When was the last time you had a flat?

[Kakashi]

I made a mistake last night, I didn't check my wheels before heading off to the grocery to buy some snacks. I was already near my destination when I noticed that the front wheel was soft, luckily it wasn't the back so I headed to a gas station and got some air to it, just to get it back home, I have to check it out tom.

 

[Corzhens]

That's the first thing I've learned when I got my first bike, that is to check the tires before riding. Bike tires are susceptible to flat even if there's no foreign object in the tire. Sometimes the valve itself causes the problem when there is a leak. Anyway, the advantage with the bike is that we can walk with it when there is a flat tire and there's no need to find a vulcanizing shop immediately.

 

[zipp2001]

Going on 4 1/2 years with the mountain bike and never flatted. Checked my log book and over the last 10 years of riding on the road with my road bikes I've had 8 flats, averaging less than 1 a year. Digging further 6 of those flats were from road debris not from any inflation issue.

 

[Froze]

I'm going on 4 years myself on my main road bike, and 5 years on my commuter bike. I don't use any heavy flat resistant tires on those.

The one set of tires I took off last month off my main road bike, Hutchinson Intensive II tires, the center smooth portion of the tread separated like a truck tire retread! I found out when that happened and I got on the internet to see if that had happened to anyone else that Hutchinson has that problem and it's pretty wide spread over the majority of their models if not all, so I'll never buy any Hutchinson tire ever again; however even when the center portion of the tread started to peel I rode it 18 miles back home and didn't get a flat with the tread plopping down the road. Those Hutchinsons were only about 1/3rd to 1/2 worn! I'm now trying Specialized Roubaix Pro tires and so far I like them, they roll well, are smooth riding and have good traction, so now I have to wait to see if they get cut up, flats or wear fast.

I do not think that people need to buy expensive tires though to get decent flat protection, though the cheapest will have none. I have a set of Panaracer Stratus Sport tires on my commuter bike and not only have I had no flats but they're wearing like iron, they don't have the confidence in the handling department that better tires have but they're good enough. Panaracer no longer makes that tire but the closest twin to it is the Closer Plus.

I get all my tires on sale, and I never pay more than $30 for a tire that normally will cost $50 to $70 each! I got a set of Vittoria Rubino Pro II for $15 each, they were also a great tire no flats and only one cut and they lasted a long time. The Specialized I got were $40 each but they had 1/2 off on the second tire for a total of $60 which is $30 each-my max I'll pay but my least discount I've had in a long time but I wanted to try these. The point is don't pay regular prices, road tires go on sale around the second week of September and again the the day before Thanksgiving to black Friday are the closeouts and what's left of the September sale.

 

[Chuckabutty]

The last time I had a flat, I had two of them. They happened after riding my fat bike in grass. The tires had the big knobs on them, but the tire wall between the knobs is very thin. I got up, one morning, to find I had two flat tires. Each tire had around fourteen sand burrs sticking in it. I now ride on tires with diamond patterns like car tires, and in 3,500 miles, no flats.

 

[Froze]

OOKKKAAAYYYY. This is the first time ever talking about getting a flat and I got one last night! I took my commuter bike with the old Panaracer Stratus Sport tires to ride with my grandkids, and the stupid thing was since we weren't going far I didn't take my pump and flat kit! Duh!! LOL. Good thing for me I was only 4 blocks from home.

The hole in the tire and tube was about 1/8th of inch in diameter, not sure what I hit I was too busy keeping an eye on the grandkids to see what was on the road. So when I got home I filled the hole from the outside with Gorilla Super Glue, and patched the tube with a glueless patch from a brand I never used before so not sure if they will work as good as Park does. The glueless patches were labeled with my LBS store name but look like Lezyne which I've never used before, but not sure if that's where they're from. So I guess I'll find out how good they are.

 

[Froze]

The last time I had a flat, I had two of them. They happened after riding my fat bike in grass. The tires had the big knobs on them, but the tire wall between the knobs is very thin. I got up, one morning, to find I had two flat tires. Each tire had around fourteen sand burrs sticking in it. I now ride on tires with diamond patterns like car tires, and in 3,500 miles, no flats.

