CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

Puncture repair fail

(22 posts)
  • Started 13 years ago by kaputnik
  • Latest reply from Morningsider

  1. kaputnik
    Moderator

    It's now two weeks in a row when I've got a flat on my way into work on the first day of the week. Felt the dreared "rim rumble" of a deflating tyre as I rolled down the ramp into the basement at work. At least I made it that far, last week I had to get off and push the last 500m.

    Bike has a crummy front tyre made by the usually reliable and efficient Teutonic types over at Schwalbe called a "delta cruiser". I've been meaning to bin it for a Marathon Plus for months, as A/ it's limited to 80PSI - MP can go up to 95 B/ the puncture resistance has always been suspect. But it always sort of just kept on going so I never quite got round to making the change...

    Anyway, went down at lunchtime to effect repairs, to find out that I'd left my pump at home strapped to the other bike that I took out at the weekend and of the 2 spare tubes I always carry, one still has its puncture from last week. I also couldn't find a puncture repair kit in my saddle bag and then remembered I stopped carrying one as "I've always got 2 spare tubes".

    Not to worry, I "borrowed" a pump off of someone else's frame and located the wound on the inner tube and traced it back to the tyre. Tiny piece of arrow-head red flint had penetrated all the way through the thickest part of the tread and is so small that the head of it has got inbetween the wire bands of the "puncure resisting" belt. It's amazing that you can be felled by something less than a millimetre across.

    So I extricated the grit and pulled out the second spare tube, put a couple of illicit pumps of borrowed air into it only to hear "fsssssssssssssss". Quick eyeball of the tube and theres a manufacturing failure along the seams. No way this can be repaired.

    So I'm now mulling over the options of taking public transport home and coming into work better prepared tomorrow or pushing up to Halfords after work to buy new tubes and - if they won't lend me one - a cheap inflation device.

    So cyclingists, the morals of the story are;
    * don't expect your Specialized inner tubes to work "out of the box"
    * don't forget your pump
    * don't be so lazy as to carry around a busted tube for a week when you could have patched it up in 10 minutes
    * leave a wee puncture repair kit in your desk at work. They cost sweeties and could have avoided my current situation

    Posted 13 years ago #

  2. chdot
    Admin

    Any chance of your employer providing a nice track pump in return for (some) staff being healthier and more reliable?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  3. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I was going to provide my own in fact, just never got round to taking my old track pump into work and getting something to chain it up with...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  4. recombodna
    Member

    Has anyone else on here found Secialized tyres to be sub standard? The one on the back of my fixed started cracking up after 6 months. Same with the ones I put on my wifes bike. The continentals on my other bike have lasted 4 years and counting...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  5. PS
    Member

    * don't be so lazy as to carry around a busted tube for a week when you could have patched it up in 10 minutes
    * leave a wee puncture repair kit in your desk at work. They cost sweeties and could have avoided my current situation

    Or even get yourself some of those Park Tools adhesive puncture repair patches: about the size of a postage stamp and they come in a box that's even smaller than a puncture repair kit. I've used them to repair an inner tube in situ before, and the whole operation was quicker than sticking a new inner tube in.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  6. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Secialized tyres

    I've got a pair of Specialized mondo something-or-another slicks for the road bike, but they only get wheeled-out (boom-tsch) for special occassions. The one time I accidentally left them on and commuted on them they went flat within a mile from urban road detritus.

    The other moral is "don't be as lazy as Kaputnik". I was "going" to change those slicks over. I was "going" to leave a track pump at work. I was "going" to patch that tube. I was "going" to swap the Delta Cruiser for a Marathon +.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  7. wingpig
    Member

    I have a different kind of laziness, resulting in six or seven punctured tubes stored in various places around the house, awaiting repair whilst I continue to work through a multipack of fresh tubes (always with one spare and a repair kit and (sometimes) a crap mini-pump in my bag). Some of the hoarded punctures are rim-impact-snakebites from my daily rattle over the Dundas St/Heriot Row junction crater system from back when I worked in a different office, back when I was still on my old bike, back before I'd discovered Marathon +, which must make some of the punctures more than seven years old.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  8. Stepdoh
    Member

    That's what comes from listening to Classic FM - Your relaxation sta....zzzz

    Posted 13 years ago #

  9. Morningsider
    Member

    Kaputnik - I sympathise with this. Got a puncture on my way home last Wednesday, shard of glass right through my 23mm Conti Gatorskins. Put in a new Specialized tube in the following morning, before going to work, only to have the little brass bit (technical term) of the valve shear off while I was pumping it up. Not happy at all - will be avoiding Specialized tubes in future.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  10. Stepdoh
    Member

    I got an awesome snakebite (and a sore a*se) when I fell down the stairs on my first day back commuting. Took a lot of resolve not just to cry and go back to bed.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  11. Stepdoh
    Member

    But I have three little pockets in my bag that contain > repair kit, tyre levers, pump, allen keys. The amount of punctures I get on my glass strewn route I just always carry em.

    The initial fairly robust puncture resistance in my Conti CityContact tyres seems to be getting less with age.

