In the two weeks since my last flat, I have made a big effort to keep my tyres pumped rock solid.
But guess what happened today? Yup. Another one.
Let's face it: I just have bad tyre karma.
Monday, April 07, 2008
You made me a theory, but I broke it.
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9 Comments:
Maybe you should stop taking shortcuts through the "Nails and Broken Glass" field... :)
Does anyone remember the "No More Flats" ads from the 80s? They showed a woman cycling gaily over a broken milkbottle while the milkies waved in alarm, a man cycling over a board with nails in it while the builders gestured him away, and so on.
I think No More Flats was about some kind of foam inner that sealed externally if there was a rip externally.
You could also look at getting chunkier tyres. I wangled a mountain bike off a Californian once in Göttingen and had no flats for two years because the inner was so far from the road.
Or you could line your outer tire with a punctured old inner. Works well, but it does slow you down.
Sounds like something's off. Is the rim clean? Inside tire got something going on? No pinches?
When you get flats, are they happening in the same place or way? (If you're pinching something, for example?)
Depending on your bike, there are all sorts of choices for tougher tires/tubes. Maybe consider different ones?
(A bike forum might be useful. Do you know about TE?)
Actually, I think Jared's suggestion is the best one.
It's not even the same tyre every time. And the front one, which gets more punctures than the back, punctures in a different place each time (I can tell from the old patches).
Generally it's pretty clear what caused it. Like, a piece of broken glass, a pin, or (last time) a pin with the entire badge still attached still stuck in the tyre,
I have replaced my tyres, and even my whole wheels, in the last few years, and it didn't seem to make a difference to the frequency of the punctures.
I think I need some heavy-duty tyres if I want to keep riding my inner-city route (I counted six patches where broken glass from bottles or car accidents was spread across the road on my way in today).
'No More Flats' were just an almost solid fill for the tire - essentially stepping back a century and a half in bicycle technology to the old solid rubber rimmed wheels. Yeah, they don't go flat, but they jar and shock and lead to a generally unpleasant ride as compared to pneumatic tires.
Do you ride on the cycle paths or on the roads?
I would fix a 100 broken tyres for a chance to ride 20km around the lake again :)
I used to ride on the cycle paths from our old place to uni. But now we live around two blocks directly north of the mall that is named after the city (hope that isn't too indirect). So there aren't any cycle paths between here and the university and I have to ride directly through the centre city, crossing streets like Northbourne and Barry Drive, where there is always debris from accidents.
this may help:
clicky
from the anon guy from last time :-)
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