All the tubes seem to be splitting at the seam. This is the third tube i’ve put in. Is this a pinch flat or should i be looking for something else on the rim? I checked the tyre and it was alright.
by Lumpy_Crow_6022
All the tubes seem to be splitting at the seam. This is the third tube i’ve put in. Is this a pinch flat or should i be looking for something else on the rim? I checked the tyre and it was alright.
by Lumpy_Crow_6022
32 Comments
Go tubeless, then enjoy life with no flats👍
Look at your tire. There could be wire coming out and poking your tubes. 3 in 3 days is not normal wear n tear.
If these are not old or low quality tires it is something else.
I had something like this with a cheap rim on the bike of my wife where the holes for the spokes where not deburred and metal shavings where hidden below the rim tape.
After removing them the problem was gone.
Feel the inside of your tire for anything sharp
Check the tire and the rim. Use your hands and run them inside the tire and the rim. You will find it. Look for any holes in your rim tape as well.
I had a sliver of glass lodged in the tire that was really hard to see/find that resulted in back-to-back flats like this.
I always line up text on the tire with the rim hole for the stem. When you identify where the puncture is on the tube, you have a sense of what part of the tire to carefully inspect. Sometimes tiny fragments of glass or pieces of wire are hard to spot.
At least for me, that many punctures normally means I missed something small.
So you found the leak, and it’s at a seam. It could be a manufacturing defect. (You can fix that easily with a patch. And theoretically, you could even fix it with vulcanizing compound alone.)
But just for rigor… is that the “inside” or “outside” of the tube? (If you were to insert it in the tire, where would it line up? The rim or the tire?)
Wherever that lines up, grab a cotton ball and swipe along the surface, go in both directions. If there’s a loose sharp, the cotton will pick it up. If the sharp is fixed, the cotton will snag on it. Some sharps are very small and you could easily miss it with a visual exam.
Check outside as well. It happened to me. Two tyres in one day. It was glass stuck in the outside of the tire and in very specific conditions was poking through the inner tube.
Buy a bag of flatout and check for sharp objects wedged in the rubber of the actual tire.
Replace your rim tape
That’s on the rim side of the tube, right? Check your rim tape
Lot of good advice so far. I would also add that you should search for the culprit with a micro fiber rag or something similarly delicate. It’ll snag on the sharp end of whatever it is without you running the risk of getting that thing lodged in your fingertips
Check your rim out
Take off your tires and run slowly your fingers on the inside of the tire, I am sure there is something sharp that has penetrated the tire but cannot be seen form the outside. Be careful when you run your fingers, you may cut yourself: just go slow
it’s either worn rim tape or something small poking through the tire.
I once had this happen from thorns… I ran over a thorn bush, and the thorns were poking through the tire for weeks afterwards. I ended up replacing the tire.
Use some slime or flatout and never worry about it again…
Rim tape problem or something in the tire. I think after three tubes you might want to turn the tire inside-out rub your hands on it till you find that piece of medal from the power line folks. Very thin but I’ve lost a few this way.
Maybe I’m gonna get destroyed for this, but I’ve added sealent inside my commuter tube, it’s already been a few month and I’ve yet to have another puncture.
Is puncture in same location? Line tyre up with valve etc and when you get flat you can pinpoint it better. Can’t see in your vid but is it inside or outside, and even though tyre may be ok there could be wee bit of glass that only pokes through when weight is applied.
FWIW I run tubeless on all my bikes and very rarely get a punctures and despite what all the negative comments say I find it easy to setup and maintain?
Check the rim tape too
“If you don’t find the reason for the flat, you will get the same flat again.”
-wizened old mechanic
I’d suggest bringing the tire in to a bike shop, there’s the little tiny wires inside of car tires that when broken will somehow get stuck in your bike tire. It’s happened twice, thankfully I carry tools with me and both times before I put in a new inner tube the guys at the store find a tiny little wire. They had to pull it out with tweezers they’re very tiny and hard to see. Run your fingers on the inside of the tire and you might find something sharp.
Also I know this a long one but next time you ever have a flat tire remember where the inner tube was on the tire itself. When you find the leak, that’ll be where your issue was on the tire.
Also put some air inside. Maybe you get low pressure bites.
Is it valve side or rim? Might help you whether to look at the tyre or rim more closely
Had this happen. I would say 10/10 times when I had repeated flats there was something stuck in the tire and/or rim. One time it was a practically imperceptible piece of wire, that was VERY annoying.
Are all 3 holes at the same side?
– Inside: must be rim
– Outside: must be the tire
For the inside ones: are all holes at the same spot relative to the valve? If so then check the rim at these spots (eg nipple poking thru rim band…)
For the outside: make it a habit to mark the valve position on the tire when you get a flat tire
Check the tire. You may also use a knife or similar to check for glass hidden in the rubber (which may neither be visible from the outside nor feelable from the inside). Just carefully poke into holes/defects of the rubber and listen/feel for scraping
Go tubeless!
Hard to tell from the video if it’s on the rim side or tire side. I’d check both; for anything sharp. Sometimes a rim will have a metal burr or something that was missed during machining; or the rim strip may have failed. If it’s tire side it could be a tiny piece of glass or thorn. Either way, something ain’t right.
Get a cotton ball and run it around both the rim and the inside of the tire in both directions, anything that would puncture a tire will capture some of the cotton fiber.
Less pain than catching a sliver of metal in your finger this way.
double tape the rim, looks like its coming from the interior
Why are you wasting so much water? Just overinflate the tube.