tire question

catzz66 said:

I put in a new tube, but in trying to diagnose the cause of the flat, it
appears that the rim tape is old and is allowing the tube to bulge into
the spoke holes. It appears that the hole is in the middle of one of
these bulges. Can this tube be repaired?

Sure! But it's probably time to replace the rim tape.

Quoted message said:

I could not feel any spoke
heads protruding anywhere down into the rim, a Mavic CPX10, a real
skinny one. My question is, is this normal? What would you recommend
to keep this from happening in the future? The bike was about five
years old when I bought it the first of the year, so the rim tape that
is there is kind of a mesh. I expect there is much better replacement
rim tape available now.

Get some new rim tape; I've had good luck with Velox. IME the rubbery
plastic stuff the manufacturers use sags within a year, and started
flatting within two years (let the spoke heads poke through the tubes).

Pat

catzz66 said:

I just successfully fixed my first flat. This is not my first flat,
just the first one I have fixed. There must be an art to doing it fast
that I have not discovered yet.

It takes practise, fix enough flats and you can get pretty good at it,
then again, if you get that many flats, you need to ask why.

Quoted message said:

I put in a new tube, but in trying to diagnose the cause of the flat, it
appears that the rim tape is old and is allowing the tube to bulge into
the spoke holes. It appears that the hole is in the middle of one of
these bulges. Can this tube be repaired? I could not feel any spoke
heads protruding anywhere down into the rim, a Mavic CPX10, a real
skinny one. My question is, is this normal? What would you recommend
to keep this from happening in the future? The bike was about five
years old when I bought it the first of the year, so the rim tape that
is there is kind of a mesh. I expect there is much better replacement
rim tape available now.

Yes the tube can be repaired, I suggest you visit a bike shop, and get
some new rim tape, don't buy the cheapest, don't buy the most expensive,
but rather kind of a middle one. Buy a couple of wheels worth. Keep
one wheels worth in your on-bike repair kit, checking the tape is part
of changing a flat.

What a lot of riders do, is keep one spare tube, in a on-bike repair
kit, flats often happen in the middle of nowhere, when it's dark, cold,
rainy and your in a hurry. You swap the now flat tube for your spare,
hopefully you don't have another flat quickly, and at your leisure, but
ASAP you can fix the flat tube. Once it's repaired and you have given
it a good 24hrs to cure, you take that tube, fold it up, and it becomes
your on-bike spare.

W

"Pat Lamb" wrote ...

Quoted message said:

Get some new rim tape; I've had good luck with Velox. IME the rubbery
plastic stuff the manufacturers use sags within a year, and started
flatting within two years (let the spoke heads poke through the tubes).

Pat

What Pat said. The plastic stuff will either split and turn to mesh or sag
within a year or two, and the spoke heads will drill holes in your tubes.

Any cotton tape will cost about double what the original plastic rim tapes
cost, but will last 3-4 times as long, if not more. Velox is generally
regarded as the standard for cotton rim tape, but any cotton tape (Zefal,
others) will be a big improvement over the plastic stuff.
--
mark

The Wogster said:

catzz66 said:

I just successfully fixed my first flat. This is not my first flat,
just the first one I have fixed. There must be an art to doing it
fast that I have not discovered yet.

It takes practise, fix enough flats and you can get pretty good at it,
then again, if you get that many flats, you need to ask why.

Quoted message said:

I put in a new tube, but in trying to diagnose the cause of the flat,
it appears that the rim tape is old and is allowing the tube to bulge
into the spoke holes. It appears that the hole is in the middle of
one of these bulges. Can this tube be repaired? I could not feel any
spoke heads protruding anywhere down into the rim, a Mavic CPX10, a
real skinny one. My question is, is this normal? What would you
recommend to keep this from happening in the future? The bike was
about five years old when I bought it the first of the year, so the
rim tape that is there is kind of a mesh. I expect there is much
better replacement rim tape available now.

Yes the tube can be repaired, I suggest you visit a bike shop, and get
some new rim tape, don't buy the cheapest, don't buy the most expensive,
but rather kind of a middle one. Buy a couple of wheels worth. Keep
one wheels worth in your on-bike repair kit, checking the tape is part
of changing a flat.

What a lot of riders do, is keep one spare tube, in a on-bike repair
kit, flats often happen in the middle of nowhere, when it's dark, cold,
rainy and your in a hurry. You swap the now flat tube for your spare,
hopefully you don't have another flat quickly, and at your leisure, but
ASAP you can fix the flat tube. Once it's repaired and you have given
it a good 24hrs to cure, you take that tube, fold it up, and it becomes
your on-bike spare.

W

Thanks for all the advice. I will get some good rim tape and redo the
repaired tire sometime soon before the new tube has a chance to get
damaged. I have two bikes with the same size wheels and tires, so I
might lay in a supply of double of everything so I will have enough on
hand next time. I have 500 plus miles on these tires but it is probably
over maybe four months since I don't ride this one every day.

Will pick up a tube repair kit this weekend and start to work on the
damaged one so I can keep a spare.