I feel like crashing out. These Schwalbes were supposed to last 1000+ miles, but I got like 75 before disaster struck. I was riding one of many roads I've ridden dozens of times before.
Is there any chance there's something more to it than just bad luck?
by aadfg
46 Comments
No tire will really resist a nail, it’s a bit of trying to not run over them plus a bit of luck.
That’s in a very patch able location, the tire will be fine, but check your rim for damage if the nail was long enough.
Just patch or replace the tube and carry on using the tyre, or if it’s tubeless plug the hole with a bacon strip (or other plug) and carry on using it.
You’re overthinking this.
Pull out the nail, replace tube and ride. It will be fine.
Very unfortunate, but shit happens. You could just pull out the nail, repair the inner tube with a patch and then drip some super glue into the nail hole or leave it as is.
Chances another sharp object hitting the same spot are nearly 0.001%
The tyre is generally fine, riding over a massive nail is the issue.
I would replace the tyre as the hole will be too big to safely patch, it’ll just have a weak stop in the tyre if you try to patch it.
Just bad luck. Perfect placement of the nail between the thicker studs of the tire. No tire will prevent that. I’d personally just replace the tube and keep running the same tire.
I’ve seen Mr Tuffy’s tire liners resist nails.
I’ve literally ridden thousands a flat-free miles on a properly installed set of Mr Tuffy’s tire liners.
If you have the choice, try to ride on roads that have less crap on them. There’s always a few that seem to be littered with nails, broken glass, etc. If you can avoid them, do that. But sometimes you just get bad luck.
“Is there any chance there’s something more to it than just bad luck?” — what is this supposed to mean? Are you trying to blame Schwalbe?
For only a nail hole you might easily be able to get away with patching the tire from inside, I’d keep an eye on it in case too much threads could have been affected but in my experience nails puncture a the best case scenario
As for preventing it I know some companies used to make Kevlar strips that can be installed between the tire and tube but even if it does its thing and deflect the intrusion/protect the tube, the tire will still take the damage
I’d say not rolling on nails would be the only way to prevent, but having commuted by bike for a while I know it’s just bound to happen
Maybe converting to a new faith an praying it doesn’t happen again is the only way to prevent it but I never tried it (jk)
That’s just bad luck. Without seeing the hole in the tire, it’s hard to say whether the tire is ruined.
In general, unless you’re running a tubeless setup, the nail can simply be removed and the tube replaced. If you don’t know how to do this, I highly recommend watching Park Tool’s video on fixing a flat tire.
If you’re running tubeless, a bacon strip plug may be the best option for a hole that large.
If changing a tube or plugging a tire seems complicated, check whether your local bike shop offers a flat repair class. Even better, see if there’s a local bike co-op that can teach you the process. Learning to fix a flat is one of the most useful skills a cyclist can have.
I got 4 unrelated flats in 6 days last year. Shit happens sometimes.
You can buy tyres with a high level of puncture protection but they are slightly heavier so you need to work out what’s more important to you light tyre or better protection.
Hire someone to run ahead of you and sweep the ground for nails. But seriously , there is nothing that can be done. No regular tires can withstand something like that. You can run solids but they are uncomfortable as hell and really only usable for super-smooth surfaces.
I rode a set of Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tours for about 20,000km. The rear tyre was pretty damn bald, but the front one was still doing fine.
In that time I only had 3 punctures, but my girlfriend at the time was using the same tyres and would get punctures fairly regularly.
Part of it is definitely bad luck, but also she had a habit of riding really far to the side of the road. Any traffic coming past would make her swerve off towards the very edge of the tarmac, whereas I would generally hold my line.
I feel like perhaps this caused her to ride through more debris that had been swept to the edge of the road by the wind etc…
It would not have prevented this damage, but I rode a commute through a multi-year road construction area that had a lot of industrial debris and garbage. I got Mr Tuffy Tire Liners and the number of flats I had went down significantly. I had objects embedded in my tire and no flat. So if you want to know if there is more you can do to prevent a flat, yes. Would it have prevented this, probably not.
It’s just bad luck mate. I’ve had rides where the chances of a puncture were extremely high and I had none, and other rides where for some reason I had two flat tires on a single ride even if the chances were near zero. It’s part of cycling, see the fun side.
Just check the inner side of the tire to ensure there’s nothing else protruding that could cause another flat (happened to me, saw the big nail, but missed a very small piece of steel cable that was also stuck on the tire). Replace the tube, patch the old one, keep the old one as an emergency tube with you. And keep riding.
