Punctures

Heracles Pollux wrote on 30/12/2006 21:56 +0100:

Quoted message said:

I swear I get about 10 frigging punctures per year of which 8 out of 10 seem
to be not the outside part of the inner tube but the inner bit where it
meets the spokes.

I've sworn never to buy Halfords tripple packs of inner tubes again, as I am
of the opinion that they are of so low quality, they must be to be blame.

But now I've eaten through 2 Slime Inner Tubes at about £7-9 each, and you
can't seem to repair the damn things as the slime just wets the scabs and
you end up with a mess a day later.

At my rate of punctures, it would be cheaper to drive a car everywhere.

I really am sick to death of this. I might as well take £20 notes out of my
pocket and set fire to them!

What am I doing wrong?

Why are my inner tubes goings "at the spoke"?

Is there some "liner" one can use to protect the inner tube? (I purposely
use the thickest most solid hard wearing tyres I can find.)

In this day and age, why are we being forced to pay £9 for a piece of cheap
Indonesian rubber worth 10 pence that breaks on a whim? Car drivers don't
suffer puntures every few hundred miles?

Why do we? Isn't there better technology available now?

Have you got Velox rim tape fitted? If not get some and fit it.

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Why do we? Isn't there better technology available now?

Have you got Velox rim tape fitted? If not get some and fit it.

--

What an excellent idea! Thank you for that. Yes that makes sense, lining the
spokes with some tape to smooth off the ends.

Why oh why don't the wheels include this!

I have 26x1.95 mountain bike road/trail tyres.

Is this what I require, please?

"VELOX Cloth Rim Tape ....22mm"

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VELOX-Cloth-Rim-Tape-22mm_W0QQitemZ250036798153QQihZ015QQcategoryZ27954QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

Much obliged for that!

in message <[email hidden]>, Heracles Pollux

(') said:

Why are my inner tubes goings "at the spoke"?

Don't you have rim tape? If not, get rim tape; Velox is the brand to go
for.

Quoted message said:

Is there some "liner" one can use to protect the inner tube? (I purposely
use the thickest most solid hard wearing tyres I can find.)

Yes, it's called rim tape. It's standard - if you don't use it, you /will/
get punctures.

Quoted message said:

In this day and age, why are we being forced to pay £9 for a piece of
cheap Indonesian rubber worth 10 pence that breaks on a whim? Car drivers
don't suffer puntures every few hundred miles?

Why do we? Isn't there better technology available now?

Been available for about 120 years, mate.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; If God does not write LISP, God writes some code so similar to
;; LISP as to make no difference.

Heracles Pollux said:

Quoted message said:

Have you got Velox rim tape fitted? If not get some and fit it.

What an excellent idea! Thank you for that. Yes that makes sense, lining the
spokes with some tape to smooth off the ends.

Don't you already have this in your wheels?

Quoted message said:

Why oh why don't the wheels include this!

Um, normally, they do...

Quoted message said:

I have 26x1.95 mountain bike road/trail tyres.

Is this what I require, please?

"VELOX Cloth Rim Tape ....22mm"

Looks good.

--
Mike
Van Tuyl titanium Dura Ace 10
Fausto Coppi aluminium Ultegra 10
Raleigh Record Sprint mongrel

Heracles Pollux said:

I swear I get about 10 frigging punctures per year

There have been years where I would have been pleased to get /only/ 10
punctures! :-)

This December's not going well for me: two already including one this
afternoon and a ripped tyre.

Quoted message said:

of which 8 out of
10 seem to be not the outside part of the inner tube but the inner
bit where it meets the spokes.

That's not the normal sort of puncture. You should never any of them.

Quoted message said:

I've sworn never to buy Halfords tripple packs of inner tubes again,
as I am of the opinion that they are of so low quality, they must be
to be blame.

Cheap tubes don't result in more punctures than expensive tubes, in my
experience.

Quoted message said:

But now I've eaten through 2 Slime Inner Tubes at about £7-9 each,
and you can't seem to repair the damn things as the slime just wets
the scabs and you end up with a mess a day later.

At my rate of punctures, it would be cheaper to drive a car
everywhere.
I really am sick to death of this. I might as well take £20 notes out
of my pocket and set fire to them!

What am I doing wrong?

Why are my inner tubes goings "at the spoke"?

Probably because the rim tape isn't good enough, if you have any at all.
Spokes could be too long as well.

Quoted message said:

Is there some "liner" one can use to protect the inner tube? (I
purposely use the thickest most solid hard wearing tyres I can find.)

Rim tape on the rim side. For the other side, there are tyre liners - but I
reckon better is simply more puncture resistant tyres. But you don't really
need them if you're only getting a couple of normal punctures a year.

Quoted message said:

In this day and age, why are we being forced to pay £9 for a piece of
cheap Indonesian rubber worth 10 pence that breaks on a whim?

