Saturday, July 31, 2010

Caught tubeless!


What was to be an easy and relaxing Sat morning ride today ended with a big bang literally. I took my son's XO5 out for the usual 12km ride with the aim of evaluating its running condition. Somehow, its hard to expect a teenage kid to maintain his school bike.
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After pumping the under-inflated tires to 70/75psi, the first few km went smoothly enough except I noticed the rear tire had a small lump which gave the bike an irritating ride. Upon reaching Mt Henry Bridge and with the beautiful view of the Perth city skyline in sight, a gunshot suddenly went off. Bang! The loud sound was amplified as I was under a bridge and just as I suspected, it was my rear tire that gave way.

Closer inspection revealed that the lump was caused by a broken tire beat, which in turn caused the tube to burst. All the extremity of the hot and cold weather must have taken its toll. Fine and well if I brought a spare tube, but I was unprepared and tubeless.


This resulted in a long morning walk back home which was pleasant enough, and an offer of help by a passing cyclist brought a smile to my face. I've since replaced the tire with a new Michelin Dynamic 700 x 32c which is a very cushy and comfy hybrid tire.


So much for going out riding and getting caught tubeless...
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Update - I have bought another Dynamic for the front as well and these are really fat 700c tires. At 32, they are still not as wide as the 34 original Ritchie tires. Talk about a plush ride on the XO5!
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2 comments:

Taiwoon said...

techology have progressed quite a lot on bicycles.. if I am not wrong, there are tubless tires now. Needs a special rim..this way.. .when there is a puncture, u will have sometime to get help. Also have this slime solution which u can put into normal tubes to plug any holes...

Oldyonfoldy said...

Hi TW. If I'm not wrong, tubeless tires are used more for racing bikes where the tubeless tires are sometimes glued onto the rim.

Unfortunately for this case, my tube exploded due to pressure from broken side walls. Somewhat like hernia la :(

Thanks for your suggestion though!