DebW,

Yup, that's what I'm sayin'.

The first flat I had was when my bike was a few weeks old and had been on several rides. The tires had been mounted by the bike shop. I was shocked when it "blew up." It was loud and completely unexpected. I thought it had something to do with the light tubes and the slick and light Bontrager tires that came mounted on the bike.

Here's what I said about it in a different post on this forum, back in the day:

"And then, while we were riding along Atherton Ave. in Menlo Park, I had the blow out from h*ll. It was LOUD -- KA-POW -- some people in the group thought it was a gunshot. Fortunately, my tire wasn't seriously damaged. (The tube is toast -- about an 8 inch split.) The second fortunate thing is that I didn't have another blow-out, as I'd only brought one spare tube on the ride, and I have 650C tires."

I thought the second flat (after the bike had been sitting in my pickup truck in the mild heat) could be due to heat. Be even so, it seemed pretty sensitive. I switched tubes and tires after that flat.

-- Melissa