My first puncture

Last night on my way home I got my first puncture. The tyre had an obvious cut in it and was leaking air. I turned the bike over, whipped the tyre off, then the inner tube and proceeded to put a new tube in. A car pulled up behind me and the driver asked if I wanted a lift. It was a colleague from work. I declined and carried on fitting the new tube and refitting the tyre. Once back together I pumped the tyre up and carried on my way. All this in 10 minutes.

I arrived at a friends house, where I was having dinner without problem. When I left later in the evening, I noticed my front tyre was flat. With poor light and no spare tube I decided to pump the front tyre up to see if it would hold air as I guessed it must have a slow puncture. It worked and I rode home.

Once home, I inspected the tyre to find about half a dozen minute shards of glass embedded in the tyre. I removed these but as it was late I decided against swapping out the tube. I'll take a closer look at the tyre tonight and make sure there is no glass left in it before replacing the tube.

My first ever puncture after 2,265 miles and I get two!

Think this tyre might need replacing.

4 comments:

  1. Just like buses mate.

    Oh, and welcome to my world...

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  2. Yup, punctures are no fun but it's easy enough to swap the tube and pump up - a bit unpleasant if it's raining at the time :-(

    1st puncture in over 2k miles is good, I went through a period last year of getting 2 or 3 a week. Kept checking the inside of the tyre and the fitting, but finally decided to run tubes a little softer (40 or 50 psi rather than 75psi) and that seemed to work :-s

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  3. The tyre looks fine...(I would wat a bit of tread for the winter!) To heal the tyre...

    Either use rubber glue or super glue...let the air out of the tube, pinch the tyre to open the hole/cut squirt in the glue...leave it to set then pump the tyre up...

    Just had to do exactly that today fitting my winter tyres on my summer bike...

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  4. Clive - I hope I'm lucky and don't get any buses :-)

    Dave - 40 or 50 psi? I'm running 100!

    John - Thanks for the tip about using glue. I glued the tyre as per your instructions. Hope it will hold.

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