Puncture Advice Required

Secteur

I use Schwalbe Durano Plus tyres (25mm) and had a puncture today (after only 90 miles from new).

I put a new inner tube in and about 100 feet later punctured again - turns out the original puncture was more of a hole than a puncture (2mm at most), and the 2nd puncture happened through the same hole in the tyre. Also, it was right through the centre of the puncture guard, which must be unlucky.

Anyway, not knowing what else to do, I called for a lift home as I presumed it would just keep puncturing.

Can those with more experience suggest any other emergency fix I could have done in this situation to allow me to continue cycling? Is there a way I could have "plugged the hole" - do you carry any special materials for this?

It occurred to me that there's a fair chance this same scenario could happen again, as any puncture which gets through the kevlar belt is likely to leave the tyre vulnerable to immediate re-puncture.

PS, Just to top my day off, I got my lift home and noticed my car tyre was completely flat with a big nail in it!! How's that for bad luck!!

sungod

if the tyre was holed that badly the tube almost certainly was slowly forced through the hole under pressure until it popped or was easily cut, hence the rapid second puncture

a tyre boot is what you need, you can improvise with various things, strip of toothpaste tube, bit of old tyre, or carry stick-on ones like...

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=13249

rolf_f

If you can see the hole in the tyre itself, you might as well just patch the tube while you are out there. The patch itself should keep the tube inplace and you could put a bit of patch on the tyre as well.

Also running the tube at lower pressure might help as well (though of course that makes you more vulnerable to further punctures).

I dont think a hole going through the belt is really going to make the tyre that much more vulnerable to puncturing - you'd have to be really unlucky for that. I'd be more inclined in this case to be suspicious that I hadn't got the offending item out after the first puncture.

Secteur

Thanks for the advice - those tyre boots seem like an excellent idea!

smidsy

Also riding in the correct position on the road helps a lot. DO NOT ride in the gutter or in cycle lanes as all the crap gets washed into there.

You should be out into the carriageway a bit (about 1m) or roughly where the inner car tyre would be as this not only puts you on the better surface but also makes you more visible to traffic.