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)

[pardes]

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.

That's good to know! I've never had a flat on any mountain bike (I'm always on roads or clean paths.) And now that I have a 700X32 mildly-ribbed tire on the Trek (also pumped full of Green Goo), hopefully I'll never get one the Trek either.

Maybe I'll break the world record on never getting a flat. (knock on rubber composite)

[Cataboo]

That's good to know! I've never had a flat on any mountain bike (I'm always on roads or clean paths.) And now that I have a 700X32 mildly-ribbed tire on the Trek (also pumped full of Green Goo), hopefully I'll never get one the Trek either.

Maybe I'll break the world record on never getting a flat. (knock on rubber composite)

The trick to that is to stock up on innertubes.

The first couple months of heavy riding, I think the BF & I went through about 14 innertubes together.

So I bulk ordered something like 36 innertubes of various sizes (mountain bike, long stem road, short stem road)

And of course since I've done that, I've not had a single flat.

[OakLeaf]

A sudden front tire deflation (blowout or pinch flat) can make the bike hard to control. But that's never happened to me (touch wood). Usually with a punctured road tire, sometimes you'll hear the hiss of escaping air - depending on the ambient noise and how quickly the tire goes flat. Then you just feel the road very...directly. When you're riding on a 110# tire it doesn't feel like it's giving you much cushioning, but when it goes flat you realize that it was smoothing out the road quite a bit.

I've only ever gotten slow leaks on my fat-tire commuter. I think the tires are so much heavier that by the time something works its way through the tube it can only make a very small hole, and of course with the lower pressure, air doesn't get forced out as quickly.

[Aggie_Ama]

A blowout may cause you to lose control. I have had two but neither were to the point that I felt like I was in danger. One was at a high speed but it was a huge shoulder and my heavy commuter bike. Much better on a bike than the two I have had in a car! I wouldn't lose any sleep over what will happen if you have a flat but I would practice changing them.

[xeney]

Pardes, if you're not mountain biking - I think flats happen less often with mountain bike tires with larger tires.

That has not been my experience with the fat knobby tires on our baby trailer ... it gets flats all the time! But my theory is that it is because it comes closer to the edge of the trail, where thorns are more likely to have gotten onto the pavement, and because if I have to pull off the side (as I do, often, to hand somebody a dropped sippy cup) the trailer wheels go a bit further off onto the shoulder.

But I have had one flat on my road bike ever, riding mostly on the same trail where we use the trailer, so I don't really have a sense that the fat knobbies flat less. Pretty much the opposite.

We're going to put liners in those tires. In fact, I need to nag my husband to do that.

[tulip]

While I went 4 years without a flat, my luck ran out with a big blowout on a group ride in the middle of rural Maryland a few years ago. The tire was blown, so someone in the group had to ride back to his car to pick me up. I did not carry and extra tire with me, just a couple of tubes.

I've had gradual flats, too. The best thing you can do is pump your tires to the proper pressure before every ride. That will decrease the likelihood of getting pinch flats, which result from too little air.

Except for blowouts, which you cannot miss, you might feel like you're dragging something, or that your legs are really heavy.

Practice changing flats in your house; you'll be glad you did when you do get one on the road.

[Grog]

Sometimes my legs feel really heavy. I think my tire is flat. I can FEEL it!

I step off my bike to check my tires. Pinch each hard between my thumb and middle finger.

They are not flat at all. I'm just weak and tired.

[DebW]

When you've got a flat on a clincher wheel, it's best to bring the bike to a stop without using the brake on the flat wheel. Using the brake will slow the wheel, but not necessarily the tire, ie the tire may start precessing around the rim. In that case, the brake isn't really slowing you down, but it may have very unpleasant effects on the tire and tube. The valve could be stripped off the tube. In extreme cases, the tire and/or tube could come off the rim and wrap around the hub or frame. We occasionally see a bike like this in the shop, usually an MTB. If you've got a flat, don't keep riding on it, but don't panic brake. Instead, brake gradually to a stop and change the tube.