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Repeated Punctures

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  • January 19, 2015 at 4:52 pm #23051
    bamilton wackademical

    So yesterday, after doing 74 miles on pretty cruddy roads from London to Hastings, I got 2 punctures within 15 minutes of getting off the train at London Bridge. My 3rd and 4th in the space of five months. I did my standard check after the first puncture and found a tiny cut in the tyre, but nothing sticking in there (I checked thoroughly) yet a few minutes later I got my second one of the day. Thankfully the second repair held out for the 6 miles I still had to cycle home, as I only had the two tubes on me and no repair kit.

    I know that the roads are covered in crap at the moment, but four punctures in such a short space of time just seems totally unnatural. I do wonder how much is bad luck and whether I’m just doing something terribly wrong. I’m running Schwalbe Durano Wired 25s which I would expect to be fairly bombproof and with full length mudguards. I keep my bike well cleaned and maintained, and the PSI of the tyres at 110/100. The only recurring theme in each incident is that I’ve always used Specialized inner tubes.

    I have toyed with going tubeless, but I could actually do with avoiding spending cash on the bike for a while. Any thoughts on where I’m going wrong or suggestions on how to prevent it happening again for a while?

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  • January 19, 2015 at 5:25 pm #827869
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    bamilton wackademical

    I did do as thorough a check
    I did do as thorough a check as I possibly could, especially around the area of the split, but found nothing at all. My one theory is that I cleared a lot of crud out from the mudguard (it was a mucky ride yesterday) and perhaps there could have been something sharp stuck in there. It’s just frustrating that so much is getting through in the first place.

    Sergius – I have Continental Gatorskins on my fair weather bike and I’ve had a couple of punctures on those – but that was down to one of the nasty examples that MKultra has mentioned – a properly well hidden bit of glass. Otherwise they’ve served me well.

    I might try lowering the pressure again. After a conversation I had with a bike mechanic, I decided to increase the pressure for a while and it was doing ok…..until this weekend. You do notice a change in the rolling performance with lower pressure, but I’m happy to try it if it means no more bloody punctures for a while!

    January 19, 2015 at 5:13 pm #827867
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    sergius

    Lower your tyre pressure a
    Lower your tyre pressure a little perhaps? I run @ 85-90 PSI maximum, (touch wood) I’ve not had a puncture since I got my road bike (~15 months) and have covered around 2500 miles. About 1500 of those miles were on the same Schwalbe Durano tyres that you have, though I did upgrade them to some Continental ones when I saw a good deal online last summer.

    January 19, 2015 at 5:11 pm #827865
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    MKultra

    When you pick up a bit of
    When you pick up a bit of glass or hawthorn the object embeds it’s self deeply in the tyre and vanishes from view. When you inflate the tyre and ride on it the pressure causes the spliter/thorn to emerge again like a cats claw and cause a puncture. This will keep happening unless you look very closely for a puncture mark and then go digging for it with a small sharp knife and some needle nose modeling pliers.

    Apart from that I would go cheap and heavy with Vittoria Rubino kevlar training tyres. They are fairly bullet proof for commuting use.

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