QUESTION: It seems like I’m constantly getting flats on my road bike. I’m pretty good about avoiding glass and potholes, and I have decent tires and tubes. I’ve even had the bike shop check my wheels to make sure there’s nothing wrong. How can I fix this problem? —Leroy S.
RBR’S STAN PURDUM REPLIES: Often this problem of frequent and repeated flats is the result of a foreign object getting embedded in the tire. I once had a good quality tire that has a reputation for not flatting easily, go flat while on ride. Working at the side of the road, I pulled out the tube and by reinflating it, I checked until I found a small puncture. Then, feeling with my fingers, I worked my way around the inside of the tire searching for anything irregular that might have caused the hole. When I found nothing, I figured the offending object must have penetrated the tire and tube and then been expelled as the wheel continued to spin. So I remounted the tire, using my spare tube.
I completed the ride without further tire problems, but the next day, while riding in a different location, the same tire went flat again (and, of course, it was the tire on the back wheel, which always takes more effort to change). The tire had quite a few miles on it, and it happened that I was near a bike shop. So I walked my bike to the shop, and purchased a new tire and tube. The mechanic offered to mount the tire, so I let him. But I took the old tire home with me, and that evening, I examined it on the inside again, this time under a bright light. I essentially turned the casing inside out, section by section, and I eventually spotted a tiny stone ensconced in the rubber. Running my finger over the stone I didn’t feel much, but there was a slight sharpness to it, and I imagined that when an inflated tube pushed against it, revolution after revolution, that sharpness was enough to eventually poke through the tube.
I was on a multi-day group ride once where one rider was averaging two flats a day. He was riding with a friend, and soon he had used both of his spare tubes, both of the friend’s spares, and was reduced to borrowing tubes from other riders. Finally, an experienced rider volunteered to examine his tire. He removed it from the bike and carefully checked the inside until he finally found a tiny shard of glass, which he removed with tweezers from his own tool kit. They remounted the tire, and the rider completed the trip with no further tire problems.
Other objects sometimes found in bike tires include tiny wires cast off from truck tires, thorns, nails, screws and miscellaneous scrap. And even if you are, as you say, good at avoiding potholes and glass, you can’t see and dodge every mini piece of road debris.
By the way, if you don’t want to risk getting a bloody finger while feeling around in your tire for embedded objects, carry a cotton ball in your kit for that purpose. It will snag on anything sharp. (Thanks to RBR reader Steve Shepherd for this tip.)
Another common cause of flats is when the end of a spoke pushes down into the tube. A giveaway of this is when you are examining the tube and find the hole on the side of the tube that faces the rim. Sometimes you’ll find two holes, where the spoke has punched clear through the tube, leaving a hole on both the rim side of the tube and tire side of it. To avoid this problem, 1) make sure you have sturdy rim tape in the rim and 2) keep your tires inflated to the recommended level so that they don’t bottom out on the edge of a pothole or when going over a curb.
Unless you are racing, it’s worth buying tires that are made for durability rather than speed. Some are even advertised as nearly puncture proof because they have a thick layer of tough material between the tread and casing of the tire. I generally find those to feel “heavy” and sluggish when riding, so I generally choose puncture-resistant tires, like the Continental Gatorskin. Even they may flat occasionally, but they put more material between the road and the tube than the tires designed for maximum speed.
The other option, of course, is to switch to tubeless tires, which run with a liquid sealant in the air pocket between the tire and the rim. The sealant will plug small punctures while rolling.
But back to tires with tubes, here’s a practice that you may find useful whether you have frequent or only occasional flats: When you mount your tire, position the tube stem so it aligns with the center of the brand logo on the sidewall of the tire. You may have noticed that new bikes usually come from the shop with the stem aligned with the tire logo. It’s a practice used to make things look tidy on the bike, but it also helps with finding foreign objects in the tire. If you do have a puncture, when you remove the tube and find the hole, you can lay the tube back on the tire and know about where the offending object penetrated the tire. That’s where to check for an embedded object, if there is one.