I don't know much about fat tires, but why do they have such thin tread between the knobs? what stops anything from going through? Do they make flat strips? do they make some fat tires with thicker tread? I know they use sealants but that's not the cure all.

When I moved to Indiana from California and became friends with a retired farmer, he had a farm tractor with large fat tractor tires and he got a flat because he ran over a stick wrong...A STICK?! he told me that rubber between the lugs is very thin which sounds like the fat tires. Even though the stick when through tire due to the large volume of air at low pressure it took about 2 hours for the air to all come out. But I surprised at the lack of thickness which caused me to wonder how farmers can get any work done if flats are happening due to the thin tread?

 

[Chuckabutty]

... So when I got home I filled the hole from the outside with Gorilla Super Glue, and patched the tube with a glueless patch from a brand I never used before so not sure if they will work as good as Park does. The glueless patches were labeled with my LBS store name but look like Lezyne which I've never used before, but not sure if that's where they're from. So I guess I'll find out how good they are.

That's what I like, a cyclist who uses his imagination and ingenuity to get rolling again.

Early this year I got a flat on the fat bike, on the rear wheel. I'd bought a tire pump made for fat bike tires because they pump more air with each stroke. I carry tools and a patch kit but it was a hot day, and four miles from home with a panhead screw in the tire. I called my wife to come and get me, because I'm told it takes ages to pump up a fat tire. I can believe it because it takes a large volume of air. My front wheel has a quick release, and I had a 15mm wrench for the back wheel nuts, so I removed the wheels to make it easy to get it into the car.

My LBS advised that patches are only for getting you home, so I bought a new tube. I don't want to have a patch go bad on one of my jaunts 20 miles from home. Fat bikes are fine until you get a flat.

 

[treecko142]

Thankfully, I've never experienced having a flat tire on my bike. I've had experience having flat tires on cars, but never on a bike. I guess it's just luck.

 

[Froze]

That's what I like, a cyclist who uses his imagination and ingenuity to get rolling again.

My LBS advised that patches are only for getting you home, so I bought a new tube. I don't want to have a patch go bad on one of my jaunts 20 miles from home. Fat bikes are fine until you get a flat.

Why did your LBS tell you that patches are not permanent on a tube? Whether I used glue patches or glueless they are all permanent I don't care what any LBS tells you or someone here tells you especially glueless patches that most people will say they only get you home nonsense.

Glue on patches without question are permanent patches if done correctly, and the Park brand of glueless patches are also permanent if done correctly. It's the prep stage where most people screw up using glueless patches, you can screw up the prep stage with glue patches and you stand a good chance of having a lasting flat repair, but glueless is less tolerant of a poor prep stage. The prep stage is the same with glue or glueless, you first have to buff the tube with an area larger than the patch will cover, you then clean the area with an alcohol pad (sometimes not necessary with glue on but it helps), the with the glue or glueless you have to remove the backing off the patch making sure you touch the smallest area possible (again not as critical with glue on but again it helps to keep dirty fingers off the back of the patch), then you press on the patch, with glueless you have to press between your thumb and index finger for as hard as you can for 30 seconds, with the Park you can see where you need to press again by looking for cloudy areas and repress those spots, with the Lezyne (if that's what the ones I got from the LBS are) you can't tell because the patch is black so I just pressed the edges to make sure. And that's it. I have a spare tube with no air in the tube and it has 2 glueless patches on it and both patches are fine. I've had tubes that had glueless patches that were my main tubes that held up for 5 years after putting the patches on, and I rode on those tubes the whole time. Unless those patches fail after 5 years I consider them permanent patches. I do know that I had problem with the cheap Scab brand of glueless patches, they lasted about a week and failed. In a pinch I found out that black Gorilla tape will work (but you do have to prepare the tube like you would for glueless patch) but it will only last about a day or two, so you can continue your ride without fear but when you get home you need to take the tape off and apply a better patch. I actually tested the Gorilla tape to see if worked, it does but not for long; electrical tape or duct tape will not work at all.