You can buy a decent tube for £2 to £4.

Quoted message said:

Car
drivers don't suffer puntures every few hundred miles?

Nor do most cyclists with properly built wheels and good rim tape.

~PB

In article <[email hidden]>

Heracles Pollux said:

What an excellent idea! Thank you for that. Yes that makes sense, lining the
spokes with some tape to smooth off the ends.

Why oh why don't the wheels include this!

Wheels don't include tyres and tubes either - they're separate parts,
but you need them. Rim tapes should always be fitted - if someone else
did the job for you give them a bollocking.

Quoted message said:

I have 26x1.95 mountain bike road/trail tyres.

Is this what I require, please?

"VELOX Cloth Rim Tape ....22mm"

Probably - depends on the actual width of your rim.

Quoted message said:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250036798153

£1.99 each with free delivery from wiggle.co.uk

Heracles Pollux said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Why do we? Isn't there better technology available now?

Have you got Velox rim tape fitted? If not get some and fit it.

What an excellent idea! Thank you for that. Yes that makes sense,
lining the spokes with some tape to smooth off the ends.

Why oh why don't the wheels include this!

Name and shame the person/company who supplied you with wheels with no rim
tape.

(Some special wheels don't need rim tape - but it doesn't sound like you
have these).

Quoted message said:

I have 26x1.95 mountain bike road/trail tyres.

Is this what I require, please?

"VELOX Cloth Rim Tape ....22mm"

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VELOX-Cloth-Rim-Tape-22mm_W0QQitemZ250036798153QQihZ015QQcategoryZ27954QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

Need to know size/model of wheel rim. 22mm tape would be too wide for some
rims used with 1.95 tyres.

~PB

Two things to reduce punctures.

The first is rim tape. The second is decent tyres. I'm not the one
here who thinks Schwalbe Marathons are the mutt's nuts.

Halfords impressed me enough to write a webpage about them. I have
not had a single puncture on that wheel since the page was written on
a bike I use almost every day.

http://jschneider.net/veetyre.html

Jon

Jonathan Schneider said:

Two things to reduce punctures.

Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition. The third is proper inflation.

Jon

"mb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Heracles Pollux said:

Quoted message said:

Have you got Velox rim tape fitted? If not get some and fit it.

What an excellent idea! Thank you for that. Yes that makes sense, lining
the
spokes with some tape to smooth off the ends.

Don't you already have this in your wheels?

Quoted message said:

Why oh why don't the wheels include this!

It would appear not. I can see the "nut" at the end of each spoke, bare,
against the tube.

For the record. I got knocked off by a car in April 2006 (breaking my toe)
and the wheels buckled with snapped spokes. For about £70, Halfords replaced
my broken wheels.

This was the start of my spoke-side puntures.

I then got hit by a stampeding heard of deer, I kid you not, about a month
later, then buckling my new front wheel.

The attempt to repair the new buckled wheel conincided with another inner
tube puncture.

About 6 months later, the integrated bearing snapped on my new rear wheel.
Whilst trying to fix it, yet another spoke puncture occured.

Halfords kindly replaced my rear wheel with a new one as they said the
bearing snapping was a fault.

And then last week, yet another spoke puncture.

The replacements Halfords wheels needs that tape!

It all makes sense now. I never knew such tape existed or was missing.

Heracles Pollux said:

For the record. I got knocked off by a car in April 2006 (breaking my toe)
and the wheels buckled with snapped spokes. For about £70, Halfords replaced
my broken wheels.

When I replaced a rear wheel in the summer, it cost more than that, and
I built it myself.

Quoted message said:

This was the start of my spoke-side puntures.

Well if you buy your wheels from Halfords.....

Quoted message said:

I then got hit by a stampeding heard of deer, I kid you not, about a month
later, then buckling my new front wheel.

Oh dear :-).

Quoted message said:

The replacements Halfords wheels needs that tape!

Halfrauds should have supplied the wheels with tape, perhaps a you
should send them a bill for two rolls of tape and 6 inner tubes.

Martin.

Heracles Pollux wrote on 31/12/2006 01:24 +0100:

Quoted message said:

It all makes sense now. I never knew such tape existed or was missing.

Well that's your problem - buying from Halfrauds and getting no tape.
Any half reasonable bike shop should have a stock of Velox and you need
the width that sits nicely between the rim walls. Take your wheel in
and they should be able to sort you out. When you fit it, locate the
hole in the end over the valve hole, run the tape round the rim, making
sure the hole hasn't moved and then cut the overlapping end off at an
angle, not square. Should fix all your current puncture problems.

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

"Tony Raven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Heracles Pollux wrote on 31/12/2006 01:24 +0100:

Quoted message said:

It all makes sense now. I never knew such tape existed or was missing.

