Bike question redux

In My Humble Opinion
41

You can have a non-pneumatic tire on an otherwise more-or-less ordinary bicycle wheel. You don’t need to go as intentionally-weird as those examples. It won’t be as smooth a ride, and maybe a bit less efficient, but if the tradeoff is one flat per day, I think I’d probably consider it worth it.

For a field repair, I don’t even try to fully inflate the tire. I just need it to get me home, where I have my good pump (which is too big to conveniently carry with me). Underinflating also reduces the risk from a puncturer still embedded in the tire.

42

The way I learned to do it is to remove the tire from the rim but do not remove the tube from the tire. Inflate it a bit to feel/hear/see where it is leaking. Now you can pull the tube out of the tire & thoroughly inspect that area on the inside of the tire to make sure there is nothing poking thru that can puncture the new tube. Be sure to do this carefully so as not to cut your finger in the process if, for example, there is a piece of broken glass poking thru the tire. Once you’ve removed/cleared the area of any remaining hazard go about replacing or repairing the tube & fully inflate.

43

Maybe it’s just me, but I have a hard time feeling/seeing/hearing where the leak is. I usually put it in the bathtub so I can see where the bubbles are. But of course, that’s not usually something I can do in the field.

In any event, I keep a mark on the tire (or use an existing mark, if there is one) where the tube valve is, so even after I take the tube out, I can line up where the hole is.

44

Embarrassingly I have always horrifically struggled getting my skinny tire back on after a flat. I commute 10 miles each way weather permitting and have just completed the ride on a flat more than once, and once called an Uber to get to work on time with a train ride home.

I don’t even carry a fresh tube or irons anymore.

45

Air the tube up and then slowly pass it in front of your upper lip. The skin there is very sensitive and you will feel the air coming out of the hole when it passes over your lip. Seems strange, but it works.

46

Probably. Maybe. It doesn’t matter, just get out and ride.

47

Then you run the risk of a second flat minutes after repairing/replacing the first one

Brand/type of tire matters, as well as age of tire. Continental Gatorskins are better at preventing flats but a real b!+c# at getting the bead off/on the rim.
Take some time at home one day to practice. Never use a tire lever to put a tire back on as you run the risk of creating a pinch flat; put one bead on 100%, insert the tube & put a couple of PSI in it (just enough to hold it’s shape in the tire), then put the other bead on as much as you can easily do. Finally use the heels of your hands to push the remaining bead over the rim. Eyeball both sides to make sure it looks good, put some air in again (about 30 PSI for road tires) & again do a quick eyeball of both sides all the way around to make sure it’s sitting properly, then fully inflate.

I just let my tires be wrinkly as carrying the board was a real pain! :zany_face:

48

Levers!

D’oh.

I had Gatorskins when I last tried!

49

Fair enough but a flat every three miles? I’d walk (or run since you are @running_coach :wink: ) or do almost anything else or just stay home.

Or, invent a puncture-proof tire and make a zillion dollars. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

50

That’s why I am partial to using Slime. It’s so much easier to use in the field and it will probably be sufficient to get you home. Get another puncture? The Slime is already there to do its thing.

It’s not a permanent solution but once home you can take your time with a proper tire/tube replacement at your leisure.

51

Schwalbe makes a number of tires with puncture resistant/proof belts. None that fit the handcycle at the time. That ride was negatively epic. More typical was 2-3 week though it varied greatly.

52

Yup, I know. I mean, I try to find the hole, and the puncturer, but I usually don’t, and then what?

I should maybe look that up. I’ve also started putting a second tube, sliced around the inside edge, as an extra layer between the tube and the tire, to help protect against flats. It’s extra weight, and rolling weight at that, and decreases the flexibility of the tires, and if it decreases the number of flats, I’m OK with that.

I haven’t been doing that for long, though, so I can’t yet give an informed assessment of how well it works.

I mean, it’s not difficult. You make the tire out of solid rubber. There are downsides, of course, but still a lot better than getting multiple flats per week.