Pumps for fat tires is going to be different than those for road tires, see this: https://fat-bike.com/2013/06/fat-bike-101-pumps/

I aways carry Gorilla Super Glue with me, this stuff is great for filling in penetration holes or cuts while on the road. You do have to wait for the glue to dry before you roll on it but only takes about a minute, you fill in the hole, then go and patch the tube or replace the tube, and by the time you're done, installed the tire and inflated it the glue is hard and good to go. Now sometimes you have to reexamine the hole once you blow it up to make sure the hole is filled in, if not put a dab more on and wait a minute or two. I also carry a tire boot patch but those do not stay on for more than a week so if you have a large hole they will work and get you home then you might have to replace the tire. Once I superglued the boot patch onto the tire and that boot held on for about two months but it was just buying me time to find a tire on sale. You will still need to fill in the hole on the outside of the tread with superglue. I like Gorilla superglue because it's not as watered down as the other stuff.

 

[Chuckabutty]

Why did your LBS tell you that patches are not permanent on a tube?

I guess that's what they believe. Incidentally, my LBS is no longer my LBS. Long story of botched jobs and a mechanic with a short temper, who appears to be a pro but isn't.

Glue on patches without question are permanent patches if done correctly...

As a teenager, I had my share of flat tires. I always did the repairs, myself, and never had a problem with them. I didn't go out and buy new tubes each time I had a flat. I've seen other comments from riders who say that patches are only to get you home. That's one thing I've found with forums, there are all kinds of opinions. Pick one.

18 months ago I bought a new Schwinn hybrid bike, online. I knew it would need some work because I wasn't expecting much for $199. I assembled the bike and tried to pump the tires up. They wouldn't hold air. I took the tubes out and found they were way undersized for the size of tires, and were made of some kind of gritty stuff. Pumping them up caused holes. Trying to glue patches on them was a waste of time because of the gritty surface, no matter how much I cleaned them. I complained to the dealer who then sent me one new tire because I had to throw both tires away. He never mentioned the tubes. And this bike came with good reviews.

The prep stage is the same with glue or glueless, you first have to buff the tube with an area larger than the patch will cover, you then clean the area with an alcohol pad (sometimes not necessary with glue on but it helps)...

Yep! I learned that, as a kid, and never had any problems. Dunlop made great patch kits (in England) which I think were a lot better than today's kits. They even came with French chalk for dusting over the patch to prevent any surplus glue from sticking to the inside of the tire.

I do know that I had problem with the cheap Scab brand of glueless patches, they lasted about a week and failed.

Tried those, too, from Walmart. I could never trust them enough to even ride a mile. I found they peeled off very easily. They are probably the type just made to get you home.

Pumps for fat tires is going to be different than those for road tires, see this: https://fat-bike.com/2013/06/fat-bike-101-pumps/

Yes, I researched that before I bought a pump, realizing it needed to be a decent one to pump gobs of air. I bought a Lezyne made for fat bike tires. Mine has the flexible hose because I don't like any pump, for any tire, that attaches rigidly to the valve.

 

[Froze]

I stopped using glue on patches about 30 some odd years ago, so I have a lot of experience with them, and if they were only patches to get me home trust me I would have gone back to glue on. 3M invented the glueless patch and my first years were using those, than they sold the rights to Park and Specialized, and 3M stopped marketing it under their name. But the 3M style of patch is a square really thin almost clear looking patch whereas this new one I'm trying is round, thicker and black, but if those new ones don't work I won't go back, but if they're the same as the Lezyne patches they got decent reviews so I'll have to wait and see.

That grit stuff I'm not sure what that was unless it was the tube degrading from age, that's weird.

