The Science of hitting a pot hole - are the tubes dead ?

[kingrollo]

Near the end of my recent ride - I achieved something I've never done in over 35 years of cycling.
I hit a pot hole and ended up with two punctures. The tyres and tubes were quite new - as I was swapping out the tubes today - I wondered if the tubes are scrap - I never patch tubes - so I just binned them. That's like £10 for less than 50 miles cycling.

I also wondered what actually happens to the tube when you hit a pot hole - presumably all the air is pushed into one place until a point of failure is found .

Or does the air just blast out of the valve and the tube is still good ?

PhD in inner science anyone ?

Any thoughts?

 

[fossyant]

Snake bite. Generally bins a tube unless you are a skin flint.

 

[fossyant]

With a snake bite the rim pinches the tube with such a fast impact between the rim and bead. Happens less if the tube is talced. Not had a snake bite in years.

 

[Pblakeney]

Given it is £10 for 2 tubes I'm going to guess that you mean inner tubes rather than tubular tyre.
What you've had is 2 pinch flats from hitting the pothole. The inner tubes get squished to the point where the wheel rim makes two holes, one either side. This is more likely to happen at lower tyre pressures. As for repairing that depends entirely on the size of the holes, but usually easily repaired.
Edit:- Also called snake bites, as above.

 

[MontyVeda]

Only time I'd bin a tube is if it can't be patched. I'm not a skin flint... it's just wasteful.