My Evening Commute

[phog]

To the fella with the “#9” racing tag on the corner of the back of his shirt, heading West on the W&OD in Arlington… I had to slow down for that dog walker because the retractable leash was allowing the dog to randomly span the breadth of the trail. The only safe thing to do was to crawl past. I know it meant having to scrub off hard-earned momentum.
My dinky Schwinn e-bike conversion was smoking you on the hills, too, even at half-throttle; that must have been insufferable, though you were riding faster downhill and on the straights, and insisted on cutting in front of me at West Falls Church. I wasn’t racing, so I figured “screw it, let him <>.”

[Emm]

I had my first ever completely aborted commute today which was sad. But I am really grateful that bikes can go on metro, and that DASH buses have bike racks.

While leaving work, I noticed this massive inch or so long bulge before I even left the parking garage. I immediately got off the bike and took the metro and bus home. It was screeching so loud against the frame while I walked the bike through the Pentagon metro/bus bay that I deflated the tire almost completely so I wouldn’t have it burst and cause an “incident”.

How on earth does something like this happen? The tire was already pretty chewed up and having issues sealing up all it’s punctures (thanks DC streets!), so I had already ordered a new tire and planned to get it installed Friday. So timing wise this isn’t the end of the world, but it’s definitely frustrating.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]20204[/ATTACH]

[KWL]

@Emm 191924 wrote:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]20204[/ATTACH]

Where’s the WOW! emoji?

[Sunyata]

Same thing happened to my tire last year at the Dirty BikenetiCrit when someone else was riding it. Mine was a relatively new tire ~500 miles on it. Maxxis replaced it under warranty.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]20205[/ATTACH]

[ChristoB50]

Those pics remind me of the goose-egg knot that developed on my shin, when I fell over sideways on my (heavy) bike and the frame slammed into my leg. Took 4 months for the swelling to go away, but the spot is still slightly discolored 7 months later.
Surely that must be due to a defect in the rubber/tire construction?

[LhasaCM]

@ChristoB50 191934 wrote:

Surely that must be due to a defect in the rubber/tire construction?

Could be a defect or, given the life of the worn tire, it could be some of the threads (around which the rubber is moulded) on the inside giving way allowing that bit of the rubber to expand.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

[KWL]

@LhasaCM 191938 wrote:

Could be a defect or, given the life of the worn tire, it could be some of the threads (around which the rubber is moulded) on the inside giving way allowing that bit of the rubber to expand.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

So is this something that can happen with tubeless tires? I’ve never seen anything like that on old-timey clinchers with tubes. I’ve had a sidewall blow out, but that becomes a flat really fast.

[Emm]

@LhasaCM 191938 wrote:

Could be a defect or, given the life of the worn tire, it could be some of the threads (around which the rubber is moulded) on the inside giving way allowing that bit of the rubber to expand.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

That sounds about right. I just played with it, and you can tell that one layer of rubber came up and got air inside to make the bubble, but there’s still a layer of rubber on the inside below it, which has maintained the normal tire shape.

[LhasaCM]

@KWL 191949 wrote:

So is this something that can happen with tubeless tires? I’ve never seen anything like that on old-timey clinchers with tubes. I’ve had a sidewall blow out, but that becomes a flat really fast.

From what I’ve read on the Internets, I think by construct tubeless tires are more susceptible to something like this happening “early” in the tires life where it should be covered by warranty.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

[drevil]

@Emm 191924 wrote:

I had my first ever completely aborted commute today which was sad. But I am really grateful that bikes can go on metro, and that DASH buses have bike racks.

While leaving work, I noticed this massive inch or so long bulge before I even left the parking garage. I immediately got off the bike and took the metro and bus home. It was screeching so loud against the frame while I walked the bike through the Pentagon metro/bus bay that I deflated the tire almost completely so I wouldn’t have it burst and cause an “incident”.

How on earth does something like this happen? The tire was already pretty chewed up and having issues sealing up all it’s punctures (thanks DC streets!), so I had already ordered a new tire and planned to get it installed Friday. So timing wise this isn’t the end of the world, but it’s definitely frustrating.

This happened to me with an old Maxxis Ignitor (29″ x 2.1). It was pretty used up so I tossed the tire. Saw some writeups about the same thing:
https://www.utahmountainbiking.com/fix/sealant-failures.htm
https://forums.mtbr.com/wheels-tires/maxxis-ignitor-stans-sealant-time-%3D-blisters-608641.html

[mstone]

@LhasaCM 191953 wrote:

From what I’ve read on the Internets, I think by construct tubeless tires are more susceptible to something like this happening “early” in the tires life where it should be covered by warranty.

I don’t think you can get this kind of a failure on a tire with a tube–it looks like a delamination, and a very small pinhole on the inside layer. A tube wouldn’t be able to squeeze through the pinhole and then into the space between the layers.

[drevil]

@mstone 191955 wrote:

I don’t think you can get this kind of a failure on a tire with a tube–it looks like a delamination, and a very small pinhole on the inside layer. A tube wouldn’t be able to squeeze through the pinhole and then into the space between the layers.

I agree. I didn’t dissect my tire like others did in those links in my previous post, but I thought the same when it happened.

[LhasaCM]

@drevil 191956 wrote:

I agree. I didn’t dissect my tire like others did in those links in my previous post, but I thought the same when it happened.

I think it is highly unlikely with a tube, but it is possible. (Happened to me as a kid; bike was stored under the porch for a few weeks in the heat and the inner layer delaminated enough to let the tube poke through and bulge out.)

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5000 using Tapatalk

[mstone]

@LhasaCM 191957 wrote:

I think it is highly unlikely with a tube, but it is possible. (Happened to me as a kid; bike was stored under the porch for a few weeks in the heat and the inner layer delaminated enough to let the tube poke through and bulge out.)

Well, I’ve learned something new about tire hernias.

[phog]

After a hot day, it was raining at 6:20 PM when I was making my way to the MVT after taking Memorial bridge. Three guys were walking abreast and taking up the whole trail, so the cyclist in front of me went onto the grass to get around them and I did the same. He then wiped out spectacularly on the wet grass, slamming down onto the grass then somehow bouncing back up to his feet. The guys were said things like “nice save dude!”. The cyclist was good-natured about the situation, all things considered.
On the Custis Trail there was a downed tree spanning the width of the trail, and the hefty branch is at “head height”. ‘Hope people see it in time after dark…

Edit- I should have posted it under “trail conditions” and I see it now has been, here:
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?14719-July-2019-Road-and-Trails-Conditions/page6
Too heavy to clear manually; a chain saw will be required.

[Author]

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