I was raised up on pumps without a hose so I learned how to use them, so hose or no hose it doesn't bother me, but I like the hose type now that I've used them, but I have and use today both types. What happened over the years is in order to save a penny per tube they took out the grommet/washer that reinforced the valve stem onto the tube, so back in the day if a person was using a direct connect pump some would "saw" the pump back and forth as the PSI got tougher and tougher to put in (improper use of a pump to be blamed here but people are people). Well with that grommet/washer on the valve it would prevent the valve from tearing away from the tube, now they took that out (there are a couple of tubes that use a slightly thicker area of tube surrounding the stem but it doesn't really work as good as the grommet/washer). It's due to tubes not having that grommet/washer is why some pump manufacturers got wise and changed the pump design to offer a hose with the idea that if you kept slack in the hose you could saw all you want and the hose slack would protect the stem from tearing. But guess what? Some people don't keep that slack and they start sawing and RIPPPPP! I rode up on a young lady last summer who looked very experienced in riding and had a flat, she had replaced the tube only to rip the stem on the replacement tube from sawing with a hose style pump. So I took her old tube fixed the leak put back in and showed her the weakness of modern tube and showed her how to prevent ripping the stem, I think she understood it then. I even showed her how to pump a tire with a direct connect pump just in case in the future she ever got one.

Tires have improved a lot over just the last 10 years, I use to average about a flat a month, now it's been 5 years on the commuter until I got that flat the other evening with the kids. I run over glass all the time not to mention I'm sure I've run over small shards of glass I never see, and bits of wire from worn out steel belted tires use to cause flats as well. So tires have come a long ways recently.

 

[Chuckabutty]

I stopped using glue on patches about 30 some odd years ago, so I have a lot of experience with them, and if they were only patches to get me home trust me I would have gone back to glue on.

I have a few patch kits from the LBS. They are Rema Tip Top high speed repair, glue-on patches. They have worked well for the little I've used them. Next time I get a flat, instead of putting a new tube in - like the bike shop advises - I leave it patched and see how long it lasts. I carry more patches if needed.

That grit stuff I'm not sure what that was unless it was the tube degrading from age, that's weird.

I suspect that whatever material they used at the factory, it wasn't mixed properly, or wasn't processed properly. The tubes were brand new. Deflated, they were no more than 3/4" in diameter, and expected to fill a tire 1 3/8" in diameter. That's a lot of stretching, and because they were so poor, holes just opened up in them. I wasn't aware how bad they were until I tried to pump them up, because the wheels already came with tires and tubes installed. And the tires looked like they were furry. There was no distinguishable tread.

A guy made a YouTube video of the same model bike. He put it together and thought it was wonderful. I commented about the problems I had with the tires and tubes, and he said he had nothing like that. Same bike, different tires and tubes.

I was raised up on pumps without a hose so I learned how to use them, so hose or no hose it doesn't bother me, but I like the hose type now that I've used them...

All British bikes came with a pump with a flexible hose, and they had a long stroke so a tire was filled quickly. Those pumps were mounted on the down tube. I can't say I'm thrilled with modern pumps with their short strokes, but they're better than nothing. I always use a floor pump at home.

I rode up on a young lady last summer who looked very experienced in riding and had a flat, she had replaced the tube only to rip the stem on the replacement tube from sawing with a hose style pump. So I took her old tube fixed the leak put back in and showed her the weakness of modern tube and showed her how to prevent ripping the stem, I think she understood it then. I even showed her how to pump a tire with a direct connect pump just in case in the future she ever got one.

It makes you feel good to help other cyclists. I stopped to help a young man, a few months ago. He had a big back pack on and was pushing his bike along. His rear tire was flat so I told him I have a patch kit to get him going. We turned his bike upside down and I pulled the tube out of the tire. Sadly, the valve stem had a split around it where it joins with the tube. I knew of no way to fix that, and there wasn't a bike shop or a Walmart anywhere around. His whole bike was in bad shape, and his tires had no tread. I felt so bad for him. We have a lot of pawn shops with bikes outside, and I would have bought him a bike had we been near a shop. It made me sad to have to leave him with his problem

 

[Froze]

You can only do what you can do. I aways try to help people, I carry a mini tool and once I was able to fix a lady's car that broke down with it.

