What happens when you get a flat?

[GLC1968]

My husband put new tires on one of his bikes, pumped them up, and then left the bike propped against the fireplace in the living room while we did something else. First the front tire blew - scared the ever loving daylight out of me. Hurt my ears, scared the cat half to death...ugh! About 5 minutes later, the rear tire blew! Crap tubes inflated too much or poorly installed.

I've had quite a few flats, but only three while I was actually on the bike.

The first one was a fast leak but it didn't actually blow. I was just exiting the parking lot on my way home, so I wasn't going very fast. I hit something that I heard fly off to the side (it sounded metal) and immediately lost all air in my front tire in a big *whoosh*. I came to an almost immediate stop without breaking, so had I been going fast, it would not have been pretty.

My second one was also a front tire flat but it was a slow leak that I had no idea had happened until I tried to turn into a rest stop and could not effectively steer the bike. Even then, it wasn't completely flat, either.

The last one just happened about 2 months ago. I was on my commute home, drafting off DH. He was NOT pointing out debris and when he swerved to avoid a piece of glass, I had no warning and ran right over it. My front tire survived but the back one blew. Air went out immediately and in an effort to avoid biking into a storm grate, I almost crashed. I was able to hop off before either I or the bike hit the ground though. I had a hole in my tire about the size of a chocolate chip! I had to use a folded up piece of paper to keep the new tube from bulging out of it long enough to make it home. What was appropriate was that the paper I used was the registration to the car that I'd just sold since I was commuting by bike often enough to not need it!

[Blueberry]

I've had 3 - 2 on one ride on my recent trip to san diego. The first was a front tire - I didn't hear anything, was on flat ground and the handling started to feel weird. Fortunately, I was pulling into my subdivision.

When I went to ride Coronado on our vacation, I got off the trolley to find my front tire flat. I couldn't find a leak, put the tube back in and off I went. It's still holding. Number 2 was in front of the naval air station. I heard my rear tire go whoosh, and stopped. I was, of course, running for the ferry, into a head wind. For the first time, my Bike Friday cooperated and I was able to get the tire changed. As best I can tell, the valve stem failed (it was leaking air whether open or closed) - very strange. I always pack 2 tubes - I didn't ever thing I'd come that close to running out

CA