the first i shrugged off. the second got me annoyed, and the third was just me trying to get home to figure out what the problem was. my front tube has three holes in three different places. whats the deal? i cleaned out the tire and wheel, but that plastic that covers teh holes in my wheel is ripped up. could this be the problem?

yes it could be. i recommend velox cloth rim tape, it's good stuff.

exactly +1

Same thing happened to me. That is definitely the problem. Get some real rim tape.

yeah gotta get some rim tape i suppose. unfortunately every bike shop in philly seems to be closed. guess ill be on the bus tomorrow :-(

2 layers of electrical tape will do just fine

u need gator skins.

electrical tape's adhesive gets gooey when hot-- even the marginal summer heat of the midwest can do this-- and then your protective layer o' tape starts getting pushed around. This can expose your tubes to the sharp nasty stuff in there. Go plunk down a couple bucks on some real cloth tape!

melted electric tape is the ****ing worst!

I'm looking into buying one of these tomorrow. I hear they corner better and roll smoother than the armadillo ACs. With hope it won't be $32 down the crapper.

where are the holes? if theyre on the inside of the tube, then its the old rimtape. if its on the outside, you didnt clean out the inside of the tire good enough (still have a shard in there).

should replace ratty rimtape regardless of the cause though.

Also, electrical tape is very elastic; I noticed this when I fixed a flat last weekend, and looked at how my electrical tape rim strips were holding up. Every single crossing of the spoke holes had a LARGE impression in it. This weekend (thanks rain!) I'll be taking my tires and tubes off my bikes and putting on some medical tape (bike shop recommended).

+1 medical tape.