Bendopolo

Picked these screws up on the road on my 30 mile ride. I figure that is 9 less flats people will have. I have flatted on both nails and screws on my Bike as well as as my Truck.

shelbyfv 

Good job!

Rolla

A local guy hooked a magnetic sweeper to the back of his Surly Big Dummy and picked up nine pounds of metal from the bike lane one afternoon.

indyfabz

One of three flats I got during my 6,000 mile tour in the US was from a screw. During a long weekend tour I rolled over a screw maybe 3 miles into the first day. When I bought my Subaru I got a flat from a screw one week after I picked it up from the dealership. I hate getting screwed.

kahn

I got a flat from one of these once. Really nice!!!

10 Wheels

Close

Troul 

Screw that junk.

A roofing nail has claimed a rear wheel of mine. Definitely can say I "nailed" it!

kahn

Well, I don't really like your post. But YUP! And that's about where I got my puncture tread/sidewall area. Nasty buggers. Well, all those extra large 'gashers" are nasty. But, at least, the reason for the flat is pretty evident.

MattTheHat 

Nine pounds? There’s a how do you drive a bike lane cleaning weight weenie crazy joke in there somewhere.

spelger

I've lived here in reno for 16ish years and it has been perpetual construction. If I stopped to pick up every screw, nail, bolt, washer, or nut I could open a hardware store. And stock it with the tools I have stopped for to boot.

nice job by the way.

Bill in VA

Every auto flat I have ever had has been from a screw. The one positive is they do not come out easily and I had had some where the heads have worn off with no loss of air (BIG kudos to Michelin tires), plus they were through the tread, not the sidewall.

All my past bike flats have been from cuts, or in the tubular days, from the stitching coming loose.

rumrunn6

nursing one right now. nice little one. in the tread, on the surface. but kinda near the side. not sure a shop will want to repair it. no leakage. thinking about leaving it in there, but that would be a 1st for me. it's just a tiny dot of metal showing. the head, if it had one, has worn off. so curious to know how long it is tho! just bought 5 brand new tires in April. thinking about buying 2 new ones for the front & keeping the non damaged one in the basement ... maybe after vacation in July ...

Troul 

If it's in the last outer tread pattern, or farther out, then it's considered "sidewall:. You could plug/patch it yourself if it came down to it. Not hard to apply the patch or insert a plug.

SurferRosa

"Wanna screw?"
"Nah, too fatigued."
"Wanna bonk?"
"Maybe later if I'm fatigued enough."

Jax Rhapsody

ususlly. Last year I had a bolt in mine, I was going to have pulled and patched the next day, but I was delivering a pizza, doing about 85 on the expressway, heard the ping of the head breaking off and the tire blowing out. My bike flats are usually glass, or paper clip gauged metal things.

Bill in VA

From my experience that depends on the tire. I have had flats in the last tread row and was told they were fixable. Interestingly, twice, the repair place told me that is it was other than a Michelin, if would be a no-go. The reason was because of the width of the belts under the tread, and that if the flat was in the belt it could be fixed. Both times it was from different independent facilities. This has been the case from my VW Scirroco days in the late 80's up though current Michelin ATX all-terrain tires and also Pilot Sport UHP all season Z-rated tires.

The down side of waiting is that once the head of the screw wears off, the remaining threaded section could work its was through into the interior of the tire, unplugging the hole, with a much faster loss of air. I once had a flat on the bike from a thin piece of wire, maybe a brake cable or a paper staple. It was into the tread area. I debated cutting it off and leaving it there for the rest of the ride, do an immediate repair, or pull it out and see if it was through. I chose wrong as when I pulled it out, 100 pounds of air squealed out.

rumrunn6

after a 400 mile road trip in 100 degree heat I decided to have my car tire (pic above) looked at. think I got lucky. they said I was good to go. bought the tires in April. front & rear are down to 8/32nds on the flat part of the tires. the screw measures 11/32nds. looks like the tip grabbed some compound within the tire somewhere. I'll be keeping an eye on the tire's pressure ...

kahn

Yeah, but there are no cars on the infield!

woodcraft

I've thought of doing that- the local hill out of town gets a lot of debris bounced out of trucks & I have one of those wheeled magnets.

flangehead

I don’t have pictures but snagged a sawzall blade that ripped the sidewall of a new Schwable Marathon. I was able to boot it enough to limp home. Amazing how the physics works to put sharps into rear tires.

Thanks for picking up sharps. I try to clear tread carcasses from the road as they are a source of tire wire.

genejockey 

All my flats have been pinch flats from rocks I didn't see, glass, or Michelin wires. I imagine that magnet thingie would help with the last of those, but not so much with the first two.

CliffordK

As a pedestrian, I regularly pick up nails, screws, staples, etc. Less frequently as a cyclist. But, I did stop for a box of staples that had been dumped. One driver stopped (giving me a traffic break). The next complained about me saving him a trip to the tire shop.

I like that magnet idea. I picked up a little wheel powered rotary sweeper that I was hoping would pick up glass, but I don't think it would do very well on a single pass. So, perhaps multiple trips.

I have a harbor freight magnet that is a little wider than the one above that I may try when I have the ambition to just ride.

flangehead

Traffic count anchors are no fun either:



I mark ‘em when I find ‘em.

gios 

The first one was a tie down strap (buckle) I saw intact in the bike lane. It stayed there and passing it by every day for maybe a week I saw the buckle break apart, attesting to how cars veer off their path into ours all the time. Finally stopped to pick up the pieces and throw the belt off to the side. Second one is disconcerting as there's reports of parked car windows getting shot with bb / pellet guns. And if you hit that one on a night ride your front tire could slide out from under you.

Doug64

These little guys also cause a lot of flat bike tires.


When I was commuting on 23 mm tires, I literally nailed the tire to the rim when I ran over a small nail. The nail went through the tire, both sides of the tube, and punctured the wall of the rim.