orguasch

yesterday(July 4,2002), I was out riding and I have this gut feeling so I brough along my mini Blackburn Double action Pump, guess what I had 5 flats, I was pissed and mad, so the first bike store I came across, I bought the Michellin Axial "Giro de Italia, hope its not the same as the old Michellin I had..keeping the fingers cross

Inkwolf

Five flats in one ride?

LittleBigMan

I would be too!

DnvrFox

Specialized Armadillos

1oldRoadie

did you check and find out what caused the flats? If you don't run your fingers inside the tire before you put a new tube in, you can leave in the culprit (thorn, glass, nail, etc).

I had a similar problem at the Tour De Paris...Paris Texas that is.
After using both my and my wifes extra tubes and patching tubes on the side of the road, for a total of 7 flats with in an hour. I finially found a loose spoke that would flex into the tube and cut it.

AndrewP

Last Friday I had 3 flats on the way to work in my front wheel - with Armadillos. The flats were on the inside of the tubes. I think they were caused by inadequate rim tape that was not covering the sharp edges of some of the holes for the spokes. That evening I deburred the edges of the holes and put on new rim tape.

p38karl

I would not only be pissed and mad, I would be Irritated also. Karl

orguasch

and I haven't fix or patch the hole on the 4 inner tubes, that i have, will do that in time for my regular bike ride sometime next week

Bender_Unit_22

I use slime liners and haven't gotten a flat yet

DnvrFox

Hey, guy, even Armadillos can't protect against bad rim tape. So, I am not quite sure why you emphasized that you were using Armadillos when your spokes gave you flats. You could have had a steel tire and the same thing would have happened, or on the other hand, a $7.00 X-Mart tire.

Armadillos or not had nothing to do with these flats.

Cadd

I have them on my Specialized Sirrus Sport, and so far so good. No complaints and no flats yet (knocking on wood).

Cadd

DnvrFox, how do you tell if you have good rim tape or not? I never check mine out. My bike is 100% stock. How much are rim tapes? And how do I know if the one I have on my wheels are good?

I'll check them sometime this week to see.

Sorry, but a little off topic here:
How do you take off the back wheel properly? Which gear should your chain be on? The gear closest to the spokes or the gear all the way to the right? Or does it not matter?

Thx.

AndrewP

You know youve got bad rim tape if you get punctures on the inside of the tubes. The spokes didnt cause the punctures because the ends of the spokes are about 1cm below the rim tape. I noticed that the rim tape wasnt completely covering some of the holes in the rim.

Stor Mand

I had several flats - 3 front & 2 rear over a couple months. Happened to notice that they were in the same spot each time and it ended up being the rim tape. Specialized may have put the wrong tape for the pressue (125 psi) that the tire required. When riding in high temperatures (90+) the tape softened considerably and the tube was pushing through the tape. Happened on my wifes Sirrus also.

mechBgon

As a weight weenie in remission, I can tell you the woes of inadequate rim tapes. Velox is one solution that has never let anyone down that I've seen, unless they have spokes that are protruding, and it's about US$3-4. It is not the lightest thing around, but it will work for practically forever and can oftentimes be removed and re-used.

One of the downsides of Velox is that it is somewhat thick and will increase the effective diameter of the rim bed a little, making tires a bit harder to remove compared to something very thin like Rox rim tape.

edit: I guess I should add that many road and mountain bikes come with inadequate rim tape which is not wide enough and/or caves into the spoke holes, exposing the inner tube to the edges of the holes. Deflate your tires, roll them to one side, and peek in there.