2023 Black cat award (punctures)

[warthog1]

20230223 -
Went out to the garage this morning to find my front tyre 100% flat. Replaced tyre and tube. binned them as they were old. New tyre, new tube and on my way
I remember hearing a weird noise near the end of my ride last night. Oh well
20230426 - damp roads and the rear tyre picks up some glass. Replaced and on my way
20230619 - rear tyre punctured whilst going up the stelvio from the prato. A small rock was the cause
20230815 - rear tyre started going flat. No idea what got it. Nothing in the tyre
20230831 - rear tyre went flat instantly less than 1km from work this afternoon. Nothing in it. Snapped two tyre levers but got the tyre back on with the third
Old Total - 5
20231006 - front tyre went down instantly whilst descending Mt Coot-tha. That was scary. replaced tube and on the way.
New total - 6

Jason I can hear tubeless calling to a high mileage rider like you. Just eliminates most of that nonsense

[jasonc]

Jason I can hear tubeless calling to a high mileage rider like you. Just eliminates most of that nonsense

it's great for low pressure. i run just shy of 80psi in my tyres

[warthog1]

Jason I can hear tubeless calling to a high mileage rider like you. Just eliminates most of that nonsense

it's great for low pressure. i run just shy of 80psi in my tyres

So do I in my hooked road wheels at ~76kg
So much better I won't ever buy non tubeless wheels again.
For that pressure you need hooked though.

Anyway it has worked for me but I am doing more gravel now.

[warthog1]

Well that'll teach me to comment in this thread
My new gravelking ss sprayed sealant everywhere today.
Rolled it to the bottom and I reckon it would have stopped.
Bigger it I put a strip in it. That stopped it. Did another 30k home without issue. Cbfed taking it off to patch. I just trimmed the plug. The sealant will have plugged around it too inside the the tyre.
Here it is before a trim when I got home.



My Lord that is an ugly tyre

[jasonc]

For future reference, all tyres shall be black

[warthog1]

The pictures on the add were tan wall and black tread. It said brown which I figured was the sidewall.
Turns out it's actually more yellow than brown depending on the light.

[warthog1]

Well I topped up the tyre on that wheel with ~ 50ml of orange seal the other day. Good thing I did.
Gravel bunchie yesterday and after we stopped for coffee I was told that those behind me had been sprayed with sealant. Sure enough the back of the seat tube is coated. Didn't seem to lose a lot of pressure though.
Anyway decided to take the tyre off and investigate when I got home (without binning it as I said I would )
Couldn't find any other hole and the plug was still instu.
Orange seal doesn't appear to congeal as much as Stan's. The plug was still sitting proud inside and was uncoated. A bit of a clump beside it though.
Anyway pulled it out and patched inside the tyre. It is a fair sized hole, ~6mm long. Glued the cut from the outside with shoe goo.
Still up today, will see how it goes.

[g-boaf]

Just noticed my back tyre went flat overnight with no obvious cause. It hasn’t given troubles since installed (August).

[familyguy]

2 punctures of unknown origin in last week or so, the first for the year.

1: took a wheel that I'd been riding regularly off to swap out, came back a day later, flat.
2: think I inherited a dud tube, pumped up a tyre, rode around the block to test it, flat a day later.

[P!N20]

Just noticed my back tyre went flat overnight with no obvious cause. It hasn’t given troubles since installed (August).

[Mr Purple]

First roadless tubeless puncture in 5000km or so today.

Screw through the sidewall of the back tyre outside the eternal luxury apartment building site on Sylvan Road. Pretty sure it wasn't one of the workmen standing right next to it, and managed to resist the urge to have a go.

Not much I could do with that one. Ended up with a Dynaplug and a slow leak on the 20km ride home. Happily that tyre was on literally its last ride anyway - big patch of canvas showing and I was planning on replacing it tomorrow.

On a related note what is it with minipumps that look like a pump but do not actually pump anything into a tyre? Another expensive one slated for the bin because it really doesn't work in the slightest. Fortunately I had a CO2 cannister.

[biker jk]

First roadless tubeless puncture in 5000km or so today.

Screw through the sidewall of the back tyre outside the eternal luxury apartment building site on Sylvan Road. Pretty sure it wasn't one of the workmen standing right next to it, and managed to resist the urge to have a go.

Not much I could do with that one. Ended up with a Dynaplug and a slow leak on the 20km ride home. Happily that tyre was on literally its last ride anyway - big patch of canvas showing and I was planning on replacing it tomorrow.

On a related note what is it with minipumps that look like a pump but do not actually pump anything into a tyre? Another expensive one slated for the bin because it really doesn't work in the slightest. Fortunately I had a CO2 cannister.

Presumably not the new Silca pump you bought?

[Mr Purple]

Presumably not the new Silca pump you bought?

No, the Silca pump is on the gravel bike and it's absolutely brilliant! I don't even bother carrying CO2 on there for now.