Don’t let a flat remove a smile, it’s part of bicycling.
The tire’s fine, but the inner tube needs to be patched or replaced. If you live in a place with lots of debris on the road I’d invest in a tube patch kit – they’re usually about $8-$10 and come with about 10 patches
Last year I destroyed 4 tires in 700 miles from road debris. It’s just the luck you have sometimes. After that I went 12k miles with no flats.
got 4 flats in the first two weeks of the season and have been good for months now.
it’s the way she goes. it’ll happen again.
Not even the best setup can prevent a flat from this size of a nail…
I use reinforced TPUs (Pirelli Angel) on a GP5000 and super happy… punctures however come with the game…
You could put solid rubber tires on your bike (assuming they exist), but they would be heavy, slow, and uncomfortable. No tire is bulletproof. But the tradeoffs are generally worth it. Fix the tire and ride on.
motorcycle wheel and tires
To prevent this you need to stop riding over nails
Go tubeless
Best way to prevent it from happening again is by not running over nails. Lucky it didn’t damage your rim as well.
I had this happen, in a bike lane, not even in an industrial area. It was like yours, but the other end of the nail went *through* the sidewall of the tube and hit my rim brakes, messing them up too.
This can only really happen on the rear tire: front tire kicks the nail up and while the nail is bouncing around, the rear tire just happens to go down on the nail while it’s temporarily upright.
going over contaminated surfaces more slowly (or turning) can prevent this.
Check your rim tape.
Its kinda unlucky. I got a puncture from a tiny hedgehog spike. I recall seeing a dead hedgehog in the road weeks before
Prevention is as easy as riding where there aren’t nails on the ground.
Patch the inside of the tire if you want, or don’t, doesn’t matter. Just put a new tube in there.
When I was at my wits end with flats, I went with solid, tubeless tires such as what you get when you search Amazon for “Polyurethane Solid Road Bike Tires”. But these tires just created a new problem. The road vibration was so great, I naturally grabbed a different bike to ride. Eventually years later, those tires wore out cornering and they just popped off the rim. This all happened over ten years ago and I have no direct experience with the latest tires. Beware these tires are a bitch to get on your rim.
Bad luck. I go stretches with nothing and then several flats. It’s part of cycling. A friend cut a brand new Vittoria racing tire on a rock his first ride out.
It’s not bad luck, it’s just the game. They’re puncture-resistant, not puncture-proof. An inch long nail with a sharp end is gonna go through your bike tire when put under rolling pressure; there’s no way around that.
The tube obviously needs to be replaced. The tire can probably be patched, and it’s worth trying before buying a new one. I don’t know about their effectiveness, but there are tire-armor strips that line the tire and provide more protection to the tube in the event of a puncture.
Change your route. I had a customer who kept getting glass in his tire and flatting every other week. Finally figured out he took the side street next to a bunch of bars and restaurants where all the trash and recycling go out. Changed his route and the flats stopped. If you’re riding by construction or home renovations might be a good idea to steer clear until it’s finished.
Is it silly to suggest not running over nails in the future?
A condom could have prevented this post
Solid tyres, search Tannus, used them for years and heard stories of people having all sorts of things stuckn in them and only noticed when cleaning their bike.
Nails.. not really, if its at the right angle its going through, anything else, cut up an old tire and line your new tires with it, duct tape to secure and smooth out
Tire is honestly probably still good. Pull the nail and replace the tube. Maaaaybe install a tire boot if you’re worried about it
Your best bet is to not run over any nails!
before this pneumatic nonsense nobody ever had a problem with punctures. That’s clearly the way to go.
Flatout.
https://preview.redd.it/x21o4eknkw5h1.jpeg?width=3472&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=58de067336aa4974ebed787cb9e6cbc58e2f3544
It’s always a stinkin nail. And seemingly attracted to brand new tires.
Depends on which Schwalbe. Are they the Marathon Plus? They have the heaviest armor in their line and seem to deflect nails fairly well. Although any tire can catch one at just the right angle.
I was getting a flat a week with regular tires and have gone a year and a half and 6000 miles on the Marathon Plus.
This is just bad luck. The best preventative to this sort of thing is being mindful of where on the road you are riding. The closer to the gutter you are, the more road debris there is.
Nails are not tire killers, they are tube killers. Install a new tube and ride.
move to a country where they use screws 😂
Unfortunately a nail won’t basically every time. But just keep bacon patch strips and a co2 inflator with you. The patch strips will basically meld into the tire long term and you will never even notice.