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OMG, Give Me A Break!

Ornery

Ornery

1 W
Joined
May 8, 2011
Messages
61
Lord, I love riding my bike, but the steady stream of breakdowns is taking its toll. Particularly flat tires. Got two or three flats in a row, before determining they were pinch flats, due to the excessive SLA battery weight on the rear. Before I made that discovery, I installed tire liners and thorn resistant tubes. After the revelation, I pumped the tire beyond its recommended 55lbs, to 75lbs. So, I'm good to go, right? Hah, fate has other plans:

DSC04333a.jpg


Had to walk it the last couple miles to work, where I clocked in 1 minute late. Spent my lunch half hour patching the tube, which never succeeded. So, that was yesterday. This morning I headed off in a good mood, only to be honked at within the first mile, and told to "Get on the sidewalk" by some ditz. 6:30AM, no traffic to speak of, and I gotta listen to this! Give me a break... please :|
 
Sounds like somebody needs to dump the lead, make their bike travel at traffic speeds. :) And get some motorcycle tires. :)
 
Yeah, I'm in total agreement with a faster, lighter build, but my wallet is already light! The damn thing will do 30MPH now, but this ditz caught me pulling up to a long red light. WTF? I could out accelerate her sh*tbox for the first hundred feet anyway, but she turned right. Shoulda hocked a loogie in her lap! :evil:
 
Yup Im the one who found the 16" tires for mopeds that fit bmx wheels!!! And the NUMBER 1 REASON was TO MANY FLATS WITH BICYCLE TIRES! We have a tonn of loosers in this city who think its cool to smash glass on the side of the road! I have had the same set of moped tires on my bike with no flats for 2 years! As a matter of fact my BMX is virtualy maintence free!!!
 
Honestly, a truck tire wouldn't have saved me from this last piece of shrapnel. That is just the worst luck, there. Probably karma for passing so many standing cars on the right. They HATE that!

I've got a tire on order, that can handle 85psi, which I have great expectations for. As bad as the tire situation is, my greater concern about those heavy batteries, is the poor handling. I'm very much looking forward to a new build, but I've got to recoup some of the expenses from this "prototype" first.
 
Yikes! :shock:

Sorry to hear you're having so many problems with flats!

That metal had your name on it, no matter what that one was going to get ya! :roll:

The tire looks like a nice tread for street & light gravel, does it have any puncture resistance designed in it?
 
It's not the weight of the lead causing the flats. It just happens sometimes. I had a bloody awful summer two years ago with a flat damn near every other day.
Nada since then.
 
Arl01, soz to be the bearer of bad news but you weren't the first on ES to fit mx tires theres ben several builds before you even joined ES with mx tires on bmx rims. Saw aPireli on Bmx rim at my place yesterday wa s surprised how light weight they were for mx tire.

Has the op tried running Slime in the tubes?
 
The tire looks like a nice tread for street & light gravel, does it have any puncture resistance designed in it?
Click to expand...

I'm trying to keep my bike as original as reasonably possible, so the available tires are limited. The main feature of that Michelin I need, is the high a pressure. I was already doing well with the tire pumped up to 75psi. 85psi will be perfect, and I'll still use thorn resistant tubes with liners.

I'm aching to get into a stealthy, performance bike, but this will have to do for a while...
 
AussieJester said:
Arl01, soz to be the bearer of bad news but you weren't the first on ES to fit mx tires theres ben several builds before you even joined ES with mx tires on bmx rims. Saw aPireli on Bmx rim at my place yesterday wa s surprised how light weight they were for mx tire.

Has the op tried running Slime in the tubes?
Click to expand...
Sorry I should clarify I was the first for streat. I only found guys with motorcycle rims and mx tires before me!
 
Now that is one nasty piece of shrapnel, there. :( Most of the stuff I run across is various bits of construction leavings, but nothing quite like that one.


I do kinda agree with Lesss on this one, but it depends on the kind of total weight the bike+rider+cargo has. You're using some very heavy SLA, plus your own weight, right down on the rear tire. My DayGlo Avenger was like that, when I had the roofing nail thru the Slime tire liner and into the rim from inside. But I think that it's fairly likely to have gone down the same even if I had *no* motor or batteries on there at all.

I'd guess that at that time, DGA weighed about 60-70lbs, and I was probably 130-140lbs. The SLA were around 20lbs, maybe 25, and the motor and stuff about another 5-10 at most. Worst case all the assist weighed 35lbs, and me and the bike 175lbs. So the assist was around 16% of the total.

Unless you're a lot heavier than me, your assist is probably a lot larger percentage of the total, I'd guess at least 25%, but even then, for shrapnel like that piece, you'd've gotten the flat anyway.

It is likely that if you have tire liners or tires with deflection stuff built in, there's going to be a weight point where certain debris is going to be forced thru into the tube anyway, and below that it's probably going to be able to deflect it--but it will also probably depend on the speed at which it is entering the tire. I would guess that the faster it's going in (the faster you are moving over it), the more likely it is to make it thru, but the opposite might be the case--I haven't experimented with that.
 
Unfortunately the trash does get kicked to the side by car tires, right to where you ride. Never saw a construction truck that didn't sprinkle sheetrock and roofing nails everywhere it goes. I particularly love the 50 pound box of nails on the tailgate of a 16 foot trailer trick. Every tiny bump leaves a dozen nails in the road. I've actually bought a street broom, and occasionally sweep the nastier spots on my regular route. Nobody else will clean the bike lane.

Slime helps me a lot with big thorns and tiny nalis and staples. But that item would slash a motorcycle tire too. Big nails, even tons of slime only gets you a half mile down the road or so. So I carry a tube and tools when commuting. Fortunately as the boss I can't really be late.
 
And then you have the mentally ill who feel they've been cutoff or somehow wronged by bicyclists in the past so they purposely throw nails, screws and razor blades in the bike lane.

I didn't want to believe it at first but there's been a rash of bicycle flats on and approaching our bridge path this summer and the weapon of choice is too perfect to ignore. Large amounts of brass furniture tacks - not quite long enough to harm car tires and a magnet will not pick it up. Smart, but sick at the same time.

Slime will help slow those types of damage and for frequent flats with a hub motor you just need practice patching a tube without removing the wheel.

Interesting thing to me is how the rear tire usually gets more damage than the front. Reason being the front wheel runs over an item, say a nail in this example, kicking it up at an angle so that the rear tire is setup for a spear shot. Even weirder is that some wheelbases seem to be worse than others at similar speeds.

Motorycle tires are certainly tougher and as brother Dogman wrote, you tend to ride where there's less debris in the lane. But I've had 7 flats at speed over 30 years riding m/c's on the street so they're not immune to damage either.
 
In a good mood today. Rode in the long way, and kept it in first gear, which is about 15MPH. Still watch the road constantly for ruts & debris.

Last time I tried Slime, I didn't realize I was trying to repair a pinch flat, so of course it didn't work. From now on, I will carry a normal tube (not thorn resistant) in my bags for repairing the tire on the road. It's a pill on my bike, but I figure I better get used to it.

I'm pulling farther and farther out into the road now. The ruts on the edge are bad enough, let alone the debris. If I'm moving along at 30MPH, it won't kill drivers to wait a couple extra seconds to pass me. Can't wait till I have a bike fast enough to leave 'em behind. I envy you guys who can!
 
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