Stan Purdum has ridden several long-distance bike trips, including an across-America ride recounted in his book Roll Around Heaven All Day, and a trek on U.S. 62, from Niagara Falls, New York, to El Paso, Texas, the subject of his book Playing in Traffic. Stan, a freelance writer and editor, lives in Ohio. See more at www.StanPurdum.com.
larry english says
re – not getting flats
get a helmet mirror
seriously
this helps you get out of the flat zone – ie the right gutter
aka ‘taking the lane’ – it is easier to do if you know there is not a car behind you
get out of the flat zone!!
also keep a lot air in the tires – avoid snakebike flats
Walt says
I change flat tires for our community…often 2-3/day. So, I do not like to replace a tube and then have to do it again near term.
My method is to remove the tube and then mark the side of the tube (gray/white sharpie) on one side of the valve stem so I know which side it was in the tire, I then use a water bath to find the hole(s). I then lay the tube back on the tire with the marked side at the valve hole. I can then mark the tire where the tube hole(s) was/were. That allows me to more easily find the object which caused the hole, which I then remove. I also then run my fingers around the inside of the tire to see if there are more objects which I must remove.
If the hole was caused by a spoke through the rim tape, I either replace the rim tape or use a piece of narrow adhesive tape to cover the pierced rim tape at the spoke hole.
I have found this method to prevent most “repeat” tube failures.
In our area, there are many small thorns which are hard to remove. I use a sharpened end of a piece of spoke to pick them out of the tire.
Richard Lazar says
Sometimes the easy to find objects that cause a flat are the most perplexing. I would not have thought it possible had I not seen it but a rider had his tire and tube punctured by a key. It was a regular door key and was embedded in the tire to the hilt. On another ride, a rider picked up a wood screw. The screw penetrated the tire, tube and aluminum rim. Needless to say, no one had a spare wheel so for that rider, the ride was over.
Graydon Patterson says
On roads, the most common reason to get a flat is when sharp objects on the road puncture your tire. That means you’re riding way too close to the curb. The closer you ride to the curb, the more debris and crap there is to ride through. Roads were designed this way, with a centre canter slopping down to the edge of the road, and washes/pushes debris off the road to the sides. So don’t ride there. On a road with a curb, you should be riding at least 1 metre from the curb (1 yard). If you don’t understand the reasons for this, take a Can-Bike or Effective Cycling course. It comes down to MVPC, 1 metre gives you room to Maneuver on the road. It makes you plainly visible to other road users. You can then ride in a straight line and be Predictable, not having to swerve around debris, potholes and grates at the road edge, and most important, not riding through road debris that gives you a flat; It also Communicates that you’re in a position of the road that is yours.
John Mulvihill says
As you are no doubt aware (but many are not), your puncture repair is not complete until you have eliminated its cause.. Sometimes that can be a difficult process. As when, for example, a tiny shard of glass from a broken bottle works its way through your tire and then your tube.
Danger sign: You find one of your tires leaks more air than the other between rides. There’s a good chance that tire has a slow leak caused by a foreign object no larger than the tip of a needle. You need to hunt it down and eliminate it, because if you don’t, as sure as god created little green apples, that tire will blow at the worst possible time.
Finding the source of a slow leak: Remove the tire from the bike and fill it to its correct pressure. Fill a large sink or bathtub until it is deep enough to cover the bottom third or so of your wheel. Start the dunk-and-examine test by first submerging the section of the wheel that contains the tire’s valve. Check for air bubbles coming from the valve. If you see them, you’ve most likely found your problem. If it’s a Presta valve that’s worked itself loose, you should be able to tighten it back up.
If you detect no air bubbles from any part of the tire, deflate it and use chalk or similar to mark the tube to the left of the valve, so when you line it up later looking for the puncture, you’ll know which way the tube should be running..
If the problem is not yet evident, remove the tire completely from the tube and fill it with enough air to make it big and bulky. More air pressure is better, because the higher the pressure, the more obviously air will escape a puncture, and the more quickly you will find the cause of the puncture.
No luck? If you are among the five percent or so riders who can’t find the puncture using the techniques described above, your next step is to separate the tire from tube and bike and hold it under a bright light, using a magnifying glass if necessary, and search the inside of the tire inch-by-inch using both vision and your sense of touch to find the penetrating object..
