Rear tire punctures

veloman

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Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
3,090
Location
Austin TX
Yesterday I got a razor blade tip in my rear hub wheel, and today it was a nail. I use a Schwable Marathon tire and tire liner.

I've been thinking about why punctures happen as often as they do. It's not like razor blades and nails are sitting straight up on the road. I believe it's because the front tire kicks up the object. With this in mind, maybe some type of guard could be installed in front of the rear tire? The challenge is making it so it doesn't get hit when riding over less even terrain. Maybe even something like a paintbrush would work.

Thoughts?
 
I use 26 inch x 1.75 in, Kevlar tires, and thicker puncture resistant tubes. I ride 3 days a week to work in a city and I have not had a flat in over a year. Knock on wood.
 
eTrike said:
I've heard something similar about the front tire propping a nail. I haven't seen anything definitive but it seems plausible. I've considered mounting a powered rotating brush and a large magnet to the trike to occasionally clean the roads I frequent since bike lanes are the collection point of most road debris. A stiff brush arrangement might work.

FWIW I use Schwalbe Marathon Plus and have never had a flat. They have 5mm inner layer instead of the 3mm of the non-plus variety. I didn't think it would make that big of a difference, but I'm transitioning to moped tires in favor of cost and durability. A properly positioned nail would surely pierce either :cry:

Have you considered magnets and tire savers?
 
I'd go with a Marathon plus as well. (And I do.)

Still, I have had a few flats with them, but that's over 12,000km. Not bad! For me, flats are a huge pain, and take about an hour for me to fix. (Because the battery boxes won't allow me to lay the bike on it's side, and it's heavy and awkward.)

One day I was riding home, and heard a new noise from the rear wheel. Not good. Turns out it was a hunk of wire like a spoke. It had gone into the tire, hit the flat protection area, and deflected out the side. Pulled it out and ready to go. 5 minutes later, a hunk of metal cut the sidewall of the tire, giving me a flat and ruining the tire. Them's the breaks.

For our town, street sweeping is done by user request - call your town/city and request they clean your route?

Colin
 
Motorcycle people know very well about the high % of rear tire punctures caused by the front tire kicking up certain types of debris material.

Hit something sturdy enough at the right incidence speed/angle, it will puncture. All the Kevlar in the world ain’t gonna stop it.

It’s just one of those “luck” things IMO. I dread jinxing myself but I’m now going on 2 years without a commuting, debris caused flat tire. The last time it happened, ‘suffered 3 flats in a single week. Go figure?
 
I took a screw to a shinko 241 with about 200 miles on it recently. I have no idea how long it was in there as the slime held the pressure until I dropped off a curb perfectly on it and it went through the tube on the inside near the rim... doh! You can do everything right and still get punctures due to unlucky circumstances. Had I seen it and pulled it out when it was just stuck in the outside of the tire/tube I probably would have been fine!
 
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