Rim Tape - is it essential?
Just picked up my first puncture yesterday with the Bontrager wheel/ tyre set up on my Trek Madone.
Swapped over to my spare inner and examined the tyre meticulously to check for foreign bodies sticking through. ( been caught out before with puncturing a new inner on a piece of thorn that I missed first time around). Could find nothing obvious so pumped up tyre and rode home without incident.
Just taken time to examine the old inner and find that it blew out at a small dimpled patch where the inner sits over the spoke fixing hole. The wheels don't have rim tape so the inner seems to bulge into the spoke housing all round the rim. The old inner has dimples all the way round matching the spoke alignment.
I can't help thinking that this is not right - I'm sure it must place extra strains on the inner when inflated to high pressure - I normally run at 100psi or just above.
What's the advice - carry on or order and fit some rim tape?
Swapped over to my spare inner and examined the tyre meticulously to check for foreign bodies sticking through. ( been caught out before with puncturing a new inner on a piece of thorn that I missed first time around). Could find nothing obvious so pumped up tyre and rode home without incident.
Just taken time to examine the old inner and find that it blew out at a small dimpled patch where the inner sits over the spoke fixing hole. The wheels don't have rim tape so the inner seems to bulge into the spoke housing all round the rim. The old inner has dimples all the way round matching the spoke alignment.
I can't help thinking that this is not right - I'm sure it must place extra strains on the inner when inflated to high pressure - I normally run at 100psi or just above.
What's the advice - carry on or order and fit some rim tape?
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Comments
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LOLz, yes you need some rim tape!0
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Rim tape is definitely essential!0
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Rim tape definately needed.
Also watch the thickness of the rim tape as the thicker it is the harder it seems to be to get the tyre off in the event of a puncture.0 -
As an emergency measure, you can also use insulting tape. But yes, rim tape is needed. As an aside, I have used only insulting tape on my wheels for years (but only because I'm too lazy to go to the shop and buy some proper stuff).
Then again, you can get some wheels (the latest Kyseriums if I'm not wrong, amongst others) that you don't need it on, just to muddy the waters. But its obvious which you do and which you don't.0 -
PeteMadoc wrote:Rim tape is definitely essential!styxd wrote:LOLz, yes you need some rim tape!bianchibob wrote:Rim tape definitely needed.
Also watch the thickness of the rim tape as the thicker it is the harder it seems to be to get the tyre off in the event of a puncture.
OK so I need to get some fairly smartish and apply to both wheels - It was the rear that punctured but I'm sure the front will be the same.
Just puzzled as to why Trek would supply a wheelset without what seems to be an essential component.0 -
Yossie wrote:As an emergency measure, you can also use insulting tape.
Is that the tape that calls you names when you use it, I've heard it calls you a 'commuter' and all sorts of stuff like that.
Sorry could not help myself0 -
As an emergency measure, you can also use insulting tape.
Where can you get some of that insulting tape? That would be great, imagine - "Speed up ya fat ba***rd, 'cmon, ma granny is faster than you, you need to get out more, ha ha ha - call yourself a cyclist, your a frog on a matchbox, don't go through all that cow sh1t on the road ya mugwump, you know you'll end up cleaning your bike for hours..." etc etc.
No more solo rides and don't go out with yer mates.seanoconn - gruagach craic!0 -
Zefal0
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Yup - insulting tape - it both stops you getting punctures and knocks your ego at the same time. "yeah, you crushed them all like the dogs they are, but you're still a big eared bell end".
It can also insult your intelligence when you find out that the f%ckwit who did work on your electrics in your convereted 1812 barn where you home your wife and 2 kids used insulting tape to hold wires together instead of spending 32p on the proper connectors and didn't cause the whole frickin' place to be a potential firebomb at all.
A multitude of uses - always carried in the emergency pack.0 -
arlowood wrote:Just puzzled as to why Trek would supply a wheelset without what seems to be an essential component.
I have to retract my accusation above.
Went out to have another few miles today and found the rear tyre flat again. I had pumped it up to my normal 100psi when I got home after fitting the new inner tube out on the road (I only pumped it up hard enough to get me home with my mini-pump).
On investigation, the inner had blown out at exactly the same place as when i punctured out on the road.
Closer inspection of the wheel this time confirmed that there was rim tape fitted. However it was of a plastic variety and it was clearly being stretched into little cup shapes over each of the spoke holes. Where the puncture occurred one of the stretched bits had failed leaving a gaping hole into which the inner had expanded and then popped I would guess.
