Flints don't puncture bicycle tires?

[wafflycat]

"Tony Raven" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

>
> Helen of this parish notes that flints embedded in tyres are common in her
> locality but strange things happen in Norfolk because local lady cyclists
> dance nekkid round their willow trees uttering incantations - and because
> it's Norfolk.
>
> Have a nice day

Didn't use the word 'common' but it does indeed happen. Husband, son & I
have had such punctures happen, but judicious choice of tyre and keeping
tyres well inflated seems to keep punctures down to a manageable level. Last
three punctures when I've been on bike happened within half-an-hour of each
other and were due to broken glass on a dreaded psychlepath farcilitiy in
King's Lynn. The puncture before that was some considerable time ago and was
indeed a shard of flint stuck into the tyre. But I usually go long periods
between punctures: except on dreaded psychlefarcilities. Which is another
reason to keep off farcilities and on the road. The last time the offspring
punctured was flint shard. Just up the road from us is a gravel quarry. At
the entrance to the quarry they have a couple of seriously impressive flint
boulders on display. I have picked out many a flint shard from a tyre or
three where no puncture has been caused - but if left in the tyre, they'd
have possibly worked their way through to the inner tube.

Turning a bit chilly for nekkidniss round the willow tree in the garden
tho-but. ;-)

 

[Dave Larrington]

Simon Proven wrote:

> I think those bikes have about 16K miles and 5 punctures, so about
> 3.2K miles per puncture. The tourer with the TT2000 tyres seems to
> be the best, the audax bike's not done enough miles yet to know.

Though it /did/ come perilously close to suffering one at the lunch break on
the Golden Tints 200 the other week, when Simon mentioned this fact as I was
mending my second small-rock induced p+nct+r+ of the day...

--
Dave Larrington
<http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk>
Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger
Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger
Badger Badger

 

[Derk]

[email protected] wrote:

> Over in rec.bicycles.tech, Jobst Brandt argues that flint flats are
> just a myth:
>
> "I keep hearing about these mysterious cherts [flints] yet have never
> seen one on the road or in a tire.
I have flats caused by a very small piece of flint at least once a year.
Flint only seems to pierce the Conti tire after a few thousand miles, when
it gets softer and ruptures more easily than when it's new.

Gr, Derk

 

[Mike Jones]

Dave Larrington wrote:
> [email protected] wrote:
>
>> An Audax ride in southern England is . . . ?
>
> A brevet organised under the auspices of Audax UK:
>
> <URL:http://www.audax.uk.net/>
>
It's some kind of endurance test for the lycra-clad.

> Draw a line on a map of the BRITONS' England from the Bristol Channel in the
erm the Britons call that part Lloegr.

> south-west to The Wash in the north-east. Most areas to the south-east of
> this line will have more than their fair share of flints and similar strewn
> about the place by She Who Must Not Be Named.



http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/jpg/ukmap8.jpg
for all your Great Britain geological needs (i.e British Isles with
Ireland left out; probably for political reasons [OK, and Shetland])

Those measures with the names Limestone, or Oolite are potentially flint
bearing, as they were deposited when the land was under water (Or are
you left-pondians still having trouble with Bible v. Science?)


http://geology.about.com/library/bl/maps/n_map_usa48geo.htm
is pretty, but there's no indication of what the colours represent!




But what's wrong with shale eh?

 

[Simon Bennett]

Mike Jones wrote:

> http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/jpg/ukmap8.jpg

Why is Cromer singled out for special attantion? Other than London, it seems
to be the only settlement mentioned.

 

[Tony Raven]

wafflycat wrote on 27/10/2006 11:10 +0100:

>
> Didn't use the word 'common' but it does indeed happen.

Are you sure its not paving slab shrapnel?

> Just
> up the road from us is a gravel quarry. At the entrance to the quarry
> they have a couple of seriously impressive flint boulders on display. I
> have picked out many a flint shard from a tyre or three where no
> puncture has been caused - but if left in the tyre, they'd have possibly
> worked their way through to the inner tube.
>

Ah, a fleet of local flint scatters leaving said quarry would explain
your predicament


> Turning a bit chilly for nekkidniss round the willow tree in the garden
> tho-but. ;-)
>

Nearly time though to burn some guy on top of a bonfire to keep you warm
while you dance.

--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

 

[Tony Raven]

Dave Larrington wrote on 27/10/2006 10:50 +0100:
>
> Suffering from just about every kind of flat, from flints to catastrophic
> rim failure...
>

Indeed I believe he bravely but unknowingly has volunteered to have
everyone else's punctures for them so we can all ride virtually puncture
free

--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

 

[Dave Larrington]

Tony Raven wrote:
> Dave Larrington wrote on 27/10/2006 10:50 +0100:
>>
>> Suffering from just about every kind of flat, from flints to
>> catastrophic rim failure...
>>
>
> Indeed I believe he bravely but unknowingly has volunteered to have
> everyone else's punctures for them

Except mine.

Bah!

--
Dave Larrington
<http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk>
Give the anarchist a cigarette.

