Glass/steel shard in tyre

lukester

Noticed a thin shard of something sharp in my back tyre, looks like glass or steel, it's so small that it's almost impossible to get out- it's left a little slit in the surface and the tip of it isn't sticking out. The tyres are puncture resistant- Schwalbe Stelvios. Is it stoopid to leave it in there hoping it'll just wear away or be stolen by tyre pixies? Was hoping to go for a decent spin this evening... I guess I could try and remove it with a pin or summat similar- was afraid of doing more harm than good.

blorg

I would get it out, being careful not to do more damage. I'd be worried that as you cycle you could just push it further in until it punctures. Having said that you will _probably_ be OK for your decent spin, it's more of a long term thing.

FergusF

blorg wrote: »

I would get it out, being careful not to do more damage.

I agree, it's probably better to remove it if you can in case it migrates further in. You could try deflating the tyre then pinching either side of the slit to open it a bit, then grab the shard carefully with a tweezers to pull it out.

I do this occasionally with my Schwalbe Marathons, not sure if it is really necessary as I have pulled some scary shards out of there and haven't had a puncture in 2 years with them (tempting fate now I know!!!)

irishmotorist

It might be worth considering removing the tube altogether while you work on it, particularly if you're using something like a pin. You don't want to inadvertantly puncture the tube - particularly if it's at full pressure. You won't hear right for a week!

niceonetom

you're obviously getting more wear out of those stelvios than i did - i replaced them after about 200k (the front one got a big cut and the back just kept getting little glass wounds). swapped em for hutchinson fusion 2s, which have been good to me so far , but are nowhere near as light and sticky as the stelvios .

i use gatorskinz on my commuter and every now and again i let all the air out of 'em and pull all the little bits of galss out those pinholes with a tweezers. you'd be amazed how many there can be. i'm pretty sure that some of the punctures we get are from glass we rolled over weeks ago and have been slowly working through the kevlar with each revolution since.

so, air out, tweeze, air back in.

kenmc

I discovered something similar in my girlfs' tyres last night. She got a puncture in the front again - the third in 2 weeks - couldn't believe it - I could feel nothing inside the tyre, the rim, or the outside of the tyre.

It was only when I found the puncture in the tube, I could relate it to the position on the tyre (it's REALLY handy to be anal about where you put they tyre logo relative to the valve hole on a wheel). I saw nothing at all, except a tiny little cut. Squeeze the tyre a bit and low and behold there's a tiny sliver of glass in there. Still could not feel it on the inside of the tire at all. I reckon it was just sticking it's head up every time the wheel rolled around and eventually would puncture the tube. Removed it, and went around the tyre looking for others, found at least 4 or 5 other tiny shards of glass, not much bigger than the nib of a pen, all embedded in the tyre, none of them could be felt on the inside or the outside of the tyre, wouldn't know they were there until you open up each and every cut/scratch on the outside of the tyre. Same on the back wheel too. They're in the bin now!

seamus

irishmotorist wrote: »

It might be worth considering removing the tube altogether while you work on it, particularly if you're using something like a pin. You don't want to inadvertantly puncture the tube - particularly if it's at full pressure. You won't hear right for a week!

It's also much more difficult to remove the embedded debris when the tyre's inflated because it grips onto whatever's gone into it. If you deflate, often just pinching it on either side will pop out the glass - like getting a splinter out of your finger.

I've had a number of punctures like this and unless it's actually managed to create a very large gash in the tyre, put a big hole right through to the tube, or otherwise shredded the rubber on the outside, they're fine to keep riding with.

Gavin

kenmc wrote: »

It was only when I found the puncture in the tube, I could relate it to the position on the tyre (it's REALLY handy to be anal about where you put they tyre logo relative to the valve hole on a wheel). I saw nothing at all, except a tiny little cut. Squeeze the tyre a bit and low and behold there's a tiny sliver of glass in there. Still could not feel it on the inside of the tire at all. I reckon it was just sticking it's head up every time the wheel rolled around and eventually would puncture the tube. Removed it, and went around the tyre looking for others, found at least 4 or 5 other tiny shards of glass, not much bigger than the nib of a pen, all embedded in the tyre, none of them could be felt on the inside or the outside of the tyre, wouldn't know they were there until you open up each and every cut/scratch on the outside of the tyre. Same on the back wheel too. They're in the bin now!

Exact same thing the other day. Heard the hissing, literally as I rolled the bike into the shed. The air was coming out the tube and straight out the tiny hole. Took a wee bit of glass out and then several more pieces all over. When I put in a new tube and pumped up, I could heard a bit more hissing. I got enraged, assuming the new tube had just been punctured, but it was ok. I think it might have been trapped air in the tyre getting squeezed out the tiny hole as the tube went up to full pressure. Brand new tyres, no way I was throwing em out !

lukester

Given that it's pretty tiny and based on what y'all are saying, I'll leave it for now. As I was checking the rest of the tyre I found another little slit but couldn't see anything embedded, but sounds like that too could have something lurking.

Pain in the proverbials..who can I rant at for all the glass splinters on the road? Anyway, when it comes time to replace tyres I may go for something tougher- armadillos seem to be the toughest from what I've seen on other posts, but not the best handling.

rubadub

niceonetom wrote: »

i'm pretty sure that some of the punctures we get are from glass we rolled over weeks ago and have been slowly working through the kevlar with each revolution since.

Yes, I am pretty sure too. You get a bump in an odd direction right on it and it would be like a hammer to a nail.

kenmc wrote: »

I could relate it to the position on the tyre (it's REALLY handy to be anal about where you put they tyre logo relative to the valve hole on a wheel)

Also if you fix a puncture like that and replace in the exact same spot you might be be less likely to puncture again, given the new thickness of patch and tube.

I know my commuting traffic light sequence backwards now, so when I know I am going to have a good wait I use that time to check the tyres.