Thanks for the comments, everyone. I honestly don't remember the exact positioning of each of the defects that were found. I do know that the last two times, they looked over the tire very, very carefully to see if they could find anything. I would hope they would have found a spoke issue or a cracked sidewall or the like. The pinch-flat theory actually might be the issue here, and once we get