As you can see from the image, there is a weird kink in my tire. This is rear tire, hybrid/commuter bike. I was cleaning up the bike to start commuting, but noticed this. I removed the tube, checked both the tire and tube and I could not see anything wrong. Inflated the tube, outside of the tire and did not see anything unusual. During reinstall, I slowly inflated the tire and checked how it was sitting, everything looked fine, the tire seemed to site fine in the tube, etc. I rode around, maybe ~3 miles and the tire looked the same afterword.
Short background- I commuted everyday to work on this bike for ~1.5 years. Kept the bike maintained regularly. Then I lost my job in Feb and didn't really ride much until a few weeks ago when I went to fix up the bike for work (I started a new job in July). The chain was shot (my apartment did work in the bike storage room and it was covered in dirt, which got into the chian, etc. Kind of frustrating). So I replaced that and saw this.
A few questions –
(1) how bad is this to ride on? Am I risking a flat? I was planning to start commuting to work but need to figure this out first.
(2) Any advice on how to assess? I moved the tire around to different places on the rim, but this shape always shows up. My guess its the tire, but wanted some feedback to see if there was something else I could look into.
Thx
by theOtherTreasurer