How the hell?

Jamey

Less that half a mile after I left home I began hearing a very loud click on every wheel revolution. Fearing something might be catching the spokes I pulled over straight away and found this:



The clicking was the sound of the nail head hitting the chainstay as the wheel turned. I tried to remove it with my fingers but it wouldn't budge so I tried the multi-tool and luckily the spanner attachment had a slit that was just the right size to catch under the head of the nail and yanked it free.

I was expecting to hear a hiss straight away but there was no puncture. I'm still quite dumbfounded by this. Either the nail completely missed the tube or it nicked it in a spot that doesn't line up with the holes in the tyre so maybe the air pressure is keeping any tube holes from moving under the tyre holes? Is that even possible?

I also don't really understand how the nail went in at that angle. It's going with the motion of the wheel, instead of against it, so there would need to have been a force pushing it through as the natural motion of the wheel would be pushing it away.

Needless to say I kept pulling over every few minutes to check the tyre pressure for a good few miles after that happened, and I was half expecting to hear a loud bang for the rest of the journey.

roger_merriman

Oooh thats odd should send that to schwalbe. how on earth did it get in that way?

they are quite thick the 38mm on big green has had impressive shards of glass pulled out but nothing like that....

Jamey

roger merriman wrote:

Oooh thats odd should send that to schwalbe. how on earth did it get in that way?

they are quite thick the 38mm on big green has had impressive shards of glass pulled out but nothing like that....

I'm starting to get paranoid that a WVM was following me holding a nailgun and fired it into my tyre tbh

I've had a couple of similarly large objects in my tyres. One that was almost the same as the pic above but instead of the nail goind diagonally through it went straight into the tyre (ie point of the tyre aiming directly at the centre of the hub) and punctured the tube on both sides, so the point must have gone slightly into the rim tape too.

lost_in_thought

Where had it been locked? On the old commuter, which was locked at Liverpool Street station overnight, people seemed to regularly slash the tyres, with varying levels of success. It was probably because they couldn't steal it... I once extracted a stanley knife snap-off blade from my front tyre.

Jamey

lost_in_thought wrote:

Where had it been locked? On the old commuter, which was locked at Liverpool Street station overnight, people seemed to regularly slash the tyres, with varying levels of success. It was probably because they couldn't steal it... I once extracted a stanley knife snap-off blade from my front tyre.

Kept indoors, in my hallway.

Was only as I exited this roundabout (green arrow 'A' is where I pulled over) that the clicking began so I'm fairly sure I picked up the nail along the way.

deptfordmarmoset

I do believe you've managed to catch an extremely rare image of the puncture fairy's wand. Luckily for you, it seems that a benevolent road spirit has managed to disarm her a fraction of a second before she got to your inner tube.

Honestly, I really don't have a more convincing explanation than that. Where are the forensic puncturologists when you need one ?

(Just edited a wee typo there...)

Jamey

I like that explanation. It makes me feel warm inside

gert_lush

deptfordmarmoset wrote:

I do believe you've managed to catch an extremely rare image of the puncture fairy's wand. Luckily for you, it seems that a benevolent road spirit has managed to disarm her a fraction of a second before she got to your inner tube.

Honestly, I really don't have a more convincing explanation than that. Where are the forensic puncturologists when you need one ?

(Just edited a wee typo there...)

haha love it

Jamey

Unless... Unless it went in the other way (point last, head first) but got pushed to the side by the puncture protection belt and as I cycled it pushed it further through (to the side) until it was finally sticking out far enough to make contact with the chainstay on each turn.

But the angle is still a bit funny for that :?

salsajake

To answer one of the questions, you can have a tyre stay up due to pressure even with a puncture (only a small one mind). I had a slow puncture and couldn't be bothered changing the tube as I discovered it in the morning and figured it had got me home the night before so it must be slow - I blew it up twice on the way in with my hand pump and then when I bought a new inner tube later that afternoon and went to the bike store to change it, it was still fully inflated! It would have gone down eventually of course, and not having the weight of a rider on it is probably why it stayed up then but not before. Can't see the pic (I can hardly ever see pics people put on here, just a bikeradar logo - whats that about?) but if it was something the size of a nail, it must have missed the tube somehow

Cafewanda

deptfordmarmoset wrote:

I do believe you've managed to catch an extremely rare image of the puncture fairy's wand. Luckily for you, it seems that a benevolent road spirit has managed to disarm her a fraction of a second before she got to your inner tube.

Honestly, I really don't have a more convincing explanation than that. Where are the forensic puncturologists when you need one ?

(Just edited a wee typo there...)

lovely explanation

Jamey

salsajake wrote:

Can't see the pic

This link work?
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/2647/nail.jpg

Thanks for the explanation.

salsajake

Jamey wrote:

salsajake wrote:

Can't see the pic

This link work?
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/2647/nail.jpg

Thanks for the explanation.

blocked by the firm's IT police, maybe that's why the picture won't show in the threads too? There are enough IT people on here to be able to answer that one I'm sure!

Runoutofgears

Tyre piercings, a new fashion?

Jamey

salsajake wrote:

blocked by the firm's IT police, maybe that's why the picture won't show in the threads too? There are enough IT people on here to be able to answer that one I'm sure!

Almost certainly the cause, then.

My firm used to block Imagshack too and I always got the BikeRadar logo instead of images, but they (my employer's IT staff) finally saw sense and de-restricted Imageshack.

cougie

Weird ! And yet cool.

Love the PF explanation.

clu

I had the exact same thing happen when I was out on my bike, although the nail wasn't as big.

On my road bike I had a set of michelin carbon krylion tyres (since replaced due to wear from high miles). Whilst riding I felt a strange vibration coming through the frame as I was moving. I pulled over to inspect the bike, I was expecting a puncture, but the tyres were still inflated. Looking puzzled I turned both wheels, and noticed a nail had stuck horizontally in the rear tyre. It was embeded quite deep.

Expecting the tyre to deflate, I cautiously pulled the nail out, but the tyre remained inflated. I got back on the bike and finished my ride, again expecting the tyre to deflate but it didn't happen. The puncture protection in the tyre worked like a dream.

I used the tyres for 2 seasons. It was a sad day when I decided to replace them, I had no punctures at all whilst using them.

But I replaced them with another set, and so far they are exceeding my expectations again.

Jamey

How strange. Maybe the fairy has no jurisdiction in the horizontal plane or something

I've emailed the photo and an explanation similar to the opening post to Schwalbe. Will see what they say, if anything. Got an out-of-office from someone straight away, not sure if the email address is for a group of people or just him.

flicksta

Been to Westfield, got me some nails. Off down to the Media Centre car park right now. Two tricrosses I know of, I'll have to do both.

Jamey

Lol. Talk about targetting a joke at an audience of one.

Mine's the one without the green tape around one of the forks... IE the huge one with mudguards