As you examine an inch-long segment of the tire’s interior, at the same time carefully run the tip of your index finger across it to detect the tiniest protuberance. On a group idea a few years ago one of us flatted and he changed his tube, only to experience another flat within minutes. This time the inside of the tire got a close visual inspection, which came up negative, so we assumed the cause of the flat had been expelled. Wrong again. We were getting low on spare tubes (you always carry two, right?) and at the point the owner figured he could coast to his residence at the bottom of the long climb we had just completed. I called a time out and for the better part of ten minutes subjected that tire’s interior to the most minute scrutiny, mostly tactile, using my finger tip. And as luck would have it, almost all the way around the inside of the tire, my index finger detected the tiniest imaginable imperfection on the tire’s interior. A visual inspection turned up nothing. So I seized the tire and folded it inside-out at the point where my finger detected the irregularity. And sure enough, within that section of the interior I visually detected the tiniest dot, no bigger that the period that ends this sentence. I poked it and applied pressure using a metal all-in-one tool, and within a couple of minutes the tire gave up its secret: a minuscule shard of broken glass that had embedded itself inside the rubber of the tire, perfectly camouflaged. When being ridden, the added pressure of the rider’s weight enable that tiny piece of glass to work itself down and penetrate the tube. When the rider noticed he had a puncture, he’d dismount, causing the shard to retreat back into the tire. Remedying such a problem is not the way you want to spend your afternoon.
To my mind, flats should be as rare on a bicycle as they are on a modern car — say, one every two or three years. Dealing with a flat upsets the rhythm of the ride for everyone. When you puncture at the end of a long day as the sun is sinking and a chill is in the air, having to stop a mile from home and replace a tube is the last thing you want to do.
The hills around the San Francisco Bay Area are ringed by excellent two-lane roads, mostly with good shoulders. But maintenance of these roads is non-existent, and leaves the shoulders covered with the detritus of long-ago broken bottles and other trash pulverized to the near-microscopic size that account for mysterious flats like the one just described.
And yet, most of the sport riders who use these roads insist on fitting the lightest, near race-spec tires money can buy (and for tires like these, a lot of money is involved). As a result, on a weekend ride I will frequently encounter as many as a half-dozen riders tending to their punctures.
If these people were racing, I could see the justification of race-spec tires. But they’re not. They are recreational riders who have chosen to purchase elite-level race bikes whose tires are not intended for such debris-strewn surfaces,
I gave up on that attitude years ago. All three of my bikes are adorned with Continental Gator Hardshells, no doubt a source of amusement to spectators at the local coffee shop’s bicycle beauty contest. Not that I’m keeping count, but more than once I will come across a familiar-looking weight-weenie at the side of the road muttering angrily because the universe has inflicted a flat tire on his precious Pinarello.
As I pass by I ask if he needs anything. Which only increases his irritation.
I would never extract satisfaction from another rider’ misfortune, but I can’t help recalling an old saying about the one who laughs last.
Oh, and on a final note: I’ve learned to love Michelin’s Air Stop series of tubes. They resist flats, and in addition leak so little air between rides, I often don’t bother to top them off before setting out.
Ron Neher says
Road Tires with Tubes:
For my road bikes with tubes, I run Continental Gator Hardshell (28MM), tubes with removable valve cores, Stans sealant in the tubes, and 80 PSI pressure. I top off with Stans (1 oz) every couple of months. Over two years without a flat in New Mexico.
https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/road-bike-reviews/continental-gator-hardshell
https://www.notubes.com/support-center/sealant
Q: Can I add sealant to my tubes or tubular tires?
A: Yes, if the tube or tubular has a removable valve core. If there are two opposing flat surfaces just below the top of the valve, you can use our valve tool to unthread the core and sealant can be installed. We recommend injecting 1-2 ounces (30-60ml) of sealant into tubes or tubular tires. Sealant will not damage tubular tires.
jeff says
A friend of mine said that he would get flats every few weeks. He said he was leaking from the from the inside of the tubes. I asked him if he had rim tape on the wheel. He asked me, “What is rim tape for”? I think you know the rest of the story.
Barry Bogart says
I was getting consistent flats on my folder, although I was running Marathon’s. I never found the fault, and I had a five-spoke stamped wheel. No burrs anywhere. Marathon’s have always been good to me. I tried Slime which didn’t last and finally tried Flatout which really DOES work. Expensive, but it lasts. No flats in months now.
I had the spoke issue on my Rando/touring bike, which had MANY miles. I was fully loaded, riding up to Haida Gwaii where there are few bikes shops. I found one and the owner found that one of my spokes was slightly proud of the nipple and worked its way into the tube. He just filed it down and that solved it. I would never have thought f it. I guess it was he extra weight I was carrying on the back in this expedition that made the difference.