53

[really just a few general comments, more than specifically responding to your post, but it did trigger my thoughts]

If you always orient your tire so that it’s ‘label’ sits squarely over the valve stem, you can use that orientation to reconcile a puncture in your tube to the spot on your tire that may have been pierced. It can often help you find that tiny bit of metal or glass or ******* goathead that you missed at first glance.

IOW: when you get a flat, and you remove the tube from the tire/rim, maintain the tube’s orientation (keep the side facing you that was facing you when you removed the tube).

Then, carefully inflate the tube a bit and see if you can locate the leak.

If/when you have – let’s say it’s at 10 o’clock relative to the valve stem, and right on the top of the tube. You can then go to the tire and look at 10 o’clock relative to the label on the sidewall because you ‘registered’ the tube to the tire:

ETA: you can then check – carefully and thoroughly – on the tire tread and on the interior/underside of the tire.

Also, like knives never run out of bullets, pumps don’t generally run out of air. A pump is always a good Plan B, even if Plan A is an electric pump or CO2.

Though it’s been years since I’ve patched tubes, I’d still carry a small patch kit because I have had a second puncture on a ride and not had a second spare tube.

Last, I’d often carry things that don’t necessarily apply specifically to my bike, in order that I might help another cyclist if I’m able.

Similarly, my wife’s bike-mounted stash bag has a multitool that’s more than she needs in case she has an issue above her pay grade while she’s out riding.

Having a tool that works with your bike is awfully handy if somebody else comes along that knows better than you do … how to use that tool to solve your problem :wink:

54

From what I’ve heard, they’re not.
They’re extremely heavy, hard to get moving, even worse to stop and ride like a jackhammer on anything less than billiard table smooth roads.

55

Goathead holes were often difficult to see if just the tip got in(get your mind out of the gutter). You can also find the hole by inflating the tube and rotate it near your tongue until you feel the cold of the airflow. I always just replaced the tube on the road and patched at home. Use to carry 6 tubes(when I was using the 650C tires). My current bike uses 20x 2.15 in back and 2.00x26 in front. I have 2 tubes for the rears and one for the front.

56

I leave those behind now too. I cleaned out the bag I have on my rear rack this weekend and took out a bunch of stuff that I’ve been carrying around.

I’ve been lucky in that I don’t have quite the flat problem that some have talked about. Probably because I’ve always spent a little more getting the puncture resistant tires, like the Schwalbe Marathon Plus or my favorites, the Gravelking Slick Plus + (yes, both pluses are in the name). Still, flats did happen, usually at the most annoying time, enough to make me put in the effort to go tubeless.

I had to tape my rims, and once every three months or so I have to squirt additional sealant into the valve stem, but the reward for that effort has been that I’ve had no flats in a couple of years. I see evidence of a puncture now and again, where a little sealant has sprayed out and needs to be wiped off, but otherwise the magical juice takes care of me.

57

I knew what you meant, & I believe they were called that because that’s what they were made of way back when. Ironically, I’ve only ever owned ‘irons’ made of aluminum or plastic.

58

Right at the rim of a wheel is indeed the worst place to add weight to a bike… but it’s only by a factor of 2. If you took the weight of the rubber, doubled it, and put that in a saddlebag, that’d be how much it’d affect getting moving and stopping. You wouldn’t want that if you were racing, of course, but I routinely carry things much heavier on my ride.

It probably is an uncomfortable ride, though.

59

Back when I used to bike out to all the state parks on the weekends, I sometimes needed them. I got off and hiked, or poked around a cave, and might camp overnight. Hoping now that my son is grown, I might get back in to some of that.

[quote=“Chronos, post:43, topic:1019634”]
I usually put it in the bathtub ,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,x
[/quote] K

I look for the seam of the tire, and mount it right across from the valvue stem the stemnn

60

If you are carrying other things that require a backpack/pannier/trunk on your bike adding a few medical supplies is trivial and you’ll be happy to have them if you are in some accident.

If you are a rider who carries nothing then yeah…don’t carry that stuff. I see them (usually the Tour de France wannabes…aka jerks).