Well that's your problem - buying from Halfrauds and getting no tape. Any
half reasonable bike shop should have a stock of Velox and you need the
width that sits nicely between the rim walls. Take your wheel in and they
should be able to sort you out. When you fit it, locate the hole in the
end over the valve hole, run the tape round the rim, making sure the hole
hasn't moved and then cut the overlapping end off at an angle, not square.
Should fix all your current puncture problems.

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Why do you cut it at an angle ?

"Tony Raven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Heracles Pollux wrote on 31/12/2006 01:24 +0100:

Quoted message said:

Well that's your problem - buying from Halfrauds and getting no tape. Any
half reasonable bike shop should have a stock of Velox and you need the
width that sits nicely between the rim walls. Take your wheel in and they
should be able to sort you out. When you fit it, locate the hole in the
end over the valve hole, run the tape round the rim, making sure the hole
hasn't moved and then cut the overlapping end off at an angle, not square.
Should fix all your current puncture problems.

The half reasonable bike shop might stock the stuff but they don't always
think to offer it or fit it. It all depends on who serves you. My LBS is
normally wonderfull and on all but one ocassion, when served by the
apprentice, when picking up new or rebuilt wheels, rim tap has been fitted
prior to collection or offered at the counter when its absence was spotted
usually without extra charge too.

The problem is not necessarily that of Halfords but on the fecklessness or
ignorance of the counterstaff.

vernon wrote on 31/12/2006 11:00 +0100:

Quoted message said:

The problem is not necessarily that of Halfords but on the fecklessness or
ignorance of the counterstaff.

Which is a Halfrauds problem either for recruiting such staff and/or not
giving them adequate training.

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

"Heracles Pollux" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I swear I get about 10 frigging punctures per year of which 8 out of 10
seem to be not the outside part of the inner tube but the inner bit where
it meets the spokes.

I've sworn never to buy Halfords tripple packs of inner tubes again, as I
am of the opinion that they are of so low quality, they must be to be
blame.

But now I've eaten through 2 Slime Inner Tubes at about £7-9 each, and you
can't seem to repair the damn things as the slime just wets the scabs and
you end up with a mess a day later.

At my rate of punctures, it would be cheaper to drive a car everywhere.

I really am sick to death of this. I might as well take £20 notes out of
my pocket and set fire to them!

What am I doing wrong?

Somewhere, that's for sure. I have not had a puncture on the road since OCT
05 and cycle around 5500 miles a year and there's usually plenty of glass
about. I use Conti 4 seasons and Bontrager RaceLite tyres on my two
commuters/racers and make sure they have 100 psi in them. The inner tubes
are Panaracer and I don't use any slime. Ride out of the gutter.

--
Simon Mason
http://www.simonmason.karoo.net

On 30/12/2006 21:56, Heracles Pollux said,

Quoted message said:

What am I doing wrong?

I was going to suggest that you fit some good rim tape, but one or two
(or five or six) people have beaten me to it!

Quoted message said:

Isn't there better technology available now?

Yes - tubeless tyres. A lot of MTB'ers use them, but it seems like a
lot of faffing around with latex and soapy water for my liking.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

In article <[email hidden]>

vernon said:

"Tony Raven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Heracles Pollux wrote on 31/12/2006 01:24 +0100:

Quoted message said:

Well that's your problem - buying from Halfrauds and getting no tape. Any
half reasonable bike shop should have a stock of Velox and you need the
width that sits nicely between the rim walls. Take your wheel in and they
should be able to sort you out. When you fit it, locate the hole in the
end over the valve hole, run the tape round the rim, making sure the hole
hasn't moved and then cut the overlapping end off at an angle, not square.
Should fix all your current puncture problems.

The half reasonable bike shop might stock the stuff but they don't always
think to offer it or fit it. It all depends on who serves you. My LBS is
normally wonderfull and on all but one ocassion, when served by the
apprentice, when picking up new or rebuilt wheels, rim tap has been fitted
prior to collection or offered at the counter when its absence was spotted
usually without extra charge too.

The problem is not necessarily that of Halfords but on the fecklessness or
ignorance of the counterstaff.

That really is the bike shop equivalent of "would you like fries with
that?" ...

In article said:

Heracles Pollux said:

Car drivers don't suffer puntures every few hundred miles?

Nor do most cyclists with properly built wheels and good rim tape.

It depends. I changed my commute route (new job), got _lots_ of punctures
to the point where I gave up and got closed cell foam tyres, and some
years later changed job and commute route again and (after breaking a rim
on a pothole and going back to normal tyres) didn't suffer badly from
punctures after that. (I didn't try Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres, they
weren't available at the time (or at least not widely advertised).)

Car tyres do weigh a huge amount compared with bicycle tyres and have much
thicker rubber (as well as steel belts).