 

[Mike Jones]

Simon Bennett wrote:
> Mike Jones wrote:
>
>> http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/jpg/ukmap8.jpg
>
> Why is Cromer singled out for special attantion? Other than London, it seems
> to be the only settlement mentioned.
>
>
I have no idea, try asking the author? (face with grin thing)

 

[Pete Biggs]

Tony Raven wrote:

> As one of the UK crowd, they are not that common. I have never
> suffered on despite riding on flinty trails although a quick
> Google.co.uk will show some people have. My punctures have all been
> thorns, glass, various bits of metal and pieces of wood.
>
> Flints tend to be rather large stones with smooth outsides that only
> have sharp edges if freshly knapped. Small flint shards tend to be
> rather fragile and break very easily.

I agree they're not common, at least where I cycle most: within 30 mile
radius from north London, mostly on-road. I can remember only one puncture
that was clearly from a flint shard. Both in and out of town, the large
majority of my punctures have been caused by glass, with the occasional
thorn, nail or piece of wire.

~PB

 

[Tim McNamara]

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] wrote:

> Okay, let's try it with an average tire, one of mine.

Do you routinely find it a good thing to ride around on 700 x 26 tires
inflated to 30 psi? This is another one of your absurd, orthogonal red
herrings. The discussion would be furthered by sticking to normal
operating conditions instead of being hindered by your tendency for
whittering on about strange special cases that provide little
information that can be generalized to normal use.

 

[* * Chas]

"Mark Thompson"
<pleasegivegenerously@warmmail*_turn_up_the_heat_to_reply*.com> wrote in
message news:[email protected]...
> > My touring bike has 11,500 miles behind it, and has had /one/
XXXXXXXX,
>
> The only way you can stop the p*ncture fairy now is to sacrifice an
inner
> tube and smear patches of vulcanising solution to the sides and top of
your
> front door frame.

In Southwestern US, doors and window frames were/are traditionally
painted turquoise or blue to ward off EEVIILE sprits like goatheads. If
you look at a goathead it's actually the face of the DEVIL!

Put your hand on the radio!

Chas.
Retro Grouch

 

[* * Chas]

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 08:47:32 +0100, Tony Raven <[email protected]>
> wrote:
<snip>

> Curiously, the wretched goathead thorn is mostly a pavement problem in
> Colorado, growing almost exclusively in the scraped ground next to
> paved roads and bicycle paths.
>
> Dogs on leashes stop and hold their impaled paws up when walked on the
> roads around here, but I've never had to pluck thorns out of the paws
> of the same dogs when they're running loose in the countryside, away
> from the roads.
>
> Carl Fogel

....New Mexico, Arizona, West Texas and Northern Mexico too! They grow in
lawns as well as along side the roads. The I-25 corridor seems to be a
major route in spreading these pests.

Chas.

 

[* * Chas]

"Tony Raven" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> [email protected] wrote on 27/10/2006 09:19 +0100:
> >
> > Dear Tony,
> >
> > Forgive a foreigner's curiosity . . .
> >
> > My earlier peek in the uk.rec.cycling archives showed a number of
> > posts mentioning flint flats.
> >
> > Those posts and the ones in this thread give me the impression that
> > flint flats occur mostly on paved roads, with Denmark being oddly
> > prominent in the matter, while you're talking about flinty trails.
> >
> > Are your flinty trails off-road, unpaved trails through the rocky
> > countryside, as opposed to paved bicycle paths (or whatever they're
> > called in the UK) next to roads?
> >
> > I'm really just wondering if the flint-flat is weirdly a pavement
> > problem instead of an off-road phenomenon. (I don't know if the
chips
> > are true wild flints, washed onto the pavement as some posts in this
> > thread suggest, or some other rock cracked in some paving process or
> > broken by traffic.)
> >
> > Curiously, the wretched goathead thorn is mostly a pavement problem
in
> > Colorado, growing almost exclusively in the scraped ground next to
> > paved roads and bicycle paths.
> >
> > Dogs on leashes stop and hold their impaled paws up when walked on
the
> > roads around here, but I've never had to pluck thorns out of the
paws
> > of the same dogs when they're running loose in the countryside, away
> > from the roads.
> >
> > To return to the UK side of things, could flint-flats be worse in
some
> > parts of the UK? I confess that I have no notion of the geography,
but
> > posters have mentioned flint-flats in Grimes Graves, Lincolshire,
> > Reading, and Norfolk, while one poster spoke of thousands of miles
"on
> > limestone" (?) without flats. One Berkshire poster suffered flint
> > flats, while another who had flint-flats elsewhere was flat-free in
> > Berkshire.
> >
> > I expect that any thoughts that you have on the matter would be
> > interesting to the US posters, partly because it's all strange to us
> > and partly because you can hardly be accused of jumping on the
> > bandwagon.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Carl Fogel
>
> Dear Carl
>
> Let me start by returning your earlier comprehension condescension
> toward your Rightpondian bretheren by pointing out that over here a
> pavement is what you walk on and a road is what you cycle and drive on
> (the notorious pavement cyclist excepted)
>
> I am sure there are examples around of flints puncturing tyres (that's
> tires for your benefit Carl) but I've not had the problem despite
> cycling on and off road in the regions where I live which have lots of
> flints. I've had punctures from some unusual objects including
several
> times from splinters of wood broken off rotting tree trunks and the
ends
> of small broken off branches. In the ten years plus I've been on
> uk.rec.cycling and other uk cycling groups, I can recall lots of
> discussions about punctures but none about your specific topic of
flints
> as a cause of punctures. So its not exactly at the forefront of every
> UK cyclist's thinking, which is what you seem to imply. I must leave
> the Danes to speak for themselves but I've not had a flint puncture
> cycling on and off road in Denmark either.
>
> Helen of this parish notes that flints embedded in tyres are common in
> her locality but strange things happen in Norfolk because local lady
> cyclists dance nekkid round their willow trees uttering incantations -
> and because it's Norfolk.
>
> Have a nice day
>
> --
> Tony

