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Too many sharps, too many flats
Aug. 23rd, 2011 11:30 pmI've been having flats lately. All in the rear wheel, all on the inside seam of the tube. I haven't kept careful track, but I know I had four in the space of a week, then took it in to Ace to let them fix it. The guy there put in a second rubber rim strip, and nearly tried to talk me out of buying a spare tube, because "you're not gonna need it"; that tube lasted about two weeks. After that blowout, on the 14th, I put in Velox fabric rim tape under a rubber rim strip, and rode it for a week...then went downstairs today to discover the tube was yet again flat.
Ordinarily, blowouts on the inside seam of an inner tube imply there's something wrong with the ends of the spokes where they come through the rim. There's nothing else there; any nails or staples or bits of glass that poke through the tire would hit the outside or sides of the tube. A layer of rubber over a layer of stiff fabric should be overkill for protecting an inner tube from anything the spokes might do, any little spur or flange of rough metal.
Anyway, I took the rear wheel in to Ace once again today, and told the guy my tale of woe. He carefully checked the rim and the tire, and said he didn't see anything that would affect the inside of the tube. His only theory was that the tube was twisting around inside the tire, so the inside was migrating to the outside and getting punctured. I bought a new tube from a different manufacturer, and a new tire, to try to eliminate as many potential culprits as possible.
There's one tiny ray of hope here: the hole for this most recent flat looks like a pinhole puncture, a quarter inch away from the seam of the tube, and not a seam-split like I've been seeing before. It's possible that I was just wicked unlucky, that this flat was unrelated to whatever was causing them before. But I rely on my bicycle; I can't be going downstairs to find a flat every week or two. And I surely don't want to wind up stuck thirty miles from home with a flat tire.
Just went to put the new tire on, and spotted a good-sized tear in the sidewall. Guess I'll be taking that back.
Ordinarily, blowouts on the inside seam of an inner tube imply there's something wrong with the ends of the spokes where they come through the rim. There's nothing else there; any nails or staples or bits of glass that poke through the tire would hit the outside or sides of the tube. A layer of rubber over a layer of stiff fabric should be overkill for protecting an inner tube from anything the spokes might do, any little spur or flange of rough metal.
Anyway, I took the rear wheel in to Ace once again today, and told the guy my tale of woe. He carefully checked the rim and the tire, and said he didn't see anything that would affect the inside of the tube. His only theory was that the tube was twisting around inside the tire, so the inside was migrating to the outside and getting punctured. I bought a new tube from a different manufacturer, and a new tire, to try to eliminate as many potential culprits as possible.
There's one tiny ray of hope here: the hole for this most recent flat looks like a pinhole puncture, a quarter inch away from the seam of the tube, and not a seam-split like I've been seeing before. It's possible that I was just wicked unlucky, that this flat was unrelated to whatever was causing them before. But I rely on my bicycle; I can't be going downstairs to find a flat every week or two. And I surely don't want to wind up stuck thirty miles from home with a flat tire.
Just went to put the new tire on, and spotted a good-sized tear in the sidewall. Guess I'll be taking that back.
