Flat at High Speed

[Nanci]

So let's just imagine that I had _not_ been lucky on Saturday, and had flatted going downhill at 40mph. What happens? Is it likely to cause a crash? Come to think of it, all the people with flats I saw were safely on the side of the road, and hadn't appeared to have crashed. Has this happened to anyone here? What is it like?

Nanci

[bikerchick68]

ugh... I dread the day... I believe if you have a front tire flat you're pretty much screwed at that speed... if it's rear tire and you can apply braking pressure slowly... well, now THAT you may be able to keep the bike up right and rubberside down thru...

I know rear tire flats are "harder" to change... but I'll take a rear flat over a front flat any day of the week!

[sydney_b]

So let's just imagine that I had _not_ been lucky on Saturday, and had flatted going downhill at 40mph. What happens? Is it likely to cause a crash? Come to think of it, all the people with flats I saw were safely on the side of the road, and hadn't appeared to have crashed. Has this happened to anyone here? What is it like?

Hasn't happened to me over ~25 mph. Was riding w/ traffic one afternoon and had the front tire go. What a weird squishy/squiggly/squirrley nearly useless thing it becomes. I remember thinking how thankful I was that I wasn't blazing downhill. I just kept it pointed straight ahead using my weight to shift to the side of the road where i could turn and do the change.

[maillotpois]

I've got a friend who got a front tire flat on the descent of Ebbetts Pass in the 2002 Death Ride. 15% grade. She managed to stay in control and not crash - I have no idea how, but I have a tremendous amount of respect for her.

I think the key would be not to panic and to try to reduce speed slowly while riding on the rim. I also think this is an area where clinchers may have an advantage - you still have rubber on the wheel, whereas tubulars may tend to roll off (a la Joseba beloki in the 2003 TdF).

[Nanci]

It probably helps that I'm riding along thinking "What if I get a flat, what if I get a flat, don't look away from the pavement for a second, don't miss anything, what if I get a flat.."

[mellic]

You should be able to ride the rim and bring the bike to a hault at that speed. You might damage your rim, but in that kind of situation it is better to damage the rim than yourself.

If you did crash at that speed you would obviously do a bit of damage to yourself depending on which parts of the body hit the ground, but I don't think you would die unless you landed on your head. We have this massive hill here in which some of the blokes reach 60mph and more going down and every now and again you hear a horror story of someone crashing, but I don't think we have a had a fatality yet.

[MomOnBike]

Nanci sez:

I'm riding along thinking "What if I get a flat, what if I get a flat, don't look away from the pavement for a second, don't miss anything, what if I get a flat.."

I understand that thought process completly. It can be paralizing. OK, what I would do, were I you, is get myself to a martial arts or self-defense instructor or someone else who falls alot and get some training in just exactly how to fall. Of course, being clipped into the bike complicates things...

If nothing else, they would more than likely be able to help you learn to control a fall/crash so you don't land on your helmet (I almost wrote head, but you know better).

At that point, you can say to yourself "If I get a flat I'll {do what the nice instructor told me to do.}"

It's worth a shot.

[madisongrrl]

I'd imagine that a flat at 30+ mph descent would be hard to control - especially on skinny little road bike tires....and most of us would be hitting the pavement. Every time I get my road bike going over 35-40mph, I start to get tenative and think about all the bad things that could happen.

Professional triathlete, Heather Gollnick (3x ironman champ & former WI resident), crashed during a training ride in 2004. She was descending at 45mph, hit a pot hole and then hit the pavement. She spent 2 days in the hospital with severe road rash and luckily no broken bones. She attempted to defend her ironman title at Coeur D'Alene 3 weeks later. I believe she completed the race, but her results fell short of the victory.