my scary morning incident

[runningteach]

I'm glad you are OK and that it didn't happen as you were decending.

[Jiffer]

Wow. Glad you're okay. Was your tire ready to be replaced? My dh is good at replacing my tires before they get too bad, and points out other people's need for replacing or rotating. Did you know you're supposed to rotate your tires? The back wears out before the front because it has more weight on it.

[ridenread]

How often are you supposed to replace and rotate the tires? The bike only has about 900 miles on it. The tires appearred to still be in good shape. I didn't realize they should be rotated but that makes perfect sense. I have never even had a flat on it. So my first incident I have to replace the entire tire

It is funny because I was not really sure why I decided to slow down and stop. My mother is convinced I have a "bike angel" who was looking out for me.

[Jiffer]

Apparently there's a lot of variation in when a tire needs to be changed. What type of terrain you ride on for one. If you are always on smooth roads and seldom go through debris, your tires will last longer. The heavier the rider, the faster their tire will wear out. A guy friend of ours, who was tall and around 200 lbs had to replace tires quite frequently. He also learned he had been over inflating them.

I'm sure every tire manufacturer has their own recommendations, but dh guesses anywhere between 1,000 to 2,500 miles depending on what kind of tires you have and what you are putting them through. Some tires are built to last longer and resist flats, yet not necessarily built for speed.

It's quite possible you had run over something that was stuck in your tire, which could have caused your "explosion". Maybe a small nail or something. Dh replaced my tires recently when they weren't necessarily warn down, but had tons of little cracks in them from stuff I had ridden through. Each time you get a little crack, it makes the tire weaker. Also, any time you ride through glass, it's a good idea to stop and check your tires to make sure there are no pieces of glass stuck in them. Dh sometimes runs his hand (with glove) over each tire while he's actually riding to rub off anything that might be on them.

I think you DEFINITELY had a Bike Angel looking out for you! Funny. I actually have a necklace that has a bike with an angel standing next to it. My two friends and I bought them for ourselves, because a guy in our club started calling us his angels, like from Charlie's Angels, and we started calling him Bosley. You could probably find that necklace online if you wanted one.

[OakLeaf]

Wow, glad you're okay.

Was your wheel damaged, or did it get out of true? Or did they have to order a tire for you?

Not everyone recommends rotating tires. If you do decide to do that, ONLY rotate the front tire to the rear, NEVER rotate the rear tire to the front. That's because the front tire is so critical for control. The reason some people like to rotate their front tire to the rear has nothing to do with tires wearing differently - it's so they'll never have a worn tire in front.

The rear tire always wears quicker because it's the drive wheel. If you don't rotate tires, you'll find that you'll get anywhere from half again to twice as many miles out of a front tire as a rear. It's easier to track mileage on a tire if you don't rotate them, obviously. If a tire doesn't have wear indicators, it can be hard to tell how much tread is left without taking it off the wheel. I'll usually get 3000-3500 out of a front, 1500-2500 from a rear tire.

[ridenread]

I just got my bike back. Hooray. No damage to the wheel, fortunately. They didn't think they would be able to get to it today but had extra help.

Not sure what happenend to the tire, best guess is I ran over something

[ridenread]

Apparently my bike computer somehow was set for Dutch. When the LBS called to let me know it was ready they asked me if I wanted to reset the computer to English. I am pretty sure I would have noticed that my computer was in a different language. It must have been bumped when I was loading it into my mother's car or maybe while they were working on it.
Unfortunately when they reset the language they wiped out my entire history.

[Jiffer]

ONLY rotate the front tire to the rear, NEVER rotate the rear tire to the front.

I agree. Cause I read the post to dh and he said, "Yep." That's what he does. So .... yeah! What OakLeaf said! (Most of what I know I learned from dh, cause he's so smart! And from this site, too, cause you people are pretty smart too!)

[Andrea]

Glad you're OK, but it's taking them until Tuesday to replace a tire?! If you can swap a tube, a tire isn't much more work to replace yourself.