blew a tube. gah

Ouch!! That can happen tho... just good thing you weren't on it and going close to 40mph when it blew... But hey... at least your patch held...

The best brake pads are KoolStop. Ask for them by name!

a.graham52 said:

New tube. Got a Michelin brand with the weird valve stems. Also upgraded my rear brake shoes since the walmart oems are marshmallows.

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Errgghh, sound like you bought a thinner Presta valve stem tube and not the common fatter Schrader valve stem tube.

Presta's are meant for very thin racing rims (too thin for a Schrader) and a real pain in the butt, I can't stand the blasted things.

If your rim in the center is over 1" you will likely have a Schrader size stem hole.

What I do to 'bullet proof' a wheel is use a HD tube which is about 4x thicker than a regular tube, and then put a HD liner between the tube and inside of the tire, and of course make sure you have your inner liner where the spokes come into the wheel.

~$25 a wheel but worth it for many.

I use double walled rims Rhino Lite. For a time I kept getting flats. The hole was always on the part of the tube nest to the spokes. The rims have brass sleeves for the spoke nipples to go through. Where the sleeves had been put in I notices little shards of metal around them. Sanded them down and now I don't get flats like I was before.

a.graham52 said:

The presta is working so far, and i bought an adapter so i can use a schrader valve tire pump.

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Cool, that's all that matters.

Your adapter will work with a manual tire pump but not with most compressor tire fittings unless the fitting has a manual air release.
All the ones for my compressor require a Schrader valve to push in the air release in the fitting to let the air flow which really irritates us in the shop hehe ;-}

When you patched your tube, did you lightly inflate it to shape before inserting it in the tire? Also, when putting the tire back on the rim, with your properly inserted and lightly inflated tube, check with your eye(s) that part of the tube isn't between the bead and rim, push on the valve stem to unseat it from being trapped by the tire's bead. then pump in a couple of pounds pressure, just enough to fill the tire out and check that the tire's seating 'line' is concentric with the edge of the rim.

99% of all Ka-BLAM! flats after tube replace/repair can be traced to improper tube installation.

I have had two blow outs since 2009, one was while I was cruising at around 35 MPH, it took all I had to keep that bike upright when she blew....LOL I was all over the side of the road for a little ways and finally got it into the grass and dirt when I got-ur shut down, yep it was a heck of a ride, fortunate I wasn't in a corner when it let go, that would have got ugly real fast..ouch!

Second blow out was with bike parked just outside my shop, had just made my fastest all time MPH run on the old 1963 Western Flyer 20-30 min. earlier, which was a GPS'd 50.3 MPH, if that tube would have blown while on that ride, thre is no doubt I would have gotten hurt bad.

This last experience was when I decided the high speed runs on my bikes are over, 50+mph is just to fast and it just ain't worth the risk, I'm just cruising from now on in the 30's - low 40's and I am using better tires and tubes also, no more 50MPH for me on a bicycle.

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