Flippin' punctures!

Dano

Dano

Dano

Soldato
Joined
19 Dec 2006
Posts
10,458
Location
UK
Not one, but both wheels today :(

500 odd miles on the bike since getting it a few months back and today 7.5km into my 11km ride home I noticed the back end suddenly feeling very loose as I went round a tight corner, hopped off and sure enough the back tire was very low on pressure, oh well just a few km left to walk home, about a km and a half later the front was flat too, assuming I did both at the same time and simply a lack of weight on the front stopped it from going down as quickly as the rear, blooming annoying though.

I was made up by the fact that out of the four cyclists that passed me while walking two of them quite happily offered to help and fix it on the spot, bloody marvellous :D

New tubes and a repair kit ordered, will get it sorted by the weekend I hope. How much grief is it going to be getting the tube done on a real hub motor bike? I guess I'll need to disconnect the motor to remove the wheel fully?

Do you all carry spare kit with you when riding or just deal with the fallout when it happens? I guess at some point I'd just decided that wherever I am in my ride I'm at most 5.5km from either my place or my mothers where I leave it locked up in her garage when I go for a swim so it's no massive issue to walk however far is needed.
 
invest in decent tires. What tires are you running?

when I used to commute, 5k miles a year through all weathers in london, I'd get 3-5 punctures a year. But, decent tires were the reason, always invest in good rubber.
 
It's currently got WTB Nano Comps on it: https://www.wtb.com/products/nano-40c

I suspect I've just been unlucky today, like I said over 500 miles without issue and I've definitely ridden over stuff that might have been an issue before today, I'll have a proper look when my tubes turn up and see if I can work out what caused it.
 
Dano said:
It's currently got WTB Nano Comps on it: https://www.wtb.com/products/nano-40c

I suspect I've just been unlucky today, like I said over 500 miles without issue and I've definitely ridden over stuff that might have been an issue before today, I'll have a proper look when my tubes turn up and see if I can work out what caused it.
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Yea looking online they’re not great.

I personally run https://www.merlincycles.com/hutchinson-caracal-race-tubeless-gravel-tyre-700c-328868.html

And have had no punctures. They’re really fast rolling with enough knobs on the side to grip on dirt.

Puncturing both also possibly points to you running low pressures which could result in pinch flats when hitting sharper bits of tarmac.. or things like manhole covers etc.
 
When I used to commute I had anti puncture tyres and carried patches and manual pump. That changed to two tubes and gas cylinder or two. Rarely had a puncture. Had two on the same wheel once. Missed a bit of glass caught in the tire.
 
grudas said:
Puncturing both also possibly points to you running low pressures which could result in pinch flats when hitting sharper bits of tarmac.. or things like manhole covers etc.
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Fairly certain they weren't pinch flats.
 
On mine I used to get glass shard in the tyre the anti puncture tyre wouldn't let it though but then you'd hit another bump or such and it would punch the shard through.

Used to avoid known routes with glass (past pubs and clubs)..
 
Can confirm they weren't pinch punctures, both tyres had super fine needle like thorns in them, I've put new tubes in (I'll patch the old ones and keep them as spares) and also threw in some anti flat liners and took the opportunity to give the bike a clean as well, hopefully I didn't mess anything up and it'll be back to riding as usual when the weather is clear next time I'm off for a swim :D
 
esoteric said:
Puncture resistant tyres are the best investment I made for my current bike.
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When I bought all 5 of my bikes it was the first thing I bought.
However I also take tools out with me and spare inner tubes just in case.
I even bought one of those motorised USB pumps the other month.
 
Meant to update this ages ago... woke up the morning after fitting new tubes to find the back had gone flat again, pulled the wheel off and checked the tyre again, found nothing, put a little pressure in it and used the sink to look for leaks to discover it was the valve that simply hadn't been tightened enough, gave it a tweak, put everything back together and has been fine since when I've had the opportunity to ride it, can kind of feel the liners making the rolling resistance a bit harder I think but it could just be in my mind, certainly not going to remove them and once I wear the tyres out I'll replace them with some more puncture resistant ones.
 
I'm just off into the garage to put a pair of these on.
I do it every year the cold weather comes and I know it's going to be black ice in the morning then I'll take them off when I'm pretty sure we'll have no more black ice.

sportandleisure.com

Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus Tyre 26 x 1.75" - Spiked Tyre

Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus Tyre - Spiked Tyre The Marathon Winter Plus tyres offer an enourmous safety advantage on icy routes. Even in tight bends and under violent braking everything remains under control, thanks to special winter compound, lamella tread and up to 240 spikes. For best...
sportandleisure.com sportandleisure.com
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I'm just off into the garage to put a pair of these on.
I do it every year the cold weather comes and I know it's going to be black ice in the morning then I'll take them off when I'm pretty sure we'll have no more black ice.

sportandleisure.com

Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus Tyre 26 x 1.75" - Spiked Tyre

Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus Tyre - Spiked Tyre The Marathon Winter Plus tyres offer an enourmous safety advantage on icy routes. Even in tight bends and under violent braking everything remains under control, thanks to special winter compound, lamella tread and up to 240 spikes. For best...
sportandleisure.com sportandleisure.com
Click to expand...
I used to fit 38mm 45Nrth Gravdals with 240 spikes to my commuter in winter once we had overnight temps dropping to near 2C, brilliant for grip at the cost of being draggy, although inflating them more helps on days it looks safe.
 
UTmaniac said:
I used to fit 38mm 45Nrth Gravdals with 240 spikes to my commuter in winter once we had overnight temps dropping to near 2C, brilliant for grip at the cost of being draggy, although inflating them more helps on days it looks safe.
Click to expand...

When I first put them on a few years ago one day it had snowed and as I came into my street two lads were playing skidding on the ice.
I knew who they were so I asked if they would try them out for me, no way at my age (I was in my 60s then) I was going to do teenage tricks.
This lad tried his hardest to skid round the street so I was well satisfied, obviously I'm still cautious because over the years I've ended up in A&E 5 times because of black ice.
Not commuting to work on my bike is not an option.
 
Have to be honest, I have the option of using the car so as soon as black ice is likely I'm going to do just that, far too many hills on my route to want to be messing around when it's icy :D
 
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