tire was flat. :notamused: Loaded the bike in the car and drove home and swapped bikes and headed back to the trailhead. Had a very nice ride. :)

Cannot understand why anyone would not have at least a patch kit .... and preferably a spare tube or two ... on the bike at all time.

What happens if you get a flat ten miles out from the trailhead?

Not my bike, not my ride ... you do what works for you.

I got two flats on a ride two weeks ago. I finished the ride.

But that blast .... I have had a tire blow sitting in my garage quite a while after I pumped it up .... don't know why, but it is loud, sharp, and unmistakable.

Just have to sigh and grab another tube and do it again.

Had the sidewall of a Conti GP tire blow out on me last summer while standing with the bike getting ready to ride. No weight but that of the bike on the tires. Just simply ruptured with no warning by seperating layers in the sidewall. Tire had been on for 400 to 500 miles with no flats etc. Glad I wasnt going around a curve at speed when it happened, but Ive bought my last Conti tire because of it.

I saw the thread title and instantly thought about the bean burritos I had for lunch yesterday.

I've had that happen after remounting a tire, and I've had it happen indoors at the office.

I pinched a tube in my garage once after a swap. I saw the tube bulging out the side of the rim in slow motion. I'm sure I was mouthing "Nooooooooooooooooo" and then it blew. I couldn't hear anything for about 5 minutes.

that's always fun, worse if you're indoors

I bet that was awesome... especially if there were a lot of people in the office. :D

I took my old bike to change tires, tubes and rim tape (among others). Got it back, did a test ride, perfect.

Sunday we went on a 22 mi. ride with our club, perfect. Put the bike on the rack, got into the car, bam! Rear flat.

At home I checked the tire, no prob, I changed the cheap Made in China tube with German engineered Conti tube, rode the whole week, went on the club ride, put the bike back on the rack, halfway home... bam!!... Another flat.

Went to LBS (different one) bought two new (Specialized or Bontrager can't remember) tubes. The first one blew in the test ride.

Back to the first LBS, fix it please.

They call me the next day. Changed rim tape, checked rim, had 3 cheap Chinese tires blow out. I asked them to keep them, so I can inspect them. The cheap Chinese tires and the expensive German engineered one and the bike brand one had all blown around the valve patch.

The LBS threw in the towel... So did I... They installed a Wheelmaster rim at cost and send me my way.My son is still riding this bike with no further problems.

Security must have loved that...

Sometimes paranoia is nothing more than a heightened state of awareness.

I agree, I've had too many flats on rides recently to not carry both a spare tube and a patch kit. Only time I called my wife for a SAG was when I was out on a gravel country road and the sun was quickly going down, and I didn't feel like navigating the rest of the gravel in the dark. But the other two recent flats, one I patched and one I just swapped tubes. No muss, no fuss, and I got to finish my rides.

Yes, in this day & age with workplace violence incidents becoming more common, I bet a lot of people likely had to excuse themselves to the restroom.

I haven't had any issues since I switched to Thorn Proof tubes.

Had a blowout in the apartment once, after getting in too big a hurry to fix a flat. Didn't do the trick of pumping only 10-20 psi, checking the bead seat all around, pumping a bit more, rechecking, etc.

The way sound carries in this apartment building, and with this neighborhood, I kept expecting the police to show up.

Now I'm paranoid and meticulous. Whenever I patch or replace a tube, swap tires, whatever, I pump a little air, roll and squish and massage the tire and bead, spin it to check for seating, lather-rinse-repeat, until it's at riding pressure. If it ain't perfect I redo everything. Takes awhile and probably looks ridiculous -- I've done it at roadside and trailside a few times the past year after a run of flats from grass burrs, etc. -- but it works for me.

When I swapped thicker cloth rim tape for the thin rubber rim strips the tires refused to seat properly. I finally realized the rim tape was just a tiny bit too wide and interfering with the bead. Had to be the longest tire swap in history. I think I watched all of Apocalypse Now while working on that one tire. Every time there was an explosion in the movie I thought "Never get off the bike".

Anytime I've heard the tire go, a patch kit was useless. It's right to the spare tube!

Definitely the case with me, as well. The tube was sliced longitudely about 8" long. No chance for repair. Oh, well. I had another tube, but this one was on me, no question. I messed up the build and the result was spectacular.

Anyway, took the bike out for about 19 tonight and all is well. And the GP 4000s tires are a huge improvement over the stock Specialized Turbo Pro. I went fat, too. 700x28.

Smearing the tube with baby powder or talc helps prevent pinch flats. Tube rubber (especially when new) is sticky and can cause the tube to fold over on itself. The tire will blow when fully inflated even though the tube isn't caught between the tire and rim. I put powder on spares before loading them in the seat bag.

Was one time woken up by a random tube blowup at 4:00am crashing a friend's couch. The bike was in the room with me and the tube went completely randomly- nothing had disturbed the bike. I have spent some time working in a shop, so I put together what had happened pretty quickly. It's not a nice way to get woken up.

If you put one side of the tire bead on the rim to give the tire some form, you can pour some baby powder into the tire itself and 'swish' it around inside. This gives a heavy coating that seems to stick around through a couple changes. It might a be a bit cleaner than dusting the exterior of your tubes.

Your method sounds better. I'm surprised that the talc trick seldom comes up on BF.

used powder to mount some tires this past winter. what a mess

It's messy for sure, but it beats having a midnight explosion. Most of those are probably due to creased tubes.

I also wonder if it reduces friction between the tire/tube interface resulting in 0.0001% less rolling resistance. I tell myself that it helps. This stuff keeps me up a night.