Got my first flat, how to avoid in future?

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05-09-17 | 05:37 AM

#26

friday1970

Senior Member

Joined: Sep 2012

Posts: 677

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From: Brighton, Michigan

Bikes: Optima Baron LR, '14 Nishiki Maricopa,'87 Trek 330 Elance, '89 Miyata 1400, '85 Peugeot PGN10, '04 Fuji Ace, '06 Giant Rincon, '95 Giant Allegre, '83 Trek 620, '86 Schwinn High Sierra

Latex tubes. Helps out with not getting pinch flats. I use them and only one flat, and that was my mistake installing it.

05-09-17 | 06:02 AM

#27

RideMyWheel

Senior Member

Joined: Jun 2014

Posts: 157

Likes: 1

From: Memphis

Bikes: 2014 Felt Z100, 1987 Schwinn Sierra

Think of it this way, the bird you see perched precariously on a limb isn't placing his faith in the limb, his faith is in his own ability to fly.

Learn to change a tube, it's really very easy. Carry a couple spares and a pump with you. Then you can focus on the fun stuff, like flying.

Also, if you go too far trying to find bullet-proof tires and tubes, ride quality suffers.

Enjoy the ride! 🙂

05-09-17 | 06:04 AM

#28

MRT2

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Joined: Jun 2007

Posts: 6,319

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From: Wisconsin

Bikes: 2012 Salsa Casseroll, 2009 Kona Blast

Quote:

Originally Posted by littleArnold

I got my first flat on my new Trek hybrid bike this week, luckily it was covered under warranty and they fixed it for free. Got a new tire. I rode my used Schwinn mountain bike for a year on same bike trails over 3,000+ miles rode on it not one flat. The bike trails often do have loose debris on the paved bike trails. fallen sticks and small objects in the road. Maybe it was just luck? I didn't get any flat on the mountain bike, I am thinking because the tire is very thick and bulky that might be a good reason why.

I think I got be more careful with the the thinner tires on the Trek hybrid bike vs the Schwinn mountain bike. I could ride over pretty much any debris in the road and not worry about flats with the mountain bike. I accidentally rode over glass and sharp sticks on that Schwinn mountain bike, never got a flat with those very thick tires.

maybe I got be more picky about the bike paths I ride on. On my Schwinn mountain bike I could pretty much ride on any bike path in my area regardless of how bad the debris was on the bike path and not worry about getting a flat tire. At least over 3,000+ miles over a year of riding not one flat on the Schwinn mountain bike.

I love my trek hybrid though, it rides so much faster and is a lighter bike to ride than the Schwinn mountain bike. Has a much smoother ride. I prefer riding the lighter hybrid trek bike and prefer it over the heavier bulkier Schwinn mountain bike. It is a lighter bike and I can go a lot faster on it. I was wondering what I can do to try to avoid flats on the trek hybrid in the future?

3,000 miles in one year on a mountain bike? In Chicago? Did you ride through the winter without a single flat? Or was the 3,000 miles mostly in the spring, summer and fall?

05-09-17 | 06:23 AM

#29

drlogik

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Joined: Mar 2016

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Bikes: '87-ish Pinarello Montello; '89 Nishiki Ariel; '85 Raleigh Wyoming, '16 Wabi Special, '16 Wabi Classic, '14 Kona Cinder Cone, 2023 Surly Disk Trucker

Flats seem to come and go. For me they come in bursts with months in-between the bursts. There's no explaining it. Maybe if we figure out how 5 pairs of socks go into the laundry/wash and only 4 1/2 come out we'll find the answer to flats.

05-09-17 | 06:25 AM

#30

autonomy

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Joined: Jun 2016

Posts: 984

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From: Boston Roads

Bikes: 2012 Canondale Synapse 105, 2017 REI Co-Op ADV 3.1

Quote:

Originally Posted by jefnvk

Took me about two and a half years after getting back into riding to flat. Flatted a second time two weeks later. They are part of riding. Carry a pump, tire levers, and a spare tube or patch kit, and the knowledge to use them.

Also, I'd be willing to bet your old MTB had knobby tires, which really help with flats on road. Kinda suck to ride on the road, though.

Topeak Road Morph G. Use it as your every day pump, it is strong and quick enough, if you really want. IT'll do both, although annoying to change the internal bits around.

I'm working towards a pump on every bike, nothing more discouraging than starting a ride knowing you left the pump on the other bike and hoping for no flats.

Second all of these. You HAVE to know how to fix flats out in the wild AND need to carry the tools to do so with you.

Knobs on MTB tires = no flats because your tube is protected by 1/4" of rubber, but you're losing waaay more energy than you should be to the flexing of the rubber (both knobs & low-pressure tires).

I've been using the Road Morph G for over 5 years, great pump, goes up to 100PSI no problem. One thing I hate about it is the gauge though - have they managed to fix that? Mine is hard to read with the white & black marks.

