bobco85’s broom karma

[Judd]

@anomad 172955 wrote:

Has anyone else noticed the absence of glass on the Mount Vernon Trail?

Before bobco85 left this Washington area for that Washington area he gave me a couple brooms. I didn’t realize they had the power to prevent broken glass from even appearing on the path. Maybe this good karma will extend to his new riding habitat if we all think about what an altruistic human being he is and put an end to his rash of flats.

Bobco leaves and there’s suddenly less glass on the MVT but all kinds of glass flatting him out in Seattle… Coincidence?

[bobco85]

Hey, guess what I got on my ride tonight? ANOTHER FLAT, YAY!!!

This one was on my front tire, and luckily I was about 200 feet from the spot at Alki Point I was going to hang out for a bit in order to get some photos of the Seattle skyline across Elliott Bay with my new camera. This one had the pssssSSSSSSsssssssSSSSSS (getting louder/softer as the wheel turned) sound. And I was riding on a trail, too (Alki Trail)! Cause of flat: metal staple, went right into and through the tire.

I believe this puts my flat count at 14 (3 front, 11 rear) since moving here in September 2017.

My bike commute takes me through the southern parts of Seattle including industrial areas with all kinds of goodies on the ground sometimes (glass, metal shavings, hypodermic needles, small rocks). A majority of my flats have come from riding in these areas, and even the mighty Continental Gatorskin tires that I eventually switched to after flat #8 have had their share of flats. I even had some awful ones that look like someone just slashed at the tires, and I had to change my commute route to compensate (it’s on some less comfortable roads, but I’ve gotten used to it along with finding more efficient solutions).

At the very least, I have gotten much more efficient at fixing a flat tire. If I get desperate, I will switch to chain mail tires (if they don’t exist yet, I’ll invent them)!

[Judd]

I switched to Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on the commuter and haven’t had a flat since.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[anomad]

@Judd 172982 wrote:

I switched to Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on the commuter and haven’t had a flat since.

Knock on wood, throw salt over shoulder etc..

[Sunyata]

Sounds like someone is a candidate for a tubeless tire setup on his commuter bike!

[Judd]

@anomad 172985 wrote:

Knock on wood, throw salt over shoulder etc..

I have probably cursed myself. I also commuted on a CaBi today though because I wasn’t sure if the building I shower in would be open. So all flats are currently someone else’s problem.

[Zack]

@Judd 172982 wrote:

I switched to Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on the commuter and haven’t had a flat since.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I used to use these too, never had a flat with them.

[AFHokie]

@Judd 172982 wrote:

I switched to Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on the commuter and haven’t had a flat since.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m amazed at some of the stuff I’ve run over on my Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tires and haven’t flatted.

[Rootchopper]

I had one flat last year. One. On the bike without Schwalbe Marathons or Marathon Pluses. That’s in nearly 10,000 miles.

There is a down side: I am now really bad at changing a flat.

[anomad]

I’m rolling on the “Schwalbe Marathon Touring Tyre – GreenGuard”. I’ve never flatted with them, but the ride quality is so bad I wish I hadn’t bought them. So I can look forward to that for another 10000 miles or so.

[n18]

You may want to ask in a Seattle based forum about where to ride if you haven’t done so already. The most active forum that I could find with simple search is http://forums.mtbr.com/washington/ which has about 5 posts/Day.

Seattle DOT main biking page. Here is a link about street sweeping which says that it’s handled by Seattle Public Utilities. Here is the main page for street sweeping, and there is a Contact Us link on the left side of the page.

Finally, here is a link to their Potholes page, and to the right, you can find a link to “Find It, Fix It Mobile App” to report problems.

Hope this helps!

[Starduster]

Previously on the Trek, I ran Continental Touring PLUS’s. I was boasting how they would stand up to everything short of a snapping turtle. Then I got a flat from a staple. Instant humility check.

Currently running Schwalbe Marathons. No flats. Yet. (The Ride Leader has just jinxed himself.)

[bobco85]

Well, based on the suggestions on this thread, I went out and bought a Schwalbe Marathon Plus tire for my rear wheel (I had already bought a Continental Gatorskin which will go on my front wheel). And…

…a few hours later, much frustration, and 3 broken tire levers (even my BikeArlington one!), I will let everyone know how it is once I put it on Wednesday evening after I stop at the bike shop to get a bead jack tire lever so that it’s actually possible to put the tire on the wheel. I tried watching a few how-to videos (including some that don’t use tire levers at all, it’s witchcraft, I tell ya), but I was unable to work the last part of the bead over the edge of the rim.

Oh, the flat count is now at 15 (3 front, 12 rear), as this morning I discovered a slow leak in the rear wheel that flatted it overnight.

The most frustrating thing is that I’ve gotten flats on roads, bike lanes, and trails alike, and back home in the DC area, I did ever-so-slightly less biking and managed to only have a handful of flats per year. The saga continues, but I’ll try to be more assertive in calling for pothole repairs and street-sweeping (I’ve reported one instance of a particularly bad road section).

In the meantime, I used my new camera to take some macro shots of each of the tires on my chinook bike that will be replaced tomorrow. I put the interesting parts of the images together into a collage to show the aftermath of 4 months of biking in the Seattle area. Check out my tires’ battlescars!

Front tire (~2,000 miles on it)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16454[/ATTACH]

Rear tire (~800 miles on it)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16455[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16456[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16457[/ATTACH]

[Judd]

@bobco85 173168 wrote:

Well, based on the suggestions on this thread, I went out and bought a Schwalbe Marathon Plus tire for my rear wheel (I had already bought a Continental Gatorskin which will go on my front wheel). And…

…a few hours later, much frustration, and 3 broken tire levers (even my BikeArlington one!), I will let everyone know how it is once I put it on Wednesday evening after I stop at the bike shop to get a bead jack tire lever so that it’s actually possible to put the tire on the wheel. I tried watching a few how-to videos (including some that don’t use tire levers at all, it’s witchcraft, I tell ya), but I was unable to work the last part of the bead over the edge of the rim.

Oh, the flat count is now at 15 (3 front, 12 rear), as this morning I discovered a slow leak in the rear wheel that flatted it overnight.

The most frustrating thing is that I’ve gotten flats on roads, bike lanes, and trails alike, and back home in the DC area, I did ever-so-slightly less biking and managed to only have a handful of flats per year. The saga continues, but I’ll try to be more assertive in calling for pothole repairs and street-sweeping (I’ve reported one instance of a particularly bad road section).

In the meantime, I used my new camera to take some macro shots of each of the tires on my chinook bike that will be replaced tomorrow. I put the interesting parts of the images together into a collage to show the aftermath of 4 months of biking in the Seattle area. Check out my tires’ battlescars!

Front tire (~2,000 miles on it)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16454[/ATTACH]

Rear tire (~800 miles on it)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16455[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16456[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]16457[/ATTACH]

Oh yeah, btw, the marathons are hard to get on the rim initially.

[LhasaCM]

@Judd 173173 wrote:

Oh yeah, btw, the marathons are hard to get on the rim initially.

Agreed. I’ve had good luck with the Crank Brothers tire levers (https://www.rei.com/product/843163/crankbrothers-speedier-tire-lever) – still not as easy as some, but much easier than by hand or using something else.

[Author]

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