"Neil Brooks" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
I totally subscribe to--but hate--that theory.
A few months ago, riding straight line on a city street, I had a rear blowout. Turns out, I hit a difficult-to-see replacement blade for a utility knife--one of those trapezoidal-shaped deals.
It must have been laying flat, but the front tire set it up on some measure of acute angle just enough to slice perfectly perpendicularly through the rear tire. Game over.
Luckily, I knew of an LBS about two blocks away ... though I *did* ask them if this was their little marketing scheme ;-)
Responses have been interesting so far - most are having many more rear flats than front ones. The only front "blow-out" I can recall involved riding over an unseen car wheel weight. It was apparently lying perpendicular to my direction of travel with the steel tab that crimps it onto the wheel rim sticking up - cut through my tire and tube like a knife. Had a spare tire and tube on me though, so I was rolling again in 15 min.
Responses have been interesting so far - most are having many more rear flats than front ones. The only front "blow-out" I can recall involved riding over an unseen car wheel weight. It was apparently lying perpendicular to my direction of travel with the steel tab that crimps it onto the wheel rim sticking up - cut through my tire and tube like a knife. Had a spare tire and tube on me though, so I was rolling again in 15 min.
Do you always (or even usually) carry a spare tire, or was this on a tour or something?
Is it everyone's experience that rear road tires get flats while riding more often than front ones? It sure is mine, and I wonder why. Seems like the front should go flat more since it's the first to encounter the sharp objects. Anyone care to theorize?
Based on MTB experience, I think it's the added weight.
The idea about the front wheel throwing the object so that it penetrates the rear wheel sounds logical for a road situation, but most of my MTB punctures are from thorns...so the "throwing" effect is not there and my rear tire flats noticeably more often than the front.
Why is the throwing effect not active for off-road riding?
Because off road that doesn't cause flats so much as kill spokes and rear derailleurs. Branches get flipped up and back. If it causes a flat it's by knocking the valve stem off - something I watched happen to the bike in front of me last winter.
Bill: Do you always (or even usually) carry a spare tire, or was this on a tour or something?
Yes, one folding tire is always in my pack. I've decided to put it on in other cases where a boot could have been okay, but this time even a boot wouldn't have worked.
In all the years I've been riding, I can only recall one flat front tire on my road bike. My ratio must be at least 20 to 1.
-Eric
Sorni said:
me said:
Responses have been interesting so far - most are having many more rear flats than front ones. The only front "blow-out" I can recall involved riding over an unseen car wheel weight. It was apparently lying perpendicular to my direction of travel with the steel tab that crimps it onto the wheel rim sticking up - cut through my tire and tube like a knife. Had a spare tire and tube on me though, so I was rolling again in 15 min.
Do you always (or even usually) carry a spare tire, or was this on a tour or something?
