had my first spill today... why?
 

well, i finally had the pleasure of experiencing road rash first hand. hopefully you all can shed some light on why. FWIW, i have a new(three week old) specialized allez elite with less than 200 miles on it, which i love. tires are specialized pro(?) pumped up to 120 PSI, mounted on alex 298 rims. i was just warming up and comming to a slight downhill which runs into a three-way intersection. after checking all three ways, and only seeing a car behind me a good distance(100-150meters behind), i decided i would take the corner slightly more aggressively than usual(first mistake?..). the corner is about a 45 degree corner back up a slight grade(315 degrees? either way its pretty much back up the hill i am currently riding down.) so i swing way out on the road that im going down to cut down the angle and enter the turn at about 17-18 mph. the next thing i hear is the explosive decompression of my rear tire. before i know it im sliding across the asphalt. luckily i saved the frame from getting scratched, but the bar tape is in pretty sad shape, bifter is scratched, the rear der. is scratched and so is my pedal. the guy in the car that was behind me actually is a professor at my college oddly enough, he offered to give me a ride home, but i was only about a quarter mile away from campus. the tire seemed like it "rolled" off about half the rim(if that makes sense...) tire seems to be fine, no punctures, or scrapes, i rubbed down the inside of the tire to check for any sharp objects, and i checked the rim. nothing seemed out of the ordinary. so, my question for you guys is why would my tire just decide to explode? any reason that you can think of? just a fluke of nature? any reason at all? im going to see if the lbs where i bought the bike will fix it, they have a lifetime parts warranty. but i would just like to know if there is something i can do to prevent this in the future.

P.S. im alright scratched up my ankle and knee pretty good, and got a nice patch of road rash on my thigh but other than that im fine.

You flatted and fell off....just happened to be mid corner.

Welcome to cycling.

Because you suck. Just kidding. You just got unlucky. I'll leave the forensics to the rest of the BF squad.

Are there any rips or holes in the tyre? What does the hole in the tube look like? Is it ghastly huge with frayed edges? Line up the tube with the tyre if you know where the tyre was mounted on the rim (that's why you put the label next to the valve-stem). Flip the tyre around as there can be two spots where the hole can line up. Then inspect those spots for damage on the tyre.

If the tyre's OK, then most likely an improperly mounted tyre. The tube got pinched between the tyre and rim when installing. With a loose-fitting tyre & rim combo, it usually blows right as you're pumping it up. WIth a tight tyre & rim pair, it can take a while to work itself out. In this case, maybe under cornering, you rolled over that spot and pushed the tyre away from the rim just enough for the tube to make its final escape and blew!

Whenver mounting tyres, always pull the tyre away from the rim and take a look down the gap between the tyre and rim-edge. There shouldn't be any tube showing. Move over a little bit and pull the tyre away again. Work your way around the entire tyre on BOTH sides and inspect for pinched tubes. Then pump it up. Some people even suggest to pump up to 1/2 operating pressure and check for lumps and lobsided sidewalls, which would indicate a pinched tube. But these may not show up on tight-fitting high-pressure tyres.

My theory is that a sniper with a pelet gun shot out your tire as you entered the turn.

Either that, or you flatted at a bad time.

Lol....


As he rode past a grassy knoll....

You may be laughing but that's one thing I started wondering when my rim failed like it did 2 weeks ago! Velocity is eagerly awaiting my wheels because they can't figure out what would make a rim come apart NOT at the seam like that.

But yeah, your tire flatted while cornering. The only way you can avoid that is to run tubulars, which are easier to handle when flat and they get flats less often. The downside is you have to carry an extra tire instead of a tube and you have to glue the tire on. It's possible the tire wasn't seated in the rim properly, so make sure when you replace the tire that it isn't pinching the tube or bulging out of the rim anywhere. Other than that, sh*t happens... like it did to me. Both of us are lucky to not be injured worse.

Ditto to what Danno said.

You probably didn't have the tire properly mounted.

Something else you may want to check, is can you easily remove/replace the tire, by hand alone? After a bit of practice you shouldn't necessarily need tire levers, but it should be a slow, and somewhat arduous process to mount/remove a tire. If it's sliding on and off easily, the tire may be defective.

Been there, done that. Now I have a nasty scar on my right shin. You almost described my accident from 12/29/04 perfectly.

hmmm.. well i guess ill just suck it up and hope it doesnt happen again. im taking it in to the lbs where i got it so ill have them put the tire back on and check that i fits properly.

yep, blowout at the worst time. Did you pinch the tube upon install? or the shop?

How many psi did you pump the tire to before you took it out that day?