flat tires

[jrenaut]

I blame the earthquake for my flat yesterday. I found out about it when I was going to bed and went to hang the bike on the ceiling. Awesome to change my first tube when I thought I was going to be asleep in five minutes. But I was successful – made it in to work this morning uneventfully. Next up – trying to patch the tube I took off the wheel.

[invisiblehand]

@acorn 7193 wrote:

I keep getting flats in my bike’s rear tire. The tire itself seems fine, but the tubes keep getting holes. I even replaced the rim tape. What could be going on? I don’t think I’m over-inflating. What should I check?

(1) ** Read what Sheldon has to say. **
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/flats.html

If that doesn’t help, here is my quick list …

(1) Are the holes on the outside (facing tire) or inside (facing rim) of the tube?
(2) Are they “snakebite” flats? http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/snakebites.html
(3) If outside, note the place on the tire where the hole occurs. If it occurs in roughly the same place, look very carefully for some sharp object on the inside of the tire. Sometimes this can be a piece of the tire — wire or other material.
(4) If inside, note the place on the rim where the hole occurs. If the rim tape is cheap, I’ve noticed that the tape can sometimes slide when people use a lubricant to seat a tire.
(5) If you’re desperate, I would check the outside of the tire looking for anything embedded in the tire. I’d remove the debris with a pin or something similar.

[invisiblehand]

@eminva 7233 wrote:

All right, I’ve got to ask the opposite question . . . how do you know when your tires are worn out if you AREN’T getting flats? My tires have 3900 miles, show no bald patches like Pete’s photo, although they are sort of “flattening” in the middle like in Pete’s photo.

The number of flats, as Dirt writes below, is probably the first signal. I generally look for tread, bumps, or other irregularities in the tire.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tires.html#replacement

@Dirt 7241 wrote:

1) Many unexplained flats.
2) Visible flat spots, lack of tread or casing showing through. Dry rot on the tire is another sign… cracks in the rubber or casing.
3) The tires start to feel really slow. There is definitely a point where I can feel the tires holding me back. It kind-of sneaks up on you, though. It is a gradual thing. Slight inclines that usually are a breeze to power up become more labored.

I’ve always found worn tires roll better since the tread is smoothed and the casing becomes more flexible such that rolling resistance decreases. In fact, there are people that shave their tires to “wear them out” faster.

http://janheine.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/summer-2011-bicycle-quarterly/

[Greenbelt]

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On the way home on Tuesday, my rear tire literally bubbled up. This picture shows a flat spot or bulge developing after the first few miles (hot pavement, mid-afternoon sun on the MBT).

By the time I limped in to my LBS after about 12 or 13 miles, the bulge was 3 inches long, and a half inch of extra tire depth. It felt like riding on a tire with a square spot — made a lot of noise every rotation and bounced. Shop mechanics said they’d never seen anything like it, but suspected it was a design or manufacturing flaw triggered by heat.

These were there new tires I just put on a couple weeks ago. I wish I had taken a picture of the inside bubbles when we took the tire off, because now a couple days later the tire looks normal.

So anyways, I went back to a standard cx tire on the rear. There’s no evidence of the front tire doing anything similar, so I left that one on for now. But I want my $50 back from specialized! Those were expensive tires to mess up after a couple weeks just because the pavement was too hot? Gimme a break. Anyone heard of anything like this?

[Dirt]

The shop where you bought them should stand behind them. Specialized and their dealers have pretty good support. There are some manufacturers that do not, but Specialized has had a good rep from what I’ve heard. If you bought them mail order, you’re probably SOL.

—
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=38.895386,-77.029838

[Greenbelt]

Bought them online — will send them a note with the picture and see what they say. If they don’t respond, I’ll chew out their reps at Interbike!

[Greenbelt]

Update: Specialized replaced the tire that separated. It arrived today. Excellent customer service, and much appreciated!

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Hi,

Sorry you have had this problem with one of our tires.

I have just placed an order to have a replacement tire sent out to you. Once you receive the new tire please cut the bead of the bad tire and dispose of it to prevent the tire from being used by someone that may not know the tire is damaged.

Thanks for using our products and have a great weekend.

Bob
Specialized Online Store Customer Service
Specialized Bicycle Components
1475 S. 5070 W. Ste. A
Salt Lake City, UT 84104
877-808-8154

________________________________________
From:
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 5:03 PM
To: Store CustomerService
Subject: FW: Your Specialized Order 899075

Hi,

One of my new tires (see order info below) literally bubbled up on the road earlier this week. I have attached a picture from when it started, when it was a pretty small bulge out on the sides. The inner and outer sections of the tire separated and a bubble formed in between. The main bulge was about 3 inches long, with smaller bubbles going half way around the tire. My bike shop had never seen anything like it, and speculated that is was due to hot pavement. The other tire I bought has not had this problem, so I presume it was a manufacturing defect, not a design flaw.

Could you replace the tire or credit my credit card account for the $50?

[eminva]

Okay, the bell finally tolls for me. I got my first flat this evening. I mentioned above that I had about 3900 miles on these tires; this is my first day back after vacation so the mileage is not much higher now.

The flat occurred about two blocks from home and I was rapidly losing daylight, so I walked the bike home to change the flat at home (although I had everything I needed on the bike). This is my first real flat change outside of practice at the Bike Shop flat classes.

For you neophytes out there, it went well! It only took me about 10 times as long as a normal person.:rolleyes:

Because I was at home, there was plenty of time to troubleshoot the cause of the flat. There was a little piece of glass embedded in the tire right at the valve stem.

Some observations:

1. The Old Man Mountain rack made the process quite a bit more difficult (it was the rear tire that was flat). The whole skewer had to be removed.
2. In the great outdoors during non-daylight hours, a helmet light would be really handy for this operation. Yet another reason to consider that upgrade.
3. In an abundance of caution, next time I’m in a bike shop I’m going to ask if they think it’s time to replace the tires. It sounds like my mileage is pretty high comparatively; they don’t owe me anything.
4. It’s really unfortunate I can’t find the grease removing hand soap at the moment.

Liz

[5555624]

@eminva 7852 wrote:

4. It’s really unfortunate I can’t find the grease removing hand soap at the moment.

I keep a pair of latex gloves with my spare tube and patch kit. They keep my hands clean when I change a flat away from home.

[CCrew]

Must be the time of year for it. Took a flat this morning on the way in on M street.. Just after it started raining hard of course :p

20 miles on the tire.. gotta love it.

[Greenbelt]

My wife got her first commuting flat this week (construction staple). I haven’t put my new (replaced) kevlar tire back on. I did try an experiment with a regular tire, however. Instead of using a normal tube, I got a heavy “thornless” tube when I replaced my last tire. I can say two things: first, the thornless tube doesn’t lose air hardly at all, and second, that thing weighs a ton on the bike! Really makes the bike feel heavy and sluggish. Don’t know if I’d recommend except for very strong riders who don’t mind the extra workout.

I’m hoping someone will manufacture the perfect tire for me, but I haven’t found it yet: at 35mm CX-style tread tire with the kevlar flat resistance of the Armadillo (but that doesn’t separate on hot pavement).

[Author]

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