    It did amaze me though just how much glass my tyres had embedded in the top layer when I checked them before putting them back onto my bike, lots of little shards that looked like they were just waiting their turn to cuddle up with mr tube.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  12. Min
    Member

    "lots of little shards that looked like they were just waiting their turn to cuddle up with mr tube"

    Hehe.

    Don't be so hard on yourself folks. Tube daftness is easily done. I have found myself with a folding bike tube whilst riding the road bike and a cross tube whilst riding the folder and all combinations thereof.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  13. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I got caught once with a schrader valve pump on a presta-tubed bike. It's a long walk home from Silverknowes.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  14. ruggtomcat
    Member

    @stepdoh I just ordered some city contact, like 'nik says its something ive been meaning to do for a while but have been holding off because the cross tires work well in the snow, but Im looking forward to some slicks with reflective sidewalls and certainly puncture protection, it seems every time i get a puncture i have to repair it twice.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  15. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Well I slipped and slithered up to Halfords in my work shoes and the result is;

    * Bikehut value pump £4.99
    * Presta valve connector £1.99
    * pack of 8 Weldtite insta-patches £1.99
    * Not taking the bus home - priceless

    If the pump ever inflates one tube then it's done it's job and I'll leave it at work for emergencies.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  16. Morningsider
    Member

    Kaputnik - watch your pressure if you are using "glueless" patches on road bike tyres. I have used Park patches in the past and found they failed almost immediately on road tyres (700c x 23mm in my case) - think it is because they couldn't handle much above about 60psi (although I could be wrong).

    Posted 13 years ago #

  17. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Thanks for the warning MSr. It's an x28mm touring tyre that has a max of 80PSI. I don't think the cheapo pump I've bought could get past there anyway. It's just enough to get me home so I can effect a proper repair with vulcanising solution and chalk dust etc.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  18. cb
    Member

    My biggest fail was probably on a cycling tour of Shetland, I decided I needed to replace a disintegrating back tyre. Bought a new tyre in Lerwick and felt that the current tyre would least as far as that night's camp where I could execure a leisurely change over.

    Four or five miles out of Lerwick on a big hill and a busy road the tyre went flat and that's when I discovered I've bought the wrong size of tyre. Yes, the wrong size. I'm a bit less clueless about this kind of thing now (but probably not much).

    I managed to bodge a repair to the tyre and ended up carrying a useless tyre around for the rest of the holiday.
    The original tyre actually lasted for the rest of the trip (onto Orkney for another week or so).

    Posted 13 years ago #

  19. Smudge
    Member

    I got home tonight and after wheeling the bike into the garage noticed a hissing noise... looked at the front tyre (less than 1k miles nimbus armadillo) and there in the middle of the tread is a big lump of glass sticking out... so I went to touch it and it shot off somewhere into the garage ( :-/ ) to the sound of my tyre deflating at speed :-(
    At least it did it once I was back I suppose, first flat in years though, and in the "armoured" part of the tyre too (grump moan)

    Must be puncture season :-(

    Posted 13 years ago #

  20. PS
    Member

    Kaputnik - watch your pressure if you are using "glueless" patches on road bike tyres. I have used Park patches in the past and found they failed almost immediately on road tyres (700c x 23mm in my case) - think it is because they couldn't handle much above about 60psi (although I could be wrong).

    I've not experienced that problem. One of my road bike innertubes is currently sporting two of these (one of them for 18 months, the second one for 8 months now) and they have performed fine at 100psi over what's probably a couple of thousands miles in the case of the first one.

    I did have some scepticism towards the patches when I first tried them, but the glue seemed strong and I figured that the high pressure in the innertube held the patches nice and tight against the inside of the tyre wall so the air couldn't get out*.

    *I have no idea whether this is how it works.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  21. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Well the Halfords pump and presta connector was a complete fail.

    Popped them under water when attached to the tube and found air bubbling out at both ends of the connector hose. That'll be going back then.

    The pump was next to useless, but I somehow managed to get it threaded straight into the presta valve without using a connector hose and somehow managed to get about 30-40PSI* into the tyre, enough to get me home very, very gingerly. I would have gone up via halfords to demand satisfaction but the route up through Edinburgh Park is no go for bikes at the moment and I wasn't going to take a big detour round the roads.

    Bought myself something by Continental to tide me over until I get round to ordering a Marathon Plus for the front in the correct size. I have determined not to cycle an inch further on the rubbish Delta Cruiser.

    * - edit - good guess. Just checked, it managed 35...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  22. Morningsider
    Member

    Kaputnuik - glad to hear you got home. Can't say I'm surpised babout the Halfords pump.

    PS - I knew it, my puncture (repair) curse continues! I seem to be a magnet for dodgy tubes, leaky patches, crumbling tyres, poor quality pumps, punctures on the coldest and wettest days of the year as far from home as possible etc. I assume I must have been a particularly mean spirited owner of a drawing pin/glass bottle factory in a previous life to be so afflicted.

    Posted 13 years ago #

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