Punctures

[JozeeB]

I have had two punctures in 5 days and after some advice please.

First one, early last sunday morning - dodging the local saturday night puke in the road, I hit the remains of a smashed bottle and had a puncture. Pushed it home and did puncture repair, but when inflating, the imnertube exploded (hubby lost hearing for a while from the bang!) and inner tube was completely wrecked. It was nowhere near max pressure. (Mechanic in shop said he'd never seen anything like it!!)
Anyway, got new inner tube and first ride out I got another puncture after about a mile. Checked wheel but no obvious reason for second puncture. Hubby thinks wheel may have slight buckle in it, so would this cause a second puncture? Wondering if wheel damaged when inner tube exploded. (It was a very,very big bang!!)

Another new innertube on (not road tested yet), but should I assume wheel damaged and just replace it? Getting fed up of pushing bike home!!
Please excuse lack of technical knowledge - I just enjoy riding my bike, not yet got to grips with fixing it!!

 

[sittingbull]

Check the tyre for a small cut from the smashed bottle. I've patched a tube, and left a small cut in the tyre sidewall (until I could get a new tyre) only to have the tube explode 5 minutes later, there was no evidence of the tube protruding through the tyre as the patch held it in temporarily. The patch exploding was like a gunshot

The "explosion" would not damage the wheel and the buckle itself would not cause a puncture, but if a spoke or two protrudes through the rim tape this would!

 

[MatthewJMcc]

after getting a puncture you should run your hand slowly through the inside walls of the tyre to see if any debris has been left behind but in this case as you went over a bottle i would be extremely careful doing this. Personally I'd get myself a new tyre as there could be tiny shards of glass to small to get out of the wall of the tyre and you'll just keep encountering the same problem

 

[RWright]

My second ride after puting on new tires and tubes I was having a great ride...I was flyingI knew it was going to be new record for me on this particular route, then...you guessed it, flat rear. To find it I ran my finger SLOWLY AND LIGHTLY around the inside of the tire, I do the same to the outside of the tire too. There was a very small piece of that wire that the steel belts in car tires are made out of, these are my worst enemy on the roads around here. I get flats from glass once in a while but those little steel wires seem to get me on a regular basis. I think that is because most of my riding is beside a fast highway with a nice wide paved shoulder.

 

[AndyPeace]

It does sound like something is stuck in your tire. When fixing a pucture you can estimate where the sharp might be. to do this its best to be consitent with how you mount the tire, by lining up any writing on the tire with (or opposite) the valve. then you can see where the puncture happened by placing the tube up against the tire with the valve lined up the writting. Often it can be small, but you will on close inspection see it. running your finger inside the tire is a good way to check but don't get too careless, as running your finger over glass etc is gonna smart.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I had one when I went to London from Dewsbury in 2008, hit a pot hole and the tube pushed itself into the spoke holes of the rim, mind it took all day to deflate, wasnt the tape because it was a hell of a force, was when I started back in June 2nd day, spoke broke, took the tyre off ect to get the nipple out, put it all back and the tube fractured at the valve, my spare tube turns out had a puncture and the glue in my repair kit was dry. Luckily there was a shop near that sold repair kits, not great patches, but its still on the bike. Spokes are my problem 3 in 2 1/2 months.

I know probably get loads now.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Ime some cheap tyres are prone to punctures, upgrading to puncture proof helps.
Some may disagree (but I got the tip from Mickle's site, so I don't care ) sliming or buying slimed inner tubes works wonders: I got a puncture on my city jets from a minute shard of gravel 5 miles from home.
Pumped up once, got home (shard still in, could not see it) with the intention of changing the inner tube asp after removing the object. By next day the tyre was still inflated, so I left it.
Weeks later, being ridden every day, it is still inflated.