Heavy Duty BMX tubes/tires?

[colby]

Anyone familiar with BMX here? My little bro is 13 and keeps popping his tubes like mad. We tried slime tubes, nope. We tried buying new tubes every time, irritating. We tried patching, works for a little while.

He's doing the usual BMXy stuff, jumping stuff, grinding on his pegs, etc. If we could get past this tube problem, he might kick butt ;)

I was thinking it might be similar to some MTB problems, but they are still a little different. He's mostly jumping on pavement, though he rides through grassy areas sometimes.

Any advice is welcome... I'm not sure where to start. REI said "heavy duty exists" but not where or what.

Thanks :)

[DebW]

Are these pinch flats? What kind of tire pressure is he using? If you can determine the cause of all the flats, maybe you can correct something.

[Kitsune06]

I'm going with Deb. For BMX, yes, you want a little 'squish' so you can get a good grip on the surface, but you need to also have sufficient air pressure to prevent pinchflats. Have him check his tubes for ol' snake bites and if he's got 'em, up the air pressure. Might be harder to do some tricks (less squish) but that just means more skill is needed. ;) Oh, and don't let him beat me for that last sentence. :D

[colby]

Is the max pressure listed on the tires like road tires? The pump they are using DOES have a gauge, so I think they may be filling it to whatever the tube says. I said the same thing about a little squish, but not too much... he seems to think he's bottoming out and causing flats that way (but this is inbetween much complaining, so who knows ;)).