Flat Tyre, No Puncture?????
 

Evening all. In October I left my bike at my buddys house for one night, when I came to it the next morning the back tyre was flat. Filled it up and no problem what so ever.

Its had a service (inflation) mid december. Been out today, come home and just put bike away and again back tyre is flat. It may be a puncture but wouldnt my front wheel hit a nail/glass first and so be flat too?

Very odd indeed, any suggestions??

Cheers

Take the valve core out - check it out, then replace it. Pump the tyre up tp normal pressure then put some spit over the valve end and check its not leaking.

You can easily skip over a nail with your front wheel with it just falling right for your rear.

It's actually harder to puncture your tyres than you think.

Also, the front is a lot lighter meaning it could ride over something that the extra weight and pressure of the rear would force into the carcas.

Just one of those things. If the valve is ok , it's time to check your tube.

My BMW would sometimes let the air out between bead of tyre and the rim. For some odd reason it was more likely to do it on a cold night ?? In the end I fitted a a tube, which fixed it.

I think Tommy has got 'tubed' tyres on his bike, I would change the valve core and keep an eye on it, if anymore problems. don't mess around...............change the tube, you just know it will go flat again 'miles from home'! my tubeless tyres often let air if the bike is not used regularly, old aluminium rims on cars suffer a fair bit of leakage from where the Ali has pitted and no longer forms a perfect seal.

thanks everyone, useful info. gonna go grab a foot pump tomorrow morning from wilcos and have a gander at the valve.

just glad it happened when i was at home and not sat on top of the peaks, still snowy up there!

Tyre slime
 

Has anyone out there used this stuff [see title] I never have and just wondered what is the general consensus . I can see the obvious advantage avoiding being stranded with a puncture but what are the negatives if any.

Years ago I used in a Bonneville a green liquid called 'OKO', you put in before you had a puncture, don't think you can buy it now but there is a similar product called 'gloop'. Well. the 'OKO' worked fine for me after I removed a nail from the rear tyre. I have only ever known 1 person have success with 'finelec', the foam you squirt in after you've got the flat.

The classic scenario for car tire punctures is that the front tire pops the screw or nail upright and the rear tire gets punctured. Since screws and nails and other debris tend to get washed downhill, they collect along the road edges (depending on which way the road is crowned, but typically mainly on the right in right-hand-drive countries). Thus, the most common puncture is the right rear tire.

I assume the same is true of motorcycles, but I'm prepared to be wrong about this. I've had one front and one rear puncture in the last 70,000 miles, but my rear now has a slow leak which I'll have to address pretty quick. Just another data point.

Mark

(from Sierra de la Ventana, Argentina, where the rain has been relentless)

Gloop and Slim
 

I ve seen these products in different bike shops, but not sure what sort of mess you can expect when changing a tyre , dont want to ruin my rim if you know what I mean. I think Ted Simon used the stuff on his second RTW trip

Slime, gloop, ultraseal, etc etc...

I use it, even in tubes... Works well ! Never had a puncture since I started using it.

Can't say if its the sealant or just luck but I wouldnt hesitate to use it.

Only downside is, you have to clean the tube A LOT before a patch will stick to it after it's been "glooped" and a tyre yard probably wont plug a tyre which has been treated.

I think it's more that they dont want to as it's more work and they don't understand it.

Gloopy
 

Thanks Ted gonna give a try. But Im not going to go looking for punctures to test it. I guess the puncture will find me when it good and ready. Cheers.

Well I stand corrected, it is a puncture. Bikes all blocked up as me and the tire make tracks to local mechanics to get the beading broken.

its been a 'fun' afternoon :rofl:

Last summer I had about 18 flat tyres on a journey. Most of these not punctures but just tyres that went flat while riding (including 7 times on one wheel on the Road of Bones). Each time we removed tube, test inflated in water, changed valve and reassembled having found nothing. It stayed up for between 2 to 6 hours riding (all on dirt) and quickly went down again.

I put a spare tube in at one point but the same happened a few times again!

We never solved the mystery.

We broke the beads very easily by using the side stand of the other bike.
In fact we got very efficient at it all!!

Wow Tony thats really bizzare??:confused2:

All sorted now, the bloke had a machine that dd the job. He then fixed the puncture for me so alls well that ends well as my granddad used to say :thumbup1: