Turbocruiser13

Flat tires cost money and take time out of riding and are a real bummer when you get them. Kinda like getting a flat tire in a car with slightly less expense.

And before you ask it because I know you probably will, I'm well aware that any hobby/sport/etc costs money and that's part of the game. Some people budget a little differently than others and a 5 dollar tube can mean I don't ride for a few days because I have to save my pennies for another 5 dollar tube. And yes, I know it only takes 5 minutes (if that, as it has already been mentioned) to change a tube so it can't take THAT much time out of my riding. If you're still questioning that statement, see the statement above. Some people can spend money like it's going out of style on their hobbies, while the other side of the coin obvserves people who spend 3 years trying to buy last year's bike. You can probably guess which side of the coin I'm on, considering my bike helmet still has the "November 1997" sticker on the inside of it.

lbear

This is me ignoring the fight.

Your right I missed that! Thanks jburks.

See how nice people post?
Maybe there should be "fight about unrelated stuff" thread.

umd

Although superficially similar, it's not really that close. Most cars don't even carry a full size spare, so you would probably be limping on a inferior wheel and tire. Althought the wheel change itself on a car is not too bad, it means that you are at some point going to have to take the car into a tire shop and get a new one, have it installed, etc. A much more time consuming and costly operation than changing a tube of a bike tire. Many car tires are in the $50/tire range, but mine are $250/tire, so in my case it is significantly more costly.

What about a patch kit? They are usually about $2 and can patch about 5 tubes, more if you cut them in half. If cost is an issue, what are you saving by having your wife drive out to get you? And if time is an issue, you don't seem to value your wife's time. I'm not trying to give you a hard time, I'm honestly trying to understand why changing a flat tire is such a big deal.

Turbocruiser13

Being in the automotive industry, NO tire is worth 250 dollars I can promise you that

Being in school full time at Universal Technical Institute means I get credit for changing out my own tires, which also helps.

I'm still trying to figure out why you say rolling on a donut is nothing like that of a bike because it's inferior. Wouldn't a bike tire/tube with a patch in it be inferior as well? A tire with a big gash in it is not inferior?

My wife has plenty of time to be doing other things so she and I are not worried about that. Part time LVN, part time RN student, part time Mom...everything plays out just fine. I typically don't go long distances away from home unless she is free at the house and she has no problems picking me up. If you haven't understood why I do the things I do by now, then you most likely won't ever. Why do people take the subway? Why DON'T people take the subway? Why are there door locks on 7-Elevens when they're open 24 hours a day? It all falls under a personal preference kind of thing (and probably insurance purposes for the latter) and that's why I do it. Not that I can't, not that I won't, I simply just don't.

mattm

but what if you're outside of cell reception areas?

just learn to fix a flat, all you need to carry is a tube (or just patches), tire irons, and a pump (or CO2). some can do it in 5 minutes.

Turbocruiser13

What part of I KNOW HOW TO FIX A FLAT does everybody fail to understand???

umd

Huge Z-rated tires are expensive.



An inner-tube with a patch is nothing like driving on a donut. If you actually have a "big gash" in your tire that cannot be booted then you are SOL anyway. Most people don't carry spare tires. Fortunately, such extreme damage is relatively rare.

You are being very selfish. Getting a flat ruins your day because the time it takes away from your ride, but its ok to take your wife's time to come and haul you away?

Personal preference is fine. If you want to do those things, it doesn't affect me. But my whole point is that you are saying that getting a flat ruins you day. I'm asking why let it ruin your day??? It doesn't have to ruin your day! If you just carry a patch kit and a pump, when you get a flat you take 5 minutes to fix it and continue on your way. Cost would be less than a dollar, there would be no more than 5 minutes of your time wasted and none of your wife's. No gas wasted picking you up. And you could continue on your ride and let the endorphins wash away the unhappiness of your flat.

Of course nobody likes getting a flat, but we all deal with it and move on.

What good does it do if you won't carry anything with you to fix it...

