Author Topic: Front tire *always* going flat! Help!  (Read 1431 times)

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Offline Tabibito

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Front tire *always* going flat! Help!
« on: July 05, 2010, 09:13:03 pm »
Ok, help!!
So some of you may know I was hit by a car on my bike last year. Nothing major happened to the bike other than the front wheel was knocked out of true. Anyways, I had a shop true the wheel and continued riding.

After that I was getting a *lot* of flats. It was originally about every 2-4 rides (round trip), but eventually became every time I took it out.
So, tonight, I decided to try to figure it out. The most likely culprit according to the service guy at Revolution was there's something stuck deep in the tire. So, I picked up a new tire, and went home (since I had visually checked the tire *many* times). I didn't want to open the tire in case that wasn't the problem, so I took the last punctured tube, marked the tire, rim, and tube, stuck the tube in my bathtub and found the exact spot of the leak. I grabbed a new tube, put it on the bike, put the old tire back in on the same location (yay for marking things!) and took my bike out for about an hour. When I came back, I checked the pressure and it had dropped 10 PSI (from 60 to 50). So I pulled off the new tube, stuck it in the bathtub again, and found the leak in a completely different spot.

So, I'm glad I still have the receipt for the tire, because the leak being in a totally different spot means the tire is not the likely culprit. That leaves the wheel, but the guy at Revolution said you can ride out of true without popping tires..... if anyone has an idea, please help!

Should I just choke down the money and replace the wheel *and* tire??

Oh, and I checked the wheel, and *I* can't see any burrs or feel any spokes sticking into the rim through the tape.
Also, first leak was pretty much dead on the side of the tube, while the second was on the contact patch.
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Offline flipincanadian

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Re: Front tire *always* going flat! Help!
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2010, 09:41:30 pm »
Where are the holes appearing?  If they are on what would be the spoke "side" of the tube you should double check your  rim tape for holes/burs/spokes poking through, and make sure you even have rim tape...  Id almost be willing to bet that's where the problem lies. 

Offline TWRC

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Re: Front tire *always* going flat! Help!
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2010, 09:45:49 pm »
John, I can definitely take at the wheel for you.

Offline Tabibito

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Re: Front tire *always* going flat! Help!
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2010, 09:49:08 pm »
Holes were on the side, and opposite the spokes. Ran my finger over the tape, and it felt smooth all the way around.....


Thanks Tony, I might take you up on that on Wednesday if you get a chance.
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