Riding on a flat tyre

[Chris S]

I had a puncture in my front tyre yesterday. As I pushed the bike home I began to wonder if I'd damage the wheel if I rode it?


From what I can gather most of the weight is on the rear wheel. The road was also smooth and fairly flat.

 

[ianrauk]

the bike wouldn't be very stable, even at slow speeds and you would damage the rim of the wheel and also the tyre. It's just not worth it imo.

 

[Norm]

My son lent a bike to a friend at the weekend, he rode it about 10 yards with a flat tyre (it took him that long to realise what was wrong and stop). The wheel was fine, but there were 8 pinch punctures in the inner tube, as well as the original puncture.

So, plan A would be 'It's ok if you junk your tubes rather than repairing them.'

There's also a significant risk that you'll ruin the tyre by putting all the weight on the rim through the side wall.

You'll also have little control of the front wheel, it'll go everywhere except straight ahead.

And no braking power at the front end.

And when the tyre does roll off the rim, you'll be riding with the metal rims on the tarmac, which will scuff them and possibly cause sharp edges to puncture your newly installed tyre and new tube.

In general, I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[gbb]

Its always worth noting how fast the puncture is and perhaps do a bit of interval training with it...
We've all had a slow puncture, maybe goes down in a mile or so, so i tend to pump it up hard and fast, jump on the bike and pedal like crazy...then ditto....and maybe ditto again...and again

 

[lukesdad]

I wouldnt reccomend it either .Earlier in the year I had to do 10 miles on a rear flat tube and tyre were destroyed. I wont forget to change toolkit again.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I've done several miles on a flat on several occasions, riding at walking pace or just above, as others have said you run the risk of damaging tube, tyre and rim, I've managed to get away with just ruining the tube. I've also done about 15 miles on a broken rear axle and several miles one legged after a pedal seized up.

 

[fossyant]

It will ruin the tyre and tube - especially if it's a road bike. When my rim blew, just the 10 metres to stop the bike caused a hole in the sidewall of the tyre (not on the side that blew).

 

[snailracer]

Damage to the wheel is less worrying than the damage to the rider when the front end slides out on the next bend.

 

[HLaB]

Damage to the wheel is less worrying than the damage to the rider when the front end slides out on the next bend.

+1

 

[biggs682]

i always just get off and walk its safer

 

[Beebo]

Its always worth noting how fast the puncture is and perhaps do a bit of interval training with it...
We've all had a slow puncture, maybe goes down in a mile or so, so i tend to pump it up hard and fast, jump on the bike and pedal like crazy...then ditto....and maybe ditto again...and again

yep i've done that too. especially in the cold and dark i'd rather repair the puncture at home than on the roadside

 

[ASC1951]

We've all had a slow puncture, maybe goes down in a mile or so, so i tend to pump it up hard and fast, jump on the bike and pedal like crazy...then ditto....and maybe ditto again...and again

Nope. Why not just put your spare tube in?

 

[zigzag]

i rode home 8km with flat front 23c racing tyre - no problems. i didn't have time to fix the puncture and started riding very carefully, but later saw that the bike rides quite well up to 20kph, so i didn't even lose much time. strangely tyre and rim were fine after that.

but yes, as everyone else, i wouldn't advise riding with flat tyre - it can be dangerous on hilly/windy/rough road.