The road bike has a Lezyne Carbon Drive light. It has two redeeming features - it is very light and looks cool.

Doesn't actually seem to pump air into tyres in any discernable way though. I think I'll make the bike even lighter by removing it and just carrying two CO2 cannisters now.

[biker jk]

Presumably not the new Silca pump you bought?

No, the Silca pump is on the gravel bike and it's absolutely brilliant! I don't even bother carrying CO2 on there for now.

The road bike has a Lezyne Carbon Drive light. It has two redeeming features - it is very light and looks cool.

Doesn't actually seem to pump air into tyres in any discernable way though. I think I'll make the bike even lighter by removing it and just carrying two CO2 cannisters now.

A weight weenie friend has that pump and it failed early on. There was a leak in the hose where the metal attachment was clamped to the hose. The clamp had put a hole in the hose.

[Mr Purple]

There appears to be a variety of puncture repair tools/pumps that look good but are completely inadequate when it comes to repairing an actual puncture.

A lot of mini pumps and plug kits are like this. You carry it forever in case you need to use it, and then when you actually use it, there was no chance of it ever working.

I assume the manufacturers rely on people getting punctures so infrequently the warranty period has expired before it comes time to actually use it.

[Mr Purple]

New tyre today. Identical sidewall puncture over the top of Cootha.

It’s fried. 12mm gash in the sidewall. Given I’ve had none in 5000km and then two in two days within a lilometre of each other I’m a bit suspicious someone’s thrown some spikes down.

[warthog1]

Bugger, too expensive for that to be happening.

[Mr Purple]

Especially as a $135 GP5000 TR was about the only decent tyre at the bike shop nearby. Big thanks to Epic Cycles for hanging around after closing time to get me going.

It did take two KOMs on the way home but so far my feedback on the GP5000 is ‘it feels expensive’.

[Mr Purple]

On a suggestion from a friend I checked the frame and it turns out the bike punctured its own tyre.

Two witness marks - both barely visible on the decorative sticker on the carbon. Tight clearance + slightly out of true wheel + bump = kaboom.

Fortunately the frame doesn’t look even slightly affected. Explains why it happened twice.

[Mr Purple]

I take it back - not enough damage to the frame to be a frame hit. I think the black marks are from the dynaplug that got me home on Friday.

Unfortunately no dramatic story, I just think I hit two bits of debris with my name on it twice in two days.

[Mububban]

My son managed to find about 10 goat's head thorns with his front tyre and had to walk his bike home from school last week. Took a while to find and remove all the little thorn tips!

[OnTrackZeD]

There appears to be a variety of puncture repair tools/pumps that look good but are completely inadequate when it comes to repairing an actual puncture.

A lot of mini pumps and plug kits are like this. You carry it forever in case you need to use it, and then when you actually use it, there was no chance of it ever working.

I assume the manufacturers rely on people getting punctures so infrequently the warranty period has expired before it comes time to actually use it.

Any of that stuff I do a trial run at home, wasting a co2 is a good way to make sure you know how to use your new pump.

[jasonc]

20230223 -
Went out to the garage this morning to find my front tyre 100% flat. Replaced tyre and tube. binned them as they were old. New tyre, new tube and on my way
I remember hearing a weird noise near the end of my ride last night. Oh well
20230426 - damp roads and the rear tyre picks up some glass. Replaced and on my way
20230619 - rear tyre punctured whilst going up the stelvio from the prato. A small rock was the cause
20230815 - rear tyre started going flat. No idea what got it. Nothing in the tyre
20230831 - rear tyre went flat instantly less than 1km from work this afternoon. Nothing in it. Snapped two tyre levers but got the tyre back on with the third
20231006 - front tyre went down instantly whilst descending Mt Coot-tha. That was scary. replaced tube and on the way.
old total - 6
20231229 - found debris stuck in my tyre after a puncture. Can't get it out. Put a boot in the tyre. It had deflated by the time I got home
New Total 7

[foo on patrol]

No punctures in 2023 but I only rode 40Km.

Foo

[OldMerc]

Oh, you guys have it so easy. Try road cycling in the Riverland of South Australia. (I did it for 5 years, 3 times a week, before heading north to Qld.) Cowtrop is endemic in the region = tyre piercing prickles all over the place, and particularly prevalent when the vineyards and orchards were active, with traffic on and off properties carrying these nasty 3 corner jack like prickles onto the roads. It just became a matter of course that one puncture every second 70 km was the norm; often two punctures and if you got away with no punctures it was a time for celebration. Any more than two punctures and I just rang home for a vehicle to come pick me up. I sure went through plenty of glue, patches and tubes. Replacing with a new tube every time just wasn't an option. And I've lost count of how many times I just rode home when I was within 15 km, slowly on a flat tyre. Thank the heavens, it's only about one puncture or flat per year up here in the South Burnett. Cheers, A.D.