Plagued by punctures
Noel PT
Posts: 627
I am at my wits end! I have had my new bike for about two months and I have been plagued by punctures since I bought it.
I get a punctures every second or third trip to work and on the last two occassions I have had two in one trip.
I had checked everything, tire pressure is perfect, there is no old debri stuck in the tires and the tape on the rim is still perfect.
I am a bit more chunky than I should be but surely it should be able to deal with my extra weight.
I have Continental Race tyres that came standard. I have since changed them to the Speshi Armadilo Front and the toughest Conti I could find on the rear. I wanted to test something new, but today I punctured the new tougher conti. So I am stumped !!!
Any advice or tips would be great. All but one of the punctures have been to the rear.
I get a punctures every second or third trip to work and on the last two occassions I have had two in one trip.
I had checked everything, tire pressure is perfect, there is no old debri stuck in the tires and the tape on the rim is still perfect.
I am a bit more chunky than I should be but surely it should be able to deal with my extra weight.
I have Continental Race tyres that came standard. I have since changed them to the Speshi Armadilo Front and the toughest Conti I could find on the rear. I wanted to test something new, but today I punctured the new tougher conti. So I am stumped !!!
Any advice or tips would be great. All but one of the punctures have been to the rear.
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Posts
Are you riding up curbs? If so you might be getting compression punctures.
carry a spare tube and pump then you wont be pushing
Best advice I ever got was "better get a bike then"
Cycle commuting since 1994. Blog with cycle bits.
Also with the old C+ crowd at Cycle Chat.
________
Suzuki Gn Series History
Porridge not Petrol
I use Mr Tuffy liners on my roadie and mtb. Only around a tenner for both wheels. And the added weight is negligible IMO.
No kidding! I ride a slick-shod, rigid MTB as a commuter and I used to get many more punctures riding on the road than when I rode off-road!
All sorted now as I use 'slime'-filled inner tubes. I very rarely get a puncture now and, even if I do, spinning the wheel and re-inflating sorts the problem completely!
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There are a few other tyres that some people have good experiences with, but not as universally good as the M+ or 'dillos.
Neil
"Because the cycling is pain. The cycling is soul crushing pain."
From past experience:
Take off the tyres and refit so that a specific letter of the "name" on the tyre is aligned with the valve this will give you a reference point. Then get some tippex!
Next time you hava a puncture remove the wheel and lay on a flat surface. Keep the orientation of the tube and tyre. Tippex the inside of the tyre and the side wall where the puncture occurred. Now continue as normal.
If the puncture is always in the same place on the external side then you have something in the tyre or even a fault.
If it is in the same place ontheinternal side it could be tome to look at the spoke heads.
Punctures can be caused on the inner side by a rough spoke nipple, a protruding spoke, or the tube "herniating" into a recess if thespoke is recessed. Try two layers of a quality rim tape to alleviate this.
He that buys flesh buys many bones.
He that buys eggs buys many shells,
But he that buys good beer buys nothing else.</b></i>
(Unattributed Trad.)
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Carry two spare tubes then...
Whilst you will find many swear by Gatorskins you will find equal numbers (judging by a year reading the C+ forum) that have regular punctures with them - giving them a tough sounding name is about all they have done to make them puncture resistant.
Since removing it I have had five months without a puncture.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.a ... re%20Liner
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.a ... %20Sealant[/url]
so in summary, don't cycle over sharp things and use armadillos and you'll be fine, unless your wheel is fecking you about... in which case follow the advice above
Very Hairy Roadie - FCN 4
Fixed Pista- FCN 5
Beared Bromptonite - FCN 14
way way too many punctures, with it being a new bike my guess is the tape on the wheel is censored
I had that once, redo it yourself with electrical tap
The maker MAY say that your tires are rated up to 120, but if you are doing a normal ride for commuting on city streets that's WAY too high a pressure. A 160-pound rider should normally run about 100 psi in the rear and around 95 psi up front when on 700x23C tires.
Yes, bicycle racers will (sometimes) run their tires at very high pressure to reduce rolling friction. But those racers are not running on potholed city streets. And if they are pros there's a full time mechanic changing tires each race for them. Pros will also reduce their tire pressure if they have bad road conditions.
If you weigh more than 160 lbs, you should probably increase the size of your tires. Most times you can easily mount a 25 or 28 mm tire on the same wheel that's carrying a 23C tire. Without running into clearance problems or readjusting your brakes.
I saw some great advice on http://www.roadbikerider.com about tire inflation. They suggest running at LOWER pressures to get a smoother ride, better traction, and reduce the number of flats. I've been doing this for a year now and get a longer life from my tires too. I'm a 150 lb rider and I normally inflate my 700x23C tires to 90 - 100 lbs. And I'm riding on kevlar-belted tires that are rated to 125 psi.
If you are riding a city commute on nasty potholed streets with trash and debris on the shoulders (eg a typical Houston, TX street), I'd suggest a fat-tired hybrid for your commute. Check the tire pressure recommendation on those fatties and you'll see a max pressure of 75 - 90 lbs.
I've tried slime in my tires and will NEVER use it again. It doesn't work reliably. And a tire that's filled with that junk can't be patched.
Take a look at Sheldon Brown's web site for more information: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tires.html
Another one that I have experienced is a dislocation in one of the rim joints - causing a sharp protrusion which snags the tube - easy to find if you run your finger around the inside of the rim on each side. I had one of these and managed to fix it by bending the rim back out again at the point where it was dislocated. It was an old rim, to be fair - probably suffering a bit from metal fatigue.
Punctures can be solved by using Schwalbe Marathon Plus which don't let anything through, but sometimes it is the wheel itself which is causing the problem, in which case the holes in the tube will be on the surface that contacts the rim, not the tyre.