How long should a (rear) bike tire last?

[lordofthemark]

Took the Dew back to Bikenetic after experiencing first a flat, then (after getting a new tube at Spokes) a slow leak on the rear. They pointed out that the tire was almost smooth, and was beginning to tear, and suggested I buy a new one, which I did. I have had the bike about 21 months, and have ridden I guess over 2000 miles.

Though I am not a gutter bunny, I probably do ride in bad spots too much – shoulders, terrible pavement on Maine Avenue (and until recently North Hampton) unswept bike lanes, etc. Is that why I am having problems, or was the Dew tire just not meant to last?

Topic

[Anonymous]

@sethpo 124449 wrote:

How hard are these to get on the rim?

I’ve been skeptical of tubeless on my commuter for fear of not being able to fix a puncture on the side of the road.

So I now have a puncture on my rear tubeless. It’s about the diameter of a large safety pin, maybe a bit bigger. Big enough to easily find visually just by looking for the hole in the tire. I do not know what caused it. I did not notice when I did it, because… my tire did not go completely flat, or even particularly close. The sealant alone held it to about 50psi. When I noticed it was low, I pumped it up to about 75 psi, and the sealant did not hold at that pressure. It leaked down to about 50, then sealed back up again. This is when I looked for, and found, the hole. I used one of the little plug things hozn described (thanks hozn!) and it is fixed. It’s been about a week and still holding fine. I did not need to take the tire off to fix it. With a normal tire-with-tube, and would definitely have had to replace the tube, and probably would have had to do it road/trailside. I have definitely had smaller punctures in tubes that did not hold air long enough to ride home. This way, didn’t have a problem while riding, and easy-peasy to fix. VERY VERY HAPPY.

[hozn]

That has also been my experience that the sealant doesn’t hold at “road pressures” — but also that riding at 50psi is just fine on a large-enough tubeless tire.

I am glad the plug repair worked!!

[Author]

Replies