2024 Black cat award (punctures)

[warthog1]

Pretty sure I ran over some glass. Was on the gravel so tubeless. Both tyres started hissing instantly. One sealed. The other didn't. Was ~3kms from home. So threw in some gas, rode home and swapped bikes. Will hopefully deal with it tonight

What tyres and what sealant?
I have had gravel tyres flat but it has either been a stick punched through the carcass or a pinch flat from rim strike.
Interested to hear the cause anyway

[CmdrBiggles]

My shop told me around a fortnight+ back to 'recharge' the sealant in the TCR's tyres, as it is more than 7 months since it was put in; they recommend 6 month top-top. I picked up a squirt bottle of Bontrager TLR tubeless sealant; deflate tyre, remove valve stem and squirt in half a bottle; repeat for the next tyre, squeeze around then fully inflate.

An old trick is to rub your gloved palm along the top of the front tyre for a couple of revolutions if you've ridden through a glass field; this won't work for the rear tyre on many road bikes, with its next-to-no clearance at the seat tube, unless you're a daddy-long-arms (and legs) and can reach down to do the same trick on the rear tyre, similar to the tricked up rider in the Tour De France who demonstrated, at 60km/h, bend over and out, reach down to the rear RED derailleur, whip out its depleted battery and snap in another!
I kid you knot, that single most amazing (daring!?) scene was quite the talking point for a few days!!

[warthog1]

You can whip the valve out and dip a cable tie or similar in with the valve at the bottom to see if any is still liquid.
I fill via the valve stem and slowly rotate the wheel with it on its' side to coat the sidewall and bead. More important when the tyre is first installed and seated.
Never tried bontager sealant. Currently using Orange seal regular. As good as anything I've tried. Buy it by the litre bottle.

[jasonc]

Pretty sure I ran over some glass. Was on the gravel so tubeless. Both tyres started hissing instantly. One sealed. The other didn't. Was ~3kms from home. So threw in some gas, rode home and swapped bikes. Will hopefully deal with it tonight

What tyres and what sealant?
I have had gravel tyres flat but it has either been a stick punched through the carcass or a pinch flat from rim strike.
Interested to hear the cause anyway

Joe's no flat sealant
Tyres are bontrager gr1

Tried to plug the tyre tonight. No luck. Put on a spare tyre. Was able to seal the tyre with a floor pump

[warthog1]

Joe's no flat sealant
Tyres are bontrager gr1

Tried to plug the tyre tonight. No luck. Put on a spare tyre. Was able to seal the tyre with a floor pump

Bugger.
Haven't used that. Hutchinson, Stans and Orange Seal here. All have worked most of the time but it sounds like that is a big hole/cut.

[jasonc]

had to use CO2 three times on the way to work this morning. took the tubeless valve out and put a tube in it. will get a new tubeless valve. see if that fixes it

[warthog1]

had to use CO2 three times on the way to work this morning. took the tubeless valve out and put a tube in it. will get a new tubeless valve. see if that fixes it

A bit of spit around the valve will reveal a leak.
The sealant can clog valves. A local and very good mtb/gravel rider put me onto buying cheap replacement valve heads.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/39519575560 ... media=COPY
I swap them out when the latex affects the flow rate or it leaks. Doesn't happen very often.
I did get some reserve fillmore valves for one set of wheels, but harder to put the sealant in through the valve and expensive. Regular valves and cheap replacement valve heads works for me.

[elantra]

First puncture for ages (a few months) this morning !

Rear tyre went down fairly quickly soon after noticing a lot of small glass fragments in the crud that accumulates on the shoulder of a fairly busy bitumen road.

It was a “low stress” puncture :
I had pump/tubes/ tyre levers no worries
I was with other riders (but told them to keep going)
I quickly saw a farm road on the side of the main road so I could get away from motor vehicles
I was not hot/cold/tired/hungry etc
There was a nice height fence top rail that I could put my stuff on !

Can’t get much better than that !
Only 2 problems :
Some very nasty looking ants on the fence !
The brand new replacement tube wouldn’t inflate!

Solution to first problem - move a bit further along the fence to where there were no big ants.
Solution to second problem - get a second tube out and ….
But before I got to that stage the “new tube” valve core fell out into the long grass

In other words, the old sloppy valve core manufacturing hiccup !
I found the valve core in the long grass, screwed it back in to finger tightness, attached mini-pump and gave it about 60-80 bursts to reasonable inflation.
15 minutes later I arrived at the coffee shop and there was a brew waiting for me.
That’s the sort of mechanical hiccup that I can live with.

[elantra]

Not me this time !

But was witness to an another thrilling puncture repair this morning.

Bunch ride
Within ten minutes of the coffee shop.
Major road but not a scary one.
Unusually nice broad shoulder with only a few cars parked on it
But a bit of gravel and rubbish in the shoulder.

All of a sudden Riding buddy’s bike makes a horrid cyclical hissing noise sounds like air escaping.
I look around expecting to see him with a flat.
Nah, bike still seems to be riding as if normal so he looks for a safe place to pull over and assess

As soon as he stops the tyre does go flatter than flat.
At about the same time that he and I noticed a big brassy screw head happily lodged in his back tyre.

Some Tradie bloke must have lost it on the side of the road. And disguised said screw in the other crunchy bits that accumulate on the edges of busy roads !

This is the screw in question :



Anyway I will add it to my screw collection.

The repair was complicated by an unfortunate canister mishap. The replacement tube pushed the Pirelli P-Zero off the rim in one place during inflation.
We noticed it a bit late.
About to say “release the valve carefully” when there was a mighty explosion as the tube detonated.
Start again, another tube, manual pump.
Problem soon solved.

You never stop learning when you ride a bike.

[your_habit]

a week ago, my front tire suddenly went flat out of nowhere, and it happened quietly without any warning.

[jasonc]

20240312 - opened my account this morning. damp roads. front tyre felt squishy. stopped and sure enough it is deflating. couldn't find anything in the tyre which frustrated me. replaced tube and on my way.

20240313 - went around the corner and the rear felt weird. stopped and sure enough had a puncture. nothing found, again. changed tube and on my way

29240401 - hopped off the bike at Landsborough train station. Rear tyre felt a bit soft. Found a small rock had dug in. Replaced tube, caught train, got off at the other end and all is good

20240404 - rear tyre on the gravel bike was deflating on the way home. Found nothing. Took out the gunk and stuck in a tube. Tubeless is great. Yeah right

20240405 - and the tube started to deflate on the way home. I've given up and taken it to the shop

20240409 - front tyre of the roadie felt soft going around a corner. found two bits of glass. picked them out, replaced tube and on my way.

20240503 - rear tyre. Ran over something. It went down quickly about a minute later. Of course, it started raining. Changed tube and on my way

20240802 - rear tyre. Went to ride in the morning and found the rear tyre very deflated. Took the other bike instead. The smallest pebble had knicked the tube. Replaced and all good

Old total - 8

20241121 - rear tyre on the roadie has been going down more than the front the last few weeks. Haven't ridden it all week. Checked it tonight. Down to about 30psi. Took out the tube and found the thinnest of slithers of metal. Couldn't be felt in the outside but felt on the inside. Pulled it out, replaced tube. Let's see how we go
New Total - 9