Tire cord problem...
NS>
picked up some glass but there was not a visible puncture from the rod
side of the tire. I felt around on the inside of the tire and ran across
what appeared to be a steel belt or wire coming from the center of the
casing that was causing the flats. I broke out the trusty Leatherman and
whittled away at the wire/? thing that was causing the flats until it
was gone. But the curiosity of having a steel wire coming through is
surprising. I also wondered, if the cord was broken, am I more at risk
for some catastrophic failure when I hit a corner at speed? The tires
don't have 750 mil;es on them....
TIA,
NS>
Robin Hubert
news:j7ICa.810749$OV.747442@rwcrnsc54... writes:
That wire came from outside your tire. Just pull it out (and patch!) next
time it happens. Your cords cannot be cut by a wire. BTW, what do you mean
by "whittled away at the wire"? If you were excavating around it, you
could've ruined your tire.
Robin Hubert
NS>
probably, 10 scrapes (not cuts) with the blade across the gum wall
looking stuff on the center of the tire on the inside... I swear I
didn't see a puncture... Usually there is a visible mark where the
perforator (for lack of a better word) came through, but no such mark...
NS>
jobst....@stanfordalumni.org
> Are there steel cords in Continental Ultra 2000 tires? I thought I
> had picked up some glass but there was not a visible puncture from
> the rod side of the tire. I felt around on the inside of the tire
> and ran across what appeared to be a steel belt or wire coming from
> the center of the casing that was causing the flats. I broke out
> the trusty Leatherman and whittled away at the wire? thing that was
> causing the flats until it was gone. But the curiosity of having a
> steel wire coming through is surprising. I also wondered, if the
> cord was broken, am I more at risk for some catastrophic failure
> when I hit a corner at speed? The tires don't have 750 miles on
> them...
Congratulations, you have just picked up a "Michelin wire", Michelin
being the inventor of the steel belted radial tire that today is made
by many tire makers. You should have pulled the wire out. It is not
a normal part of your tire although the wires are common on roads. We
don't see them often because they lie flat on the road. My experience
is that they enter only rear tires because they must first be tilted
up by the front tire... or a closely preceding rider, although I've
never seen that happen.
That gets us back to why rear tires statistically have more flats than
front tires. It is not from the heavier load on the rear wheel as
myth and lore would have us believe, but rather that debris lying on
the road must be tilted up to enter a tire, something the front wheel
does well. It is also the culprit in ripping off derailleurs with a
"derailleur stick" that lies flat on the road or trail and gets tossed
onto the chain directly ahead of the derailleur. Bingo!
Jobst Brandt
jobst....@stanfordalumni.org
Palo Alto CA
Jasper Janssen
>That gets us back to why rear tires statistically have more flats than
>front tires. It is not from the heavier load on the rear wheel as
>myth and lore would have us believe, but rather that debris lying on
>the road must be tilted up to enter a tire, something the front wheel
>does well. It is also the culprit in ripping off derailleurs with a
>"derailleur stick" that lies flat on the road or trail and gets tossed
>onto the chain directly ahead of the derailleur. Bingo!
Sounds good. You can feel and see it happen when it's a stick, but there's
no reason it doesn't happen with the smaller things too. How about the
much faster wear on the rear? That *is* the bigger load issue, isn't it?
And what about trikes, where no wheel directly trails another? Do they
(almost) never get flats? I suppose though with three tires instead of
two, and two of them being rears, it doesn't say much either way about the
load vs. debris-flip controversy.
Jasper
Dave M Wyman
> That gets us back to why rear tires statistically have more flats than
> front tires. It is not from the heavier load on the rear wheel as
> myth and lore would have us believe, but rather that debris lying on
> the road must be tilted up to enter a tire, something the front wheel
> does well.
That explains two annoying flats. Three weeks ago my rear tire was
punctured by a three inch nail. The nail pushed through the tread, then
in and out of the tube, and then out the tire's sidewall - I assume the
tire is ruined, although the puncture diameters are rather small. It was
an almost new tire, and an expensive one, to boot.
A year and a half ago, my rear Specialed "Fatboy" slick rolled over a
piece of glass shaped and sized like an arrowhead! The hole in the tire
was significant - after I pulled out the piece of glass, I put in a new
tube, put a patch on the inside of the tire, and then rode half a dozen
miles home with my fingers figuratively crossed.
