road bike nightmares!

macker71165

Hi all! having rode a bike for the last 6yrs nothing special just commute to work and back 6miles 5 days a week on a trusty cheapish alloy mountain bike i was getting a bit envious of them speedy road bikes that pass me by from time to time! anyway in may my son came home from doing service in afghan and
bought me a raleigh equipe road bike pretty light bike compared to my mountain bike 700x 28c tyres butterfly gear shifters i know its not ya chris boardmans or the like but i was really pleased!!!!! hang on i cant pump the tyres up with my hand pump of to halfords i go!.. ya need one of these floor pumps they said!! 120 psi it says on my tyre so i go ahead and buy it! and it works a treat! whoosh!!! i could take them mountain bikes on the straights i was loving this! hills were a breeze! then it happend a flat tyre..so i try and repair it but the heavy psi blows the patch off!! so i get a new tube and try to fit it!! f&*k me how do ya get the tyre back on? you tube to the rescue they make it look easy 2hours later all is good and back on the road!
wk 2 just get home feels a bit strange check my tyre another flat curse my luck i purchase another tube really hate having to struggle with getting these tyres on pheww at last 1 hour that took! bear in mind i did all the checks ie tyre for glass thorns every thing good! wk 3 flat have to walk home from work cos the pump i got is too big to carry around! hey have you tried them slime tubes they stop punctures a fellow cyclist suggested so i get myself some! back wheel good front wheel tube exploded green slime every where! grrrrr am getting to really hate road bikes!! now i get myself a normal tube 2hours trying fix this bike getting to me know!! i inflate the front wheel whoosh it goes back down
another pinch flat! so all in all this is a nightmare experience i know the bike is not the best and cheap by standards but am happy with the frame the gears etc its just the wheels that bug me how do ya stop getting flats?? how do ya get a flippin tyre on easy without catching the tube?? so its back on my mountain bike dissapointed in my first road bike experiance! would hate to go long distance not being confident in my wheels not getting a flat!..phew!!!!

nbuuifx

I'm no expert but I'd go for a different set of tyres. I've got Continental Sport Contacts on which have done about 2000 miles now. Not had a single puncture (yet) and I spent a week riding over all the cuttings when they were cutting the hedges round here.

Before that the bike had travelcontacts on, which wore out with no punctures.

My offroad set are also continentals but they're tubeless so don't get punctures.

getprg

Are you serious - 120 psi is excessively high for a road tyre - the ride must be rock hard!

Before splashing out on new tyres try experimenting with 80-95 psi. Should be both more comfortable and may help resolve your puncture problem.

macker71165

i was just looking at them continental tyres on ebay!..thanks for advice guys!..yep my tyres say 120 psi i know this is high but its what my tyres say to inflate too! so thought it would be best too do as it says! thanks for getting back and for the info!

kentphil

you seem to puncture an awful lot so just a few thoughts: check the inner tube is correctly seated when you inflate the tyre. watch where your riding i.e avoid pot holes, road debris etc.

Dan_Giant

120psi will be the max you can inflate to.

I put around 100psi in mine and they are fine. No punctures yet either.

simon_masterson

The classic pinch is by the valve: make sure that when you seat the tyre you push the valve up into the tyre before you put the lock ring on to check that the tube isn't caught here. Not suggesting this is the problem, but it's easily done.

Beyond that, 120psi isn't very high by road bike standards, though my 27x1 1/4 (32mm) Gatorskins are rated at 85psi max. I can't comment on the reason for different levels, because I don't know why, but I see no wrong in inflating the tyre to the maximum recommended pressure, and therefore suggest that you might want better tyres.

It's not uncommon (so far as I can tell, anyway) for new road bikes to come with either cheap/rubbish or unresilient tyres on them anyway. Tough puncture resistant ones aren't the cheapest and they aren't the fastest, which is why I'm not surprised.

If you want to, you can tell us what tyres are on the bike, assuming they're branded. It might give us a good indication of what the problem is. Best of luck.

solosuperia

I had a problem with a cheap pair of wheels, I bought a cheap hybrid, must clarify just for riding into town. Meant I could leave it locked up without the fear of it being nicked, Just wouldn't dare leaving my pride and joy in town.

I digress, the problem I had was the rim tape, that is the rubber band thingy that covers the holes in the rim where the spokes are. It was so narrow that the slightest movement could leave the rough end of the spoke exposed, the puncture is on the inside of the tyre.

Solution buy another rim tape ...... No longer a problem.

macker71165

thanks for the info guys very interesting my tyres are branded they say MTRAXX?? do ya think these could be the problem? looking on the net i can find TRAXX tyres not M TRAXX COULD THESE BE THE SAME? :shock:

essjaydee

Cheap thin and nasty tires will be the crux of your problems :!:

I have a Boardman road bike, and thought the tires would be good for a while before replacing them, but had several punctures and a lucky escape with a bulging tire on a sportive. Changed the tires for some better (and far stronger) one's, and it's been blissful and p*ncture free for the last 600 miles

tiredofwhiners

To get tyres on and off easily get one of these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgLY3HfTq3E

Its only about £10 and infinitely superior to two separate levers.

Repairing tubes in the field - use these - http://www.parktool.com/product/super-patch-kit-gp-2

Tyre pressure - 100 to 105 and no more. Try watching a few Youtube videos on repairing tyres as you must get the rim tape right and make sure no parts of the innertube are being pinched.

macker71165

thank you all for your replies should have got on here sooner could have saved myself a lot of flats!

simon_masterson

Sounds like cheap tat to me; get some good rubber on there and you should be golden.

I've been using Continental Gatorskins for the past few months (and well over 1000 miles) and I haven't had a single puncture. Some people don't like them but not me. You could go with Schwalbe Marathon Pluses if you want the full kaboodle though; supposedly you can stick a drawing pin in them!

rdt

Don't get disheartened, macker. As others have said, sounds like a combo of bad luck, poor tyre quality and maybe how you're fitting the tube/tyre.

Better tyres should see you right. I ran Conti Gatorskins on an urban bike and never got a flat. I've used the grippier Conti GP4000s out in the sticks and had only one or two flats so far in 8000 miles. Despite that, I still carry 2 spare tubes, repair patches, a pump and levers, as being stranded somewhere isn't fun. NB rather than carry a bulkier repair kit, carry pre-glued patches such as Park Tools Super Patches instead. And inspect your tyres every so often looking for embedded glass etc, or other damage, that's yet to lead to a flat.

klep

http://www.vittoria.com/tech/recom-tyre-pressure/

rolf_f

rdt wrote:

NB rather than carry a bulkier repair kit, carry pre-glued patches such as Park Tools Super Patches instead.

I agree with all you say apart from this. Pre glued patches are crap - they are one of those things that shouldn't have been invented in the first place. There is a small amount of technique required for using traditional patches but they are far stronger and more reliable than pre-glued, unlike pre-glued they are a permanent fix and the additional time needed to make the repair is neglible. The additional bulk of a tube of glue and a piece of sandpaper is insignificant as well.

Ideally, you never have to make repair out on the road anyway if you do carry two spare tubes but, if you do, it's better to just do a proper job and forget about it than use a glueless and quite possibly have to re fix it again at somepoint in the future (and hopefully not whilst on another ride).