Did a temporary fix with a bit of gaffer tape over the offending area and that held up for my quick 15 mile spin.
Not too confident that the other dimpled areas on the tape will stand up - so will replace ASAP.0 -
Yossie wrote:It can also insult your intelligence when you find out that the f%ckwit who did work on your electrics in your convereted 1812 barn where you home your wife and 2 kids used insulting tape to hold wires together instead of spending 32p on the proper connectors and didn't cause the whole frickin' place to be a potential firebomb at all.
In all seriousness you have my sympathy, my house was nearly destroyed when a moron of a plumber managed to ensure that a pipe connection in the loft space was made of cheese, when i came back after Xmas mains pressure had been running through the house for at least a week.
Internal rain and some ice patches were interesting to say the least.0 -
If you need to replace the rim tape then i'd go for these instead...
http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/WSVEVP/velocity-veloplugs0 -
arlowood wrote:arlowood wrote:I have to retract my accusation above.
Went out to have another few miles today and found the rear tyre flat again. I had pumped it up to my normal 100psi when I got home after fitting the new inner tube out on the road (I only pumped it up hard enough to get me home with my mini-pump).
On investigation, the inner had blown out at exactly the same place as when i punctured out on the road.
Closer inspection of the wheel this time confirmed that there was rim tape fitted. However it was of a plastic variety and it was clearly being stretched into little cup shapes over each of the spoke holes. Where the puncture occurred one of the stretched bits had failed leaving a gaping hole into which the inner had expanded and then popped I would guess.
Did a temporary fix with a bit of gaffer tape over the offending area and that held up for my quick 15 mile spin.
Not too confident that the other dimpled areas on the tape will stand up - so will replace ASAP.
I had exactly the same issue with my CX bike, the rim tape has dimpled into quite deep cups in the spoke holes. I put it down to very steep a descent ( up to 20% on a narrow winding road) in the Alps I did last year from First down to Grindelwald where I had to be on the brakes nearly all the time (Canti brakes on Alpine descents = bad). I think I overheated the wheels and the rim tape deformed. I was lucky to get away without a puncture.
Like you, I used a double layer of gaffer tape around the wheels as a quick fix and it is still holding up well. I ordered some Velox cotton rim tape which I still need to fit. This is meant to be more robust than the plastic stuff.0 -
robbo2011 wrote:I had exactly the same issue with my CX bike, the rim tape has dimpled into quite deep cups in the spoke holes. I put it down to very steep a descent ( up to 20% on a narrow winding road) in the Alps I did last year from First down to Grindelwald where I had to be on the brakes nearly all the time (Canti brakes on Alpine descents = bad). I think I overheated the wheels and the rim tape deformed. I was lucky to get away without a puncture.
Hi Robbo
Your experience gave me the clue to why it happened to me.
The tyre blew just after I had completed a fairly fast descent. On that descent I had used only the rear brake as the front was catching a bit and causing a bit of judder in the steerer. Quite likely that the rear rim got a bit hot and partially softened the plastic rim tape causing it to bulge into the spoke holes. Unfortunately one of those bulges ruptured and the inner must have ballooned into that space and popped.
Will probably try and avoid plastic tape in the future. The Veloplugs suggested above look like a good option.0 -
Sandyballs wrote:Yossie wrote:It can also insult your intelligence when you find out that the f%ckwit who did work on your electrics in your convereted 1812 barn where you home your wife and 2 kids used insulting tape to hold wires together instead of spending 32p on the proper connectors and didn't cause the whole frickin' place to be a potential firebomb at all.
In all seriousness you have my sympathy, my house was nearly destroyed when a moron of a plumber managed to ensure that a pipe connection in the loft space was made of cheese, when i came back after Xmas mains pressure had been running through the house for at least a week.
Internal rain and some ice patches were interesting to say the least.
Bloddy hell! Now that's not nice.
The same cockjockey who did the electrics also used hay (as in hay - dry grass) to part insulate the loft. Particulary interesting around the shyyyyyte wiring. The rest of the loft (I would say 90% of it) he bothered to insulate with feck all.
What a cockjockey.
Needless to say, a full renovation that I'm doing was part of the reason we bought it, but when you look at the standards of some of the work people have done and sold it on as a family home, it does make you a) shudder and b) really question their intelligence/morals.0
