Bizarre punctures - caused by a weather front?

Paul Kiernan

I put my old bike in the shed in October. When I went to take it out recently both tyres were punctured. Examination showed both tubes had burst outwards through the rim tape. Each tube and rim tape had a gaping hole in it.

The tyres and rim tape were the originals that came with the bike and are rated to 125 psi but the pressure was probably less than that when I put the bike away.

Will replacing the rim tape be enough to stop this happening again? Also, does anyone have any specific recommendation for rim tape (i.e. cheap but effective)? Thanks.

IM0

given that milk bottles were exploding in England during the cold snap, Id say this was caused by the expanding air in tyre when freezing? A rare 30 year event!

seamus

Air contracts when freezing, reducing the pressure in the tyre, so that theoretically shouldn't be the problem. Any chance there's a rat or a cat getting into the shed and chewing on your tyres?

At a push, perhaps the tyre itself became too cold and brittle and burst under the pressure, but I doubt it was cold enough for that.

blorg

seamus wrote: »

Air contracts when freezing

Maybe OP had water in his tyres?

Paul Kiernan

blorg wrote: »

Maybe OP had water in his tyres?

No, I always use air. I believe there were some studies done into using other gases in cycle tyres but I don't think they amounted to anything.

When I mentioned weather front I was thinking of pressure, extremely low pressure to be precise, but now I'm wondering was it just extreme cold making the rubber brittle; the rim tape is rubber too so if both tube and rim tape were brittle enough, the tube pressure might cause the whole thing to blow. If it was just one tube I could understand it but both tubes at the same time! BTW, there were three other bikes in the same shed, a hybrid and two kids BSO's, and they were OK, but they would have had much lower tyre pressures.

I was going to fit new rim tapes, but I reckon if I just rotate the old ones by half the spoke gap I'll be fine!

Paul Kiernan

I fixed one of these punctures today, pumped it up to about 100psi and made myself a cup of tea. Bang, tea all over my lap, ripped off tyre to see this:

and this:

From the dimples in the second photo you can see that the tube is bulging into the rims.

Well, I think it's bizarre

LastGasp

Any Rim Tapes I've seen recently have been made of a pretty hard plastic, not rubber. The only answer I can think of is that your rubber Rim Tapes are perished and not able to do the job. Get yourself to your LBS and pick up new Rim Tapes and Tubes. Hopefully that will do the trick.

LastGasp

Paul Kiernan wrote: »

I was going to fit new rim tapes

Right !

Paul Kiernan wrote: »

but I reckon if I just rotate the old ones by half the spoke gap I'll be fine!

Wrong !

blorg

Paul Kiernan wrote: »

No, I always use air. I believe there were some studies done into using other gases in cycle tyres but I don't think they amounted to anything.

CO2 is quite commonly used, you get it in little compressed cannisters to instantly inflate your tyre if you get a puncture. It seeps out of the tube faster than air though so I would always deflate and reinflate with air when I get home.

That looks pretty conclusive as to it being the rim tape, replace it, very cheap stuff.

@LastGasp- I got rubber rim tape with my last wheels, it was one continuous loop and you had to stretch it a bit to get it on. Seems fine though.

Paul Kiernan

Cold must have weakened rubber!

Just spotted this on Schwalbe website: "Rubber rim tapes are not suitable for hollow section rims, because the inflated tube pushes them into the holes." You're living dangerously, Blorg!

Lastgasp, I did rotate the rim tape and I was wrong!

I only put a small order in with PBK a couple of days ago, is it really abusing their free postage policy by ordering a couple of rim tapes now?

LastGasp

Paul Kiernan wrote: »

Lastgasp, I did rotate the rim tape and I was wrong!

Dats what I said - would have been right to replace, was wrong (in hindsight) to rotate ! Sorry if the layout of my post wasn't clear.

Paul Kiernan

Thanks, Lastgasp, I did understand your post but by then I'd already done it:(.

New rim tapes currently winging their way from the Lake District:).