Solorouleur

Just mounted a new pair of Continental GP 4 Season tires on my bike last week...

Put about 500km on them, and then a few days ago I got a rear flat. When I changed the tube on my ride, I couldn't find anything that was stuck in the tire, or even a hole in the tire where the puncture occurred. So, since I only had one tube with me and didn't want to have to use my patch kit, I limped my way home being extra careful.

When I did get home, I re inflated the tire to the pressure that I ride at (95psi) and I did a close visual inspection. I attached the pictures of what I found.

A few questions...

1) What could have caused all these little punctures in the tire in such a short period of time? I don't remember running over anything...My front tire has none of these blemishes - one would assume that if I ran over something there would be at least one small hole or imperfection on it...

2) Should I continue riding on this tire? I don't really feel like putting down another $70 for a tire at my LBS or waiting two weeks for a tire to come from PBK or Chain Reaction...

3) If I have to wait for another tire, is there a temporary fix that I can apply to this tire to make it safe to ride on? (Some kind of bike superglue or patch...)

Thanks in advance...

10 Wheels

Glass and rock chips do that.

Use these on the large cuts.



Duct tape in the small cuts inside the tire.

doctor j

Could be small chunks of glass or metal or wires from steel belted radial tires.

If the hole in the tire is very small, just install a new or repaired tube, and keep on riding

If the hole is a couple of millimeters or so, a new tube when inflated may try to work its way through the hole, and it will pop eventually. In a case like this, I've placed a tube patch (glue patch) on the inside of the tire.

If there is a cut, rip etc., I would get a new tire.

I carry two tubes, a patch kit, and a tire boot (perchance I have a blow-out or big cut in a tire). The boot will get you home (and not much more).

pcfxer

Not necessarily. You may have run over the same objects with the front tire, but a lot more weight rests on the rear than the front so the opposite is true. Every now and then you get lucky and puncture the front and quite well at that.

Your tire is fine. Punctures are part of the game....sorry to say. At least you can spend $3-$10 for a tube where I have to slap a new tubular on and maybe repair the punctured on.

GP

If you haven't done it already, deflate the tire again, squeeze the cuts and see if there's little pieces of glass or wire in them. If you find some, pick them out with a tiny screwdriver or something. Unless you have a fairly big cut, over 1/4" or so, on the inside of the tire, I wouldn't worry about it. I looked at my tires today and there're several little cuts on each.

johnny99

Look for the hole in the tube. Or look on the inside of the tire. Usually much easier to diagnose the problem from there than from the outside of the tire. If you just slap a new tube in without figuring out what caused the flat, the same problem will often cause a new flat in exactly the same place.

Solorouleur

Thanks for the replies...

I will dismount the tire tonight and follow the advice given.