Recurring flats

[ShawnoftheDread]

Riding home today I got my third flat on my front tire since Saturday. All three were in different spots, on two separate tubes, though all three were on the rim side. Tube is new, rim tape is new and in place, and the tire is new — I just replaced the original 700 x 40 tires with Forte Gotham K 700 x 35. Max tire pressure is 90 psi, and I keep them at 80.

I checked the rim carefully. Found nothing sharp, no loose spokes or spokes poking into the rim tape. I didn’t hit anything unusual — big pot holes, small animals, etc. Any thoughts on what the issue could be?

Topic

[vvill]

The last time I had a problem like this was on my hybrid early last year – about 4 flats in a couple weeks. I put on new rim tape (Velox cloth stuff) and have had no flats since then. The factory installed stuff was sort of like a loop of plastic and it looked like it had moved around a lot.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@vvill 25376 wrote:

The last time I had a problem like this was on my hybrid early last year – about 4 flats in a couple weeks. I put on new rim tape (Velox cloth stuff) and have had no flats since then. The factory installed stuff was sort of like a loop of plastic and it looked like it had moved around a lot.

A few months ago I had replaced the original rubber stuff with some sort of plastic that the LBS told me was better. Over the weekend I adopted Dirt’s electrical tape suggestion, so we’ll see if that does the trick.

[ShawnoftheDread]

No flats for a week. It seems the tire bead was not setting in the rim properly, creating a slightly flatter spot where each of the punctures occured. Kneaded the tire into place better while pumping it, and also changed the rim tape for good measure.

[Author]

Replies