I was coming down a mountain road in the early evening hours with about 3 hours before sunset with about 2 hours of ride time left and came upon another cyclist with a destroyed tire. So I stopped to see what I could do, back in those days I carried a spare folding tire in my seat bag and I knew if he was going to walk he would have about 4 hours of walking just to get to a phone plus he was wearing cycling shoes which aren't great for walking in. He had spare tube so I gave him my spare tire, I asked if he needed help and he said no he could do, so before I left he asked me for my name and address so he could return the tire, I knew I wasn't going to get it back but to humor him I gave it the infor but he nothing to write it down with so oh well. About a week later I get a small package in the mail from a doctor's office, in the box was two new tires and tubes and a thank you card!

I don't carry a spare tire anymore on my regular bikes, but I do on my touring bike.

I just found out today those black round patches that may be Lezyne patches don't work! They held up for 24 hours give or take an hour or two and tire is flat! So don't get those. In fact I'm taking them back to the bike shop and explain to them what happened. What pisses me off is that they use to carry Park patches in stock, well they stopped carrying those and now carry this ****. I'm not 100% sure if those patches are made from the same company that makes Lezyne, they look the same except mine don't have Lezyne printed on the patch. They didn't cost that much but the LBS needs to know they don't work. Heck as well as those patches worked I could have saved some money and used black Gorilla tape with slightly better results!!

 

[mitan143]

Honestly, I just had my recent flat this last Sunday. I don't know how come it happen to me that time, or maybe it is because the road that we are tracking through have foreign objects but I don't think my tire will easily get burst by that. I really don't have any idea. All I can think is someone forcefully injected something pointed to my tire. Is it because we parked our bikes outside in some convenience store, I don't really know. But it is a good thing that it just happened during our way home and my brother is with me who help me a lot so that I won't feel disappointed at all.

 

[Chuckabutty]

... I just found out today those black round patches that may be Lezyne patches don't work! They held up for 24 hours give or take an hour or two and tire is flat!...

Maybe that's why my LBS said patches are only to get you home. They may have had experience with not so good patches.

I have wondered about how far a patch will stretch. The tube is flat when you patch it, but when you inflate it, that patch is going to stretch with the tube. If the patch isn't up to much stretching, it's going to cause a leak.

Back in my day, there was only one manufacturer of patches, and that was Dunlop. I was a young teen, and certainly no expert at tire patching, but they always worked! With all the various makes of patches, today, it can be a problem until you find one that works for you. The problem with that is, you could have patch failure miles from home. Even one mile from home is annoying, to say the least.

 

[Froze]

Like I said before the Park and the Specialized Fat Boy patches (which look exactly like the Park) never failed me, but all the others have. The Park and Spech are thin and do stretch, so do the Rema glue on patches. I've taken a tube that was previously patched with a Park and while trying to find another leak I would blow the tube up outside the tire to about 4 times its normal size and the Park would stretch a little then stop but the rest of tube would expand, but even with that sort of stress placed on the patch it still wouldn't let go, this same effect happens with Rema glue on patches as well.

To show you how well the Park glueless patch stays on the tube, I took a bad tube and tried to peel off a previously applied patch that had been on there for at least 6 months, as I was trying to tear off the patch I tore the tube!

 

[Chuckabutty]

Like I said before the Park and the Specialized Fat Boy patches (which look exactly like the Park) never failed me, but all the others have.

I hadn't heard of the Flatboy patches. I'll have to give them a try. I do have a Park patch kit as well as the Rema kits.

To show you how well the Park glueless patch stays on the tube, I took a bad tube and tried to peel off a previously applied patch that had been on there for at least 6 months, as I was trying to tear off the patch I tore the tube!

That's how it was with the Dunlop glue on patches. Once they were on, they were there to stay.

 

[Froze]

I hadn't heard of the Flatboy patches. I'll have to give them a try. I do have a Park patch kit as well as the Rema kits.

If you've tried the Park glueless patches than you've tried the Specialized Fatboy patches because they're the same patch.

 

[Chuckabutty]

If you've tried the Park glueless patches than you've tried the Specialized Fatboy patches because they're the same patch.

The Park patches I have are glue on. I found the Specialized. They are called Flatboy. I'll be ordering some.