1227 Km — Two flats and a destroyed tire

by Steve ~ July 2nd, 2007. Filed under: Maintenance & Repairs.

The destroyed tireCloseup on torn lip of tire. It had been feeling wobbly for some time.

I cycled with Megan and Robert to Assiniboine Park last night to watch the Canada Day fireworks (which were canceled due to thunderstorms), and had a loud and hissing flat as we approached the park. I wasn’t worried. I’m a boyscout when it comes to this kind of thing. I got off the bike and showed my kids how to fix a flat. Well, almost. I threw in a new tube and packed the punctured one away to repair later. So, off we went again. After about half a kilometer, another explosive flat. This time, the tire was almost blown off the rim.

When I got home, I had a closer look at the wheel and tire. I couldn’t figure out what was causing the flat. The puncture was on the inside of the tube, so I suspected a spoke had pushed through its nipple, but the spokes all seemed just fine. I finally had a look at the tire to see if there was something embedded in the rubber I’d missed the first time. This time, I discovered the tear in the lip. The tire has felt wobbly for some time… so wobbly I’ve suspected the wheel was not true. I realized a few days ago that the rim was fine, only the tire was wobbly. I didn’t think it was a problem. Obviously, I was wrong.

I wonder if cycling on low tire pressure could have caused this? I’ve never had a tire do this before.

Anyway, Mike of bikewithmike.com kindly offered to supply me with two mountain bike tires, barely used, which qualifies him as my first sponsor. As Mike says, when I finally get rich and famous off this site, I can acknowledge him as one of the little people I stepped on as I climbed to the top.

I’ll try keeping the tires at the mid to high end of the recommended range, which turns out to be 45 - 65 PSI, not 40 to 55 as I earlier reported.

On the good news front, the rim is still true.

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