I'll drink to that. Here a little missive from a friend in the UK:

"In response to your series of dialectical discussions, may I present a
few samples from around the UK. These all say approximately the same
thing and may lend some insight into British regional characteristics
as well.

GEORDIE: "Why, aye. Shall wa gan doon toon fer a cuppla bevies, then?"

BRUMMIE: "Duh yow wont ter coom owt fer a pint er two?"

YORKSHIRE: "Ist'a coming downt' poob, lad? Tha's payin'."

WEST COUNTRY YOKEL: "Be thee be comin' down ter zup a few?"

COCKNEY: "'Ahs abaht cummin' dahn the ol' rub-a-dub an' sinkin' a
couple?"

SLOAN: "Pimms, anyone?"

GLASGOW: "Ah'm gonnae go an' git rat-arsed. Are yez comin'?"
(later on, it's more likely to be: "Are yez lookin' a' me? Ah'll come
doon there an' gi' yez a smack roond the heed!")

WALES: "Ah, boyo, do you fancy a pint? Oh, bugger, it's Sunday - they're
shut."


Chas.

 

[Tony Raven]

* * Chas wrote on 27/10/2006 17:52 +0100:
>
<snip attempt at regional accents>

UR a Hollywood scriptwriter and I claim my five pounds.


--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

 

[* * Chas]

"Tony Raven" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> * * Chas wrote on 27/10/2006 17:52 +0100:
> >
> <snip attempt at regional accents>
>
> UR a Hollywood scriptwriter and I claim my five pounds.
>
>
> --
> Tony
>
> "Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not
using
> his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
> - Leonardo da Vinci

Nope, got it from friend in Manchester.... but I'll spot you a pint of
bitters if you ever get over this way (SF Bay Area).

Chas.

 

[Michael Press]

In article <[email protected]>,
Peter Clinch <[email protected]> wrote:

> Flint/chert is a natural glass that tends to crop up most in chalk rocks
> and derived soils. Chalks are not used for roadstone, metamorphics
> being much more common for that. In fact Britain's biggest quarry is in
> Leicestershire (a little to the right of ventral England) because
> there's very little suitable road stone in the south east, which happens
> to be where a lot of the flint/chert is found.

Flint/chert is not glass. Glass is vitreous. Glass is
not crystalline. Glass is formed from a molten flow.
Flint/chert is micro-crystalline silica. Flint/chert
does not form from a molten flow. It appears to have
more than one path to formation. One path is the
amalgamation of diatom skeletons, themselves made from
silica. Another path is solution and precipitation of
silica in under-sea limestone formations.

The gross mechanical properties of flint/chert arise
from its micro-crystalline structure. It can fracture
at small angles at the fracture planes, with a smooth
fracture plane, and with a thin edge because there is
no large crystal structure to prevent it. The edges are
sharp because silica is hard.

--
Michael Press

 

[Danny Colyer]

Tony Raven wrote:
> My punctures have all been thorns, glass,
> various bits of metal and pieces of wood.

I've just remembered my puncture log. It lists details of my last 74
punctures (I've been keeping it since March 2003).

14 were caused by thorns, 24 by glass, 2 by stones (possibly flints,
possibly not) and one by an object that I found but wasn't able to
identify. The others were caused by objects that were no longer in the
tyre by the time I stopped.

--
Danny Colyer <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/>
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

 

[Tony Raven]

Tony Raven wrote on 27/10/2006 10:05 +0100:
>
> Helen of this parish notes that flints embedded in tyres are common in
> her locality but strange things happen in Norfolk because local lady
> cyclists dance nekkid round their willow trees uttering incantations -
> and because it's Norfolk.
>

I told you they were strange in Norfolk
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/6091832.stm

But at least semolina won't puncture your tyres.

--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

 

[Simon Proven]

Mark Thompson wrote:
> > My touring bike has 11,500 miles behind it, and has had /one/ XXXXXXXX,
>
> The only way you can stop the p*ncture fairy now is to sacrifice an inner
> tube and smear patches of vulcanising solution to the sides and top of your
> front door frame.

I did that. Can't open the door now.