Dealing with flats

I got a couple of those flats where something stayed embedded in the tire and keeps puncturing. I haven’t been that frustrated in a while. I had done a brief feel with my fingers and couldn’t find anything. Problem was I ran out of spare tubes and I was in a dead spot on cell reception. That was annoying. Carry on

Folks from the bike group:

David from Over 60 bike group: I know the feeling. I had that on one ride and also ran out of inner new tubes ( I carry 2). I was lucky that a lone garage in the middle of nowhere had a puncture outfit which allowed me to repair them. While I was there I sat down and stripped the tyre off the bike. There I found the tiny wire splinter. The inner tube seal was obviously not so good and needed top up of air from the co2 bottle but I got home.

Brian: I find that its generally necessary to remove the tyre and bend it backwards and run fingers over the inside to find the thorns/wire that are still embedded. The tip breaks off and they hide just below the surface and re-puncture when the tyre is flexing. You wont feel them when the tyre is still mounted. Even Slime cannot cope with constant puncturing. It only takes an extra couple of minutes, unless your fingers are frozen when it takes for ever.

Geoffrey:

Marc: Might be the protective strip over the spoke ends in the rim, my wife’s bike had that problem , replaced the strip and cured the problem.

Richard: I keep a few cotton balls in my pack. Rub one lightly inside the tire, it will usually catch on anything embedded in the tire.

Ed: I carry a pair of tweezers to remove those nasty wires and tiny bits of glass that otherwise require use of teeth to remove.

Micheal: Not seen it above so here it is...I always put the tyre on so right side is chainwheel side and decal lines up with valve, just as some pros do it. Now, equally, I find the right side of tube and put that facing same way. Now when I get a flat I can line up the hole in the tube to find the culprit in the tyre, or seeing the culprit in the tyre can more easily find the hole in the tube. But I expect you all do that anyway.

William: After my first two flats I installed rubber tube guards. In Arizona the Mesquite trees drop thousands of tiny thorns everywhere. Yesterday riding in the park and stopped and picked at least a dozen out of each tire. Since installing the tire guards I have yet to have another flat. Knock on wood.

Tim: I've had that. Something is lodged within the rubber of the tire but can't be felt on the surface. Then you go over a bump of some sort at the exact wrong moment and bam, punctured inner-tube, flat tire. My answer: life's too short to go searching for hours and not finding, so new tire. problem solved.