I just wanted to get home from work before the thunderstorms hit last night. They didn’t hit until later but that’s not the point. I had to limp the last 2 miles on the rim, having not brought a spare tube (It’s only a 6.5 mile ride total). A nice leisurely ride turned into a big pain in the ass.
Fuck.
And while I’m on the subject: To all you other people on the trail, especially with kids, please check behind you once in a while or at least pay attention. I can only ring my bell and shout “On your left!” so loud and so many times before I have to stop to avoid your family hogging up the entire trail, fuck you too.
Never had a problem on the trail with the former, thank goodness (the street I’ll not get into).
With the latter, I encountered that constantly, whether it be someone’s kid weaving around, right into my path as I’m keeping a pace (would’ve been an ugly accident) or people who must have been thinking the dotted line was for decorative purposes—“Oh, how cute, they make it look just like a real road!”.
Were you actually riding on the rim?? I hope that it was a mountain bike, at least!
And that is why I paid extra for the kevlar tires. And I still carry a tube in my underseat toolkit. And a chain, and a chain tool, and you know the rest.
I used to use STOP brand tire liners on my Motobecane 10 speed (before it got stolen. Fucking bastard!). They were a semi-flexible band that fit in between the tire and tube. Got plenty of cuts in my tires, but never got a flat. Haven’t gotten around to fitting a set on my Trek mountain bike though. E-Sabbath, how much extra are kevlar tires? They sound like the way to go.
I’ve always thought the kevlar in kevlar tires was to replace steel in the bead. This wouldn’t contribute to the puncture resistance. This does allow the tire to folded and saves a bit on the weight.
Around here, bike trails are drinking grounds and transients’ residence first, cycling path last. Glass is pretty much part of the gravel.
Huh. They seemed the same weight to me, just a kevlar band around the bottom. Course, I could be wrong. Was sold to me as a puncture resistance measure and not a weight measure. (Current bike: Nishiki Pueblo. Old, but functional. Been through three countries.) http://www.ehow.com/how_14084_buy-bike-tire.html
This seperates kevlar and folding tires. http://www.athenscyclepath.com/wconnroadtires.html
Ah. So there are Kevlar beads, but they’re different from belts.
Yeah, they weren’t cheap, but they were worth it in sheer lack of worry.
Google says bout $25 a tire.
I just want to add my bitch to both of these things. Fucking beer drinkers are the biggest culprits that I’ve seen, they get drunk and then leave their beer bottles (broken) all over the playground, park, etc. Why can’t you go drink in your own backyard?
I don’t get as much trouble with the people hogging the trails around here, but when it does, it’s always bad. What’s so difficult about right side of the road? Grr.
I hit the glass in such a way that I don’t think any tire would have resisted puncture. I suspect it was left that way on purpose. I heard glass shatter as I hit it and the sound of air rushing out of the tire followed promptly. I should also add that I was a good trail user and stopped, went back, and removed the glass from the trail to prevent the people who had trouble getting out of the way from repeating my experience.
I do a lot of road riding. And while I’ve gotten plenty of flats over the years – and yes, some due to glass, the worst example happened to a friend of mine while we were out riding. He had just that morning put on a new pair of tires, the old set being a bit worn. We were about five miles from home and he hit a jagged broken beer bottle straight on. There was no “pssshhhh” sound of air coming out because the bottle cut the tire from side to side and resulted in an instant flat. Man you should’ve heard him cuss! It cut up his brand new tire so bad there was no question of repair; it was flat impossible. I had to finish the ride, get in my car and come back for him. Man, it was bad enough to have hit it, but a brand new tire. Ouuuuuuuch!
Truthfully, I havn’t had a flat from road damage since I started the Kevlars. If you hit it straight on? Safest thing to do. It’s the sidewalls that are still vunerable. Not saying it’s impossible, but I have had really good luck.
If you’re going to troll successfully, it’s a terrible idea to come in with troll guns a’blazin’. You’ve got to work up to that kind of belligerency. You need to establish a cover identity to at least make a few people question your intentions. You’ve got a lot to learn, son.
So the best you can do with your life is dig up a thread from 2005 to laugh about - like there haven’t been tons more bike threads since then. I guess you win the whole Internet, congrats.