Turbocruiser13

Ugh...Pilot sports...I hated the way those things performed on my cruiser lol. Expensive to the consumer is one thing if you don't have your foot in the door with companies like that. I stick to straight line performance most of the time anyway, so my M&H slicks do the job well. I went to Kumho Z rated tires on the street because the handling IMHO was infact better than most tires I've tried costing 3 times the price. Not to mention, when the western division manager of kumho tires goes to church with you.... I've got a broken front sway bar right now anyways so I'm back to handling like a minivan again

[QUOTE-umd;7621603]If you actually have a "big gash" in your tire that cannot be booted then you are SOL anyway. Most people don't carry spare tires. Fortunately, such extreme damage is relatively rare.[/QUOTE]

Come take a ride through San Bernardino/Devore and then make that same statement Not exactly the best route to be riding really, but it's what I've got to work with

[QUOTE-umd;7621603]You are being very selfish. Getting a flat ruins your day because the time it takes away from your ride, but its ok to take your wife's time to come and haul you away?[/QUOTE]

My wife actually prefers this method. She worries about me on my rides and I can appreciate that. Anyone's wife who says "Be careful, call me if you have any problems" is a good wife in my book. At 24 years young being married for almost 6 years now I've already beat the odds, who am I to complain?

[QUOTE-umd;7621603]Personal preference is fine. If you want to do those things, it doesn't affect me. But my whole point is that you are saying that getting a flat ruins you day. I'm asking why let it ruin your day??? It doesn't have to ruin your day! If you just carry a patch kit and a pump, when you get a flat you take 5 minutes to fix it and continue on your way. Cost would be less than a dollar, there would be no more than 5 minutes of your time wasted and none of your wife's. No gas wasted picking you up. And you could continue on your ride and let the endorphins wash away the unhappiness of your flat.

Of course nobody likes getting a flat, but we all deal with it and move on.[/QUOTE]

To say that it ruins my day completely is probably an overstatement, if you will. I can still fully function like a normal human being throughout the course of the day, flat tires just stick with me in the back of my head all day. My last 2 flats have been unrepairable and happened within 14 miles of riding...nothin I can do about that and probably a day I won't forget because I SHOULD have been ran over by a toyota pickup. I got pushed towards the shoulder by a school bus and I got stuck in the crack that separates the gutter from the street, pinching my front tube and destroying it instantly while being tucked in at 28-30mph with a nice downhill descent. The front of the bike went left and I was on an unfamiliar set of shoes/cleats (hand me downs) so I couldn't clip out in time and ended up going down in 50mph traffic.

I guess the bottom line is I am the way I am because of bad experiences. I am fully capable of changing flat tires (I do it when I get home, so it still gets done anyways which proves I can do it lol) just due to the circumstances, even if I did fix the tubes on the road have been mentally unstable enough to climb back on the bike and coast home. I've only had less than a handful of flats, 2 of which were unrepairable, and 1 that I didn't even notice until the next day when I went to go riding again.

All things considered, all 3 flats were less than 2.5 miles from home if it makes any difference. I could have done the "walk of shame" but who wants to ruin a good pair of cleats?

mattm

so did you learn how to fix a flat yet??



































just kidding!

Turbocruiser13

*Bugsy voice* Ohhhh a wiiiiise guy ehhhh?

ridethecliche

You can ride however long you want to on a patched tube. I never put a new tube in after the patches hold.

Slime glueless patches are sweet. 2 dollars for like 6 of them, and they work damn well.

PS: Buy tubes in bulk. It's cheaper.

Turbocruiser13

Lol, so instead of saving my pennies just to buy one 5 dollar tube, I should save even more pennies to buy 5 tubes at 4 dollars? That's great advice and all, but it takes money to spend money

GP

I doubt if umd and Turbocruiser13 do the same type of rides or ride the same number of miles every year.

Calling your wife to come get you 2.5 miles from home is a little different than asking her to drive 50.

nobull60

I have the same bike and color. Just a bit larger. Love it !!!

lbear

Nobull60 your sig line says Defy Aluxx is it Defy or Defy A1?

umd

I was bored with this thread, but I got my ass on the trainer so now I'm in a better mood...

Those are the stock tires for the car. I've replaced them a few times but I've been happy enough with the performance. I don't have an "industry connection" so pretty much any Z-rated tire that size is going to cost 2 bills. The last time they were replaced (recently) I was at the mercy of whatever they had in stock at whatever shop I could find that could squeeze me in in short notice on a busy weekend, when my tire blew out on the way to a race. Unfortunately I was already using my spare after an accident back in January shredded the tire on the other side. It was not the spare and it was not a Pilot that blew out, it was an XGT Z4. Fortnately the extremely stiff sidewalls saved the expensive rims from damage. Anyway, I care about cornering and that car corners like its on rails. I'm not a race car driver, I probably wouldn't notice if I had "better" tires. They are also all season tires that handle well in the wet and have a reasonably long life, for a Z-rated tire.

If you are regularly getting big gashes in your tires you are doing something wrong.

There is a difference between being willing to come help you if you need it, and not not being prepared so that you always need help.

