What happens when you get a flat?

[PamNY]

I've never gotten a flat tire while riding. What happens -- does the bike become hard to control, like a car? Can you tell immediately, or is it more often a gradual thing?

I do know how to fix a flat; just don't know much about how they usually happen.

Pam

[buddha_bellies]

I usually luck out. I would go to work and find out my tire is flat at the end of the day. Usually I would find a piece of glass or rose thorn stuck in it. It's a slow leak for me.

[redrhodie]

I've only had 2 on road flats, so I've been very lucky. Both times, I heard the hiss, then felt the tire deflate. I've never had a blow out.

[RolliePollie]

I've never heard a hiss, but other things clue me in. My rear flat today felt like thud thud thud or kathunk kathunk kathunk. I usually notice front flats by the change in sound and by the feel of the bike and/or loss of handling. I don't typically get the thud thud thud effect on the front.

When I took my new bike out on her maiden voyage a couple weeks ago, I didn't notice my front flat until it was really flat. I was attributing the strange handling to the new bike. Ummm, duh...it took nearly crashing on a corner to realize what was going on!

[Grog]

Every flat is pretty unique. I've had one blow out (inside the house, though, with my ears really close to the tire - ouch!), a number of slow leaks, and a few "PPsssshhhhhhhhhit" flats that deflate instantly.

Slow leaks: Usually I detect them as I ride but I remain in denial for a while. As you're riding you feel that you're slowing down, that power is not quite transferred as well, and when you take a bump you can definitely feel that tire to be more cushy (usually a back-wheel thing for me). Park the bike, run upstairs for dinner. Next morning, get to the basement... tire is flat.

Fast flats: I have often distinctly heard them as they happened, but not always. Unless it's your front wheel AND you are going downhill pretty fast, it shouldn't be an issue. Sometimes if I think I've had a flat tire but it's not 100% obvious I'll brake gently. It really doesn't feel normal and that means I have to stop and actually look at the tire as it finishes deflating. It's sort of wobbly I think, can't really describe.

I've had a shard of metal totally tear the sidewall of a tire, beyond repair. It was not a blowout though, but I definitely felt it immediately in the handling of a bike. (I think it was a front tire thing.)

So basically it varies.

[pardes]

Do flats happen less often with mountain bikes with larger wheels? Please, say yes. I have green goo in my tires, does that really help slow down the flattening process?

[Cataboo]

Pardes, if you're not mountain biking - I think flats happen less often with mountain bike tires with larger tires. If you're mountain biking, there's thorns and rocks and the rest of that to cause flats.

When I first started road biking I got a fair number of flats - I think maybe I was getting pinch flats, because I wasn't pumping up my tires every time I rode and I was only inflating up to 90 psi or something. I keep mine at 110-115 psi now and inflate them everytime I ride, so I haven't had many flats since.

I've had maybe 3 instant flats - one when I hit a pothole in a tunnel at the bottom of a hill (it was dark underneath and the road was pretty bad, so I couldn't avoid all potholes).

The bike got really noisy and I got off to see what was wrong - I don't remember it being hard to control.

I got one on a long steep down hill on a really rough section of a closed road - I noticed the bike was really noisy, and it was really bumpy, but the bike wasn't hard to control. I think it was the front wheel as well.

I've had a slow leak where I pump up the tire to whatever, the next day go out to ride and it's flat, then pump it up to 110 again, and I think I did that for a week or two before it went flat on me as I was riding it one day. (In the future I should just change the tire when that first starts happening)

[sundial]

Do flats happen less often with mountain bikes with larger wheels? Please, say yes. I have green goo in my tires, does that really help slow down the flattening process?

Nope, I had more flats with my mtb. Teeny tiny thorns worked their way into my tire. Gah!

I have since used Stan's no tubes stuff and no more flats. Yippeeee!!

[withm]

I've never gotten a flat tire while riding. What happens --

Mostly 4-letter words and in a quantity directly proportional to the lateness, cold, or darkness factors.

[PamNY]

Mostly 4-letter words and in a quantity directly proportional to the lateness, cold, or darkness factors.

Thank goodness I have that skill already. My Coleman lantern has refused to pressurize on my last two camping trips so I have practiced cold/dark related epithets.

Thanks everyone for the interesting and informative discussion, btw.

Pam