What is your major cause of flat tires? is it glass, nails, goatheads?
If it's glass, could you post below and let us know what state you are riding in?
thanks
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What is your major cause of flat tires? is it glass, nails, goatheads?
If it's glass, could you post below and let us know what state you are riding in?
thanks
I'm very curious to seek if states where there is a return on bottles have less glass!
I don't encounter glass on my travels. I do pass by pliers, screwdrivers, bungees and a host of other goods dropped by the farmers.
Mimi, I really like your avatar. :)
I like yours too, it inspired me to change mine! What state do you ride in?
I see a lot of glass on the road on my commute and on my long weekend rides. I'm in Vermont.
Here in Delaware, at least in the urban areas, there's a great deal of glass on the roads. Also, debris of all types, sand and gravel and every imaginable piece of scrap metal known to man. But I've had good luck with emailing the DOT and asking them to sweep certain sections that are particularly bad.
Oh, and did I mention how much I love my Panaracer Pasela tires in the urban jungle? :D *knocks on wood*
I ride the farm roads of Arkansas. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by mimitabby
I want to dive into a pool every time I see your avatar, Mimi. I hope you don't post a pie in your avatar 'cause I'll want one. ;)
I see some glass on the roads here in MA but the two flats I've had where I've pulled an object out of the tire have not been from glass (one was a nail, one was a big staple). A lot of the glass I find is pretty well pulverized so it's less of a flat-tire hazard.
I'm in a rural part New York. I see occasional glass. Way more road kill than glass. :(
I've only gotten one flat in about 6 or 7 thousands miles of riding all kinds of roads, both paved and gravel....it was from a small triangular piece of glass that had gone directly into my tire like a tiny knife.
I have really good tires that get me over the roughest sharpest gravel and stones.
Then again, we don't have goathead thorns here- i hear they are a big source of flats.
I hardly ever see glass on the road here in OR. I did see it pretty often in NC, but it wasn't usually from bottles. It was often safety glass from autos.
I've only had one flat since I started riding and that was because of a piece of something metal that I hit in a parking lot when it was dark.
Starting next week, I'll be riding through a couple of more urban areas on my commute, so I'll update my 'glass report' if necessary, then. ;)
I see a lot of glass here but it hasn't been my source of punctures. Only flats are pinch flats or staples used for building.
Most of the glass I see (suburban Maryland) is from car accidents, and only occasionally from bottles thrown out windows. I've never had a flat while riding the roads around here; while touring I had three flats, two from nails/metal and one from a piece of glass.
Sarah
Very little glass here - I voted in "other" because most of my flats have been tiny shards of quartz or some other rock. Usually late winter/early spring when the mountain rock has been freezing & thawing on the side of the roads, pieces have fallen & leave tiny razor-sharp tire busters.
Interesting - Just east of where GLC was in NC (~ an hour), we don't have much glass. An occasional broken bottle or wreck remnants, but not too much...
CA
I hardly ever see glass here in MA. I am mostly riding semi rural and suburban roads. I don't ride in the city at all. I have only had 3 flats in 8 years; two were from riding in the same place in Maine, 2 years apart! One happened a week ago, but I guess I am assuming it was from the same spot (the road to Nubble Lighthouse in York Beach). My tire was fine while I was riding, but when I got home, it suddenly deflated as I was cleaning the chain. The first time, something actually cut my tire during a century on the same road. I had to use a dollar bill for that one. My other flat happened on a road in my old neighborhood. The tire really blew out. I think the tube was just old, I never found anything in it.
I ride a lovely stretch of highway with a wide shoulder but I am constantly trying to aviod debris. I had my only flat ever on that road and it looked simply like a piece of gravel even though I have hit the occasional baleing wire and other garbage. I very rarely see glass however.
Florida - lots of glass, especially on the bridges and TONS of it on the MUP's.
Ohio - hardly any.
I see a ton of glass, riding in Philly. I'm not sure what tires I have but I tend not to get flats...I think they have like 12 layers of Kevlar in them or something...if I'm riding in the streets and am forced to go through a bad patch I do try to stop to brush any pointy debri off!
That's because the people in Greensboro do NOT know how to drive cars without hitting each other...constantly! I swear - it's crazy. :eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by CA_in_NC
I rarely see glass on the road here in rural Oregon, although the only time I've ever gotten a flat **knock on wood** was because of glass. That happened a few weeks ago.
We have pretty clean roads here in Newberg. :D
In suburbia So Cal, there's glass from time to time. I've yet to get a flat, however, knock on wood! Not sure how much is luck, how much is being watchful and careful, and how much is not riding too far to the right where most of the debris (including glass) typically is.
Dh has warned me that some of the rocks that fall into the road in the hilly areas can be very bad for tires, these particular rocks more so than others, I guess ... so to be careful there. Shortly after he told me that, my friend got a flat and she thinks it was from hitting a rock.
No way they're worse than Wilmington - highest population density in NC, plus tourists = bumper cars. I did get a glass flat there, and saw lots of it. All over the roads.Quote:
Originally Posted by GLC1968
People here aren't much better:rolleyes::rolleyes:
Please tell me Oregon is better?? Please??
It's raining in Albuquerque and the goat heads are blooming. Big time. I can't wait- in the next 3 weeks they will be throwing spines everywhere!
Much! In all ways! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by CA_in_NC
oh man do we ever have glass on the roads. seems people constantly pitch beer bottles out of their cars and of course it ends up in the bike lane. DH had two flats on the way to church a couple weeks ago.
a friend asked why she was always seeing bicyclists way out on the edge of the bike lane and i told her its because the sidewalk is the target for bottles and the remnants end up in the bike lane.
the good news: as soon as i see it i report it to the city on their web site and they usually have it cleaned up within a day or so. i reported a bunch of broken glass on one corner in scottsdale and they actually emailed me back and said that location was actually phoenix, and they forwarded the message to phoenix, and it was cleaned up the next day!