Again, there is a difference between an unfortunate situation, and being prepared for a common situation. I wouldn't characterize what you described as "having a flat". To say that the accident you described put a damper on your day is understandable. To say that a typical repairable flat ruins your day to the point that you would rather call your wife and get picked and grumble about it in the car rather than fix it and move on defies logic.

What was that about not being a noob?

If all you ever do is ride a few miles from home that may be a workable plan. But in the long term if you don't bite the bullet and carry something to repair your flat and grow some balls to be willing to change it, you are going to end up stranded on the road somewhere without your wife available to come rescue you.

That's a good point. I actually ride my bike more than a few miles from my house. For the record, I have had my wife come and get me, several times. She has never complained about doing it, but I believe in being prepared and trying to resolve the problem myself first. The last time unfortunately involved driving me to the hospital...

roadiejorge 

There have only been a few times I've had to call the rescue wagon and that's only if I can't repair it myself or can't walk to a bike shop. I like to reserve those kinds of calls for emergencies only and I try to keep those to a minimum; the last one was years back when I crashed and was taken to the hospital.

calRider

Turbo, given that gas cost, say, $3.60/gal, you should keep your rides really close to home, or the price of gas to come pick you up will be more than that of a tube, n'est-ce pas?

Turbocruiser13

The Mrs gets 29mpg and never has to go more than a few miles to pick me up...gas mileage is minimal at this point. Besides...we're down to $3.31 now!

I can definitely say that I don't venture too far from home...the farthest away from home I've ridden (when leaving from my house) has been probably 22-23 miles. In that case, I had my dad with me and another rider, both of which had spare tubes and whatnot so I didn't have to worry about it. My dad always carries all the necessary stuff for emergencies and I ride with him quite often. If I don't ride with him, I'll keep it local incase something happens or if I need to be home asap (with a 21 month old son, anything's possible), thus not having the need to have the bike loaded down with accessories. If you want to take it to another level, I just got my first hand me down light set 2 weeks ago (batteries only hold about a 1 1/2 hour charge though) and just yesterday I got my first computer.

And the comment about me being a noob because of my minimal flat tires is one sided. Just because I only have a handful of flats doesn't mean I've logged that many miles. My beater bike has always had armadillos with mr. tuffys in them so I never got flats. The last 3 flats I had were on stock michelin crap tires that came with the bike I had just barely purchased and hadn't switched over my other tires yet. I'm actually still rolling on the michelins till they wear out, just threw the tuffys in for some extra protection. I know the combination works considering my dad (at 280+lbs) got 2478 miles out of his armadillos with mr tuffys. Just for the hell of it, I pulled out 11 bullthorns, 2 staples, and some unknown chunk of metal out of his old rear tire and not one flat ever came from them. I figure at almost 80lbs less than my dad, I SHOULD get the same results, thus another reason for not running around with tubes, patch kits, and a pump (which I don't even own a pump)

And as I stated before...tire gashes are rather common around these parts. There's always glass on the side of the road and all kinds of miscleaneous crap as well. Not even a week ago my dad hit something in the road on his way to work that cut both tires down instantly...not much you can do with somethin like that.

JohnKScott

Yay

Love mine more every time I ride it!

MONGO!

I don't have any "feelings" about flats, they're just a minor problem that gets solved in 5 mins.

But, yeah, you ride your way...in your wife's car sulking about your flat tire

ridethecliche

Fixed.

Turbocruiser13

HAHAHA please guys don't hurt my feelings! This thread is still funny

fitzpch

JohnKScott -
Great bike you have. I too am coming off a flat bar bike and am going back to a road bike for the first time in almost 20 yrs. I just purchased the Defy 1 and will pick it up tomorrow. I could afford the Alliance but they didn't have one for me to test ride and I liked the feel of the Defy 1 enough to pick it without waiting. Interesting that my LBS owner didn't try to over-sell by pushing the Alliance. He didn't think I'd notice that much difference and it looks like you did like both bikes. In fact, I am having them switch out the triple for a compact so the only difference between the two choices will be the frame.

Sounds like the main pluses for your Alliance choice were the compact (which I'm getting) and cornering ability. Anything else come to mine or would you have been almost as happy with the Defy 1?

Also, what type of lights do you have? I've never really considered riding that early on my old bike but now that I'm getting this road bike, I might want to give it a try to get in miles during the week in the Fall and Spring.

Thanks for the info on your purchase!!!
Fitz

vger285

Thats like a guy who can't clean his rifle!(AKA Motor Pool Dude!)KP and the like!!