Oh, and do look at more puncture-resistant tires (like the aforementioned Schwalbe Marathon - seems to be the touring tire of choice). I put Maxxis Xenith on my MTB because I got tired of fighting the knobby tires and the ride improved dramatically. Years later there are all sorts of cuts & nicks in the contact strip with all kinds of rocks and small pieces of glass embedded in them, but haven't flatted in over a year (when a large shard of glass made its way to the tube)

Last edited by autonomy; 05-09-17 at 06:30 AM.

05-09-17 | 12:09 PM

#31

jefnvk

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Joined: Apr 2015

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From: Metro Detroit/AA

Bikes: 2016 Novara Mazama

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Learned that the hard way .... and not the first time, sadly. Like mini-tools and spare tubes/tires irons .... Cheap enough to have on every bike and Well worth it.

Thankfully, I learned the other way: I also moved the saddlebag back and forth, forgot that but had the pump. The puncture was a slow enough leak I could get about a mile before having to pump it back up, managed to hobble back to the car. Stopped on the drive home to buy one for each bike

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRT2

I zip tied the bracket to my top tube. 4 years this way. Works fine.

Mine came with zip ties for that purpose. I don't see any way to actually run it to a bottle mount. Made it real easy to move it from bike to bike, too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by autonomy

I've been using the Road Morph G for over 5 years, great pump, goes up to 100PSI no problem. One thing I hate about it is the gauge though - have they managed to fix that? Mine is hard to read with the white & black marks.

Nope, still a PITA, although much less of a PITA than unhooking the pump and using a gauge.

05-09-17 | 12:58 PM

#32

alcjphil

Senior Member

Joined: Jun 2002

Posts: 6,655

Likes: 2,253

From: Montreal, Quebec

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcours2006

Make sure your tires are inflated properly.

The narrower tires on the new bike require much higher pressure than the "thick" tires on the old one. They will also have to be checked much more frequently, the narrower they are, the more often they must be checked. Puncture resistant or not, under inflated tires are vulnerable to pinch flats. Since you don't actually know what caused your flat, you don't yet know if better tires will cure the problem

05-09-17 | 01:29 PM

#33

alcjphil

Senior Member

Joined: Jun 2002

Posts: 6,655

Likes: 2,253

From: Montreal, Quebec

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtb_addict

Install expensive wide tire with anti-punction-layer technology.

There are sometimes limits to how wide a tire you can install, and anti puncture protection layers cannot protect against pinch flats

05-09-17 | 03:38 PM

#34

littleArnold

Thread Starter

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Joined: Apr 2017

Posts: 113

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From: Chicago, IL

Bikes: Trek, Schwinn, Huffy

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRT2

3,000 miles in one year on a mountain bike? In Chicago? Did you ride through the winter without a single flat? Or was the 3,000 miles mostly in the spring, summer and fall?

It was in spring, summer, and fall.

I think what I am going to do is alternate between hybrid and mountain bike. On the paths with more debris and possible road hazards I will ride the mountain bike and on the paths that tend to be more clear from road hazards and fallen debris I will ride the hybrid. After a bad storm when most likely there will be a lot of fallen branches on bike path, I will ride the mountain bike.

I also will get some equipment to replace a flat just in case. I am assuming I could buy everything I need to replace a flat from the Trek store.

Last edited by littleArnold; 05-09-17 at 03:41 PM.

05-09-17 | 04:34 PM

#35

MRT2

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Joined: Jun 2007

Posts: 6,319

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From: Wisconsin

Bikes: 2012 Salsa Casseroll, 2009 Kona Blast

Quote:

Originally Posted by littleArnold

It was in spring, summer, and fall.

I think what I am going to do is alternate between hybrid and mountain bike. On the paths with more debris and possible road hazards I will ride the mountain bike and on the paths that tend to be more clear from road hazards and fallen debris I will ride the hybrid. After a bad storm when most likely there will be a lot of fallen branches on bike path, I will ride the mountain bike.

I also will get some equipment to replace a flat just in case. I am assuming I could buy everything I need to replace a flat from the Trek store.

You really don't need to, and you need to figure out the cause of your last puncture. And besides, mountain bike tires get punctures, too. You might have just gotten lucky before. Learn how to deal with fixing a flat, consider upgrading your tires, check your tire pressure before each ride and top your tires off if the pressure is low and you should be fine. My only puncture last year was a freak thing. The valve stem sprung a leak at the base where the valve stem meets the tube, and that had nothing to do with anything other than maybe a manufacturing defect. The time before that was two years ago, when my rim strip slipped, exposing the tube to the sharp edges of the inside of the rim. Again, a freak thing that could happen to anyone, at any time.

05-11-17 | 01:50 PM

#36

autonomy

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Joined: Jun 2016

Posts: 984

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From: Boston Roads

Bikes: 2012 Canondale Synapse 105, 2017 REI Co-Op ADV 3.1

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRT2

The valve stem sprung a leak at the base where the valve stem meets the tube, and that had nothing to do with anything other than maybe a manufacturing defect.

I had that happen to me too and fixed it temporarily with some glue and a zip tie - but I was wondering if maybe it was caused by improper tube installation such that the stem is not centered in the rim and rubs against it?