Dave
Ted Bennett
> >That gets us back to why rear tires statistically have more flats than
> >front tires. It is not from the heavier load on the rear wheel as
> >myth and lore would have us believe, but rather that debris lying on
> >the road must be tilted up to enter a tire, something the front wheel
> >does well.
> And what about trikes, where no wheel directly trails another? Do they
> (almost) never get flats? I suppose though with three tires instead of
> two, and two of them being rears, it doesn't say much either way about the
> load vs. debris-flip controversy.
>
> Jasper
Interesting point. I ride a trike (as well as various bikes) and find
that I probably get more flats on the trike, although they are still not
common. I figured it's because there are three tracks rather than one.
--
Ted Bennett
Portland OR
Chris Zacho The Wheelman
That's probably where the wire came from.
May you have the wind at your back.
And a really low gear for the hills!
Chris
Chris'Z Corner
"The Website for the Common Bicyclist":
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner
jobst....@stanfordalumni.org
My pursuit of these questions started at an early age. This one arose
when my father told me that rear car tires get more flats than front
tires because the driving torque sucked them in. I was in the first
grade at that time and my father was an economist, not an engineer.
However, it started me on questioning any such claim that wasn't
substantiated by some reasonable explanation, be that about cars,
airplanes or bicycles.
A Muzi
news:j7ICa.810749$OV.747442@rwcrnsc54...
lately. The wire in the bead at the edge of your tire is much thicker gauge
and there's no way it could end up in the center of the casing. Hell if you
see that wire at all your tire is shot.
--
Andrew Muzi
http://www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April 1971
David L. Johnson
> Interesting point. I ride a trike (as well as various bikes) and find
> that I probably get more flats on the trike, although they are still not
> common. I figured it's because there are three tracks rather than one.
I assume this trike is a bent. If so, the reason for the more common
flats would be that you can't get out of the saddle and absorb impacts
like you can on an upright, so you probably get a lot more pinch flats and
damaged tire cord.
--
David L. Johnson
__o | I don't believe you, you've got the whole damn thing all wrong.
_`\(,_ | He's not the kind you have to wind-up on Sundays. --Ian
(_)/ (_) | Anderson
Ted Bennett
"David L. Johnson" <david....@lehigh.edu> wrote:
> > Interesting point. I ride a trike (as well as various bikes) and find
> > that I probably get more flats on the trike, although they are still not
> > common. I figured it's because there are three tracks rather than one.
>
> I assume this trike is a bent. If so, the reason for the more common
> flats would be that you can't get out of the saddle and absorb impacts
> like you can on an upright, so you probably get a lot more pinch flats and
> damaged tire cord.
Your assumptions are partly right, and partly wrong. It is a 'bent, but
I have never got any pinch flats, only punctures. The tires are fairly
wide compared to most road bike tires: Tioga Comp Pools are 1.75" wide,
and I inflate all three 80 to 90 psi.
Mike Jacoubowsky
> when my father told me that rear car tires get more flats than front
> tires because the driving torque sucked them in. I was in the first
> grade at that time and my father was an economist, not an engineer.
> However, it started me on questioning any such claim that wasn't
> substantiated by some reasonable explanation, be that about cars,
And now you know the rest of the story.
--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
http://www.ChainReactionBicycles.com
NS>
of the wire with the knife then the rest is just festering in the tire
ready to make days bad later on.
Upon reinspection, I noticed the wire that was in the tire still, was
about 3/8 of an inch long and smaller in circumference than a needle.
So if that sounds like one of those Michelin wires then they really ,
really need to get a better construct plan for their tires! Thanks for
the info.... I would've had another bad day, instead of a nice ride...
It wasn't a bad cord after all. Thanks...
NS>
Harris
> It was a stray piece of wire picked up on the road. I'm seeing more of those
> lately. The wire in the bead at the edge of your tire is much thicker gauge
> and there's no way it could end up in the center of the casing. Hell if you
> see that wire at all your tire is shot.
Hmmm. This reminds me of the Wolber "Invulverable" sewups that I used in
the early '80s. They had a steel mesh under the tread to supposedly
minimize flats. But eventually, the mesh would break apart (especially
in the rear) and puncture the tube. I had at least two blowouts as a
result.
Art Harris