Stephen R Turk says
I have never had a problem with spokes puncturing tubes, maybe because every wheel I have owned for the past 30+ years has a double wall construction so the spokes and nipples are inside the rim, not protruding. But I have had quite a few pinch flats, which are not mentioned here. Also known as snakebites, that’s when you hit the edge of a pothole, or some road debris, compressing the tire and the tube gets caught between the tire and the rim. More likely to happen with higher end, supple tires (I recall, some years ago, switching to Conti GP4000 tires and having a series of pinch flats before I figured out that reason was that the sidewalls were a lot more flexible than on my previous tires) and of course more likely to happen if you are a heavier rider and/or running too low pressures. Bottom line – pick the right tire for the road conditions, and inflate it to the appropriate pressure for that tire, your roads, and your weight.
Peter says
Speaking of pinch flats, in my experience there is often an underlying cause (e.g. an object embedded in the tread) that created a slow leak that softened the tire to the point of susceptibility. Accordingly, I now always check for this even when snakebite seems the obvious diagnosis.
Fred R says
Tires are the first line of defense against flats. In my case, the tires I use depend on the bike I’ll be riding. For my touring bike I use Schwalbe Almotion tires, their sort of light, but not as heavy as their flat-proof tire, but heavier than normal road tires, the Almotion have a very low rolling resistance making it a bit easier to pedal the bike. In side those tires I installed a pair of Clear Motion Rhinodillos, these work a lot better than Mr. Tuffy, and they’re a bit lighter at around 90 grams vs 140 for Tuffy; also the Rhinos have one end of their liner with some sort of soft thing added to it, this prevents the edge of the liner from chaffing a hole into the tube. The Rhinos are quite bit tougher to poke a tack through as well vs the Tuffy that a tack goes through it pretty easily. I use butyl tubes on this bike and after 4,800 miles not a single flat, and I will roll on miles of broken glass, thorns, etc.
On my road bike, I use Vittoria Open Pave CG III, which is not nearly as flat resistant as the Almotion, but they have a very plush ride, combine that with latex tubes, and in the rear only I put in one of those Rhinos flat liners, so far no flats but I only have about 300 miles on those tires.
I have a secret for repairing flats an old guy taught me when I 9 or 10, now I’m that old guy! About 80 percent of the time I can fix a flat without ever removing the wheel from the bike. Simply find where the hole is in the tire, remove about 1/2 of the bead on one side with the hole in the center of that half, pull out about a 1/4th of the tube again with the hole in the center of the 1/4th, check for something protruding through the tire, patch and reinstall the tire. This works on both front and back, just move the tire to where it is in between the rear stays and the chain stays.
Ollie Jones says
Here’s a reason to wear gloves when riding:
After going through some roadside debris, reach down and let each tire rub against your glove for a few seconds. If there’s a little shard of glass or something else caught in the tire, you may get lucky and flick it out before it has a chance to work its way all the way through the tire and tube.
Don’t do this without gloves., Clotting blood doesn’t seal tires.
john c says
I was getting frequent flats (always rear wheel) with no apparent punctures from road debris. I noticed that my Giant wheel’s original rim tape was too narrow and the spoke hole edges were slightly exposed. I replaced the tape with one that is 2 or 3 mm wider and the flats stopped.
I also noticed that the flats would cease in cold winter weather and start up again on warm spring days. I suspect that higher temps make the air pressure in the inner tube increase and the tube pushes down into the spoke hole edges.
David says
I ride with Gatorskins and often would still flat every few weeks or so. I started a habit where, after each ride, I relax for a few minutes in the sun and slowly inspect each tire. If I find/remove any thorns, shards, wire etc… I’ll give that tire a quick squeeze some hours later to determine if I have a flat to repair before my next ride. This habit has decreased my total number of flats as well as made it more likely that I’ll be able to fix the flats at home rather than along the road somewhere.
Mack says
Here’s one way I heard for a possible way to prevent a typical puncture, at least for a while, on a road bike with presto valved tubes, but I never knew anyone that actually did it.
The problem presented with putting a sealant like Slime through presta valve seems daunting, so the answer I heard about was to intentionally put a hole in the tube, install the sealant, then patch the hole.
Anybody else heard of this technique, seen it done, or done it themself?
Ron Neher says
It is hard to get a patch to stick after adding sealant.
Better to use tubes with removable value cores.
https://www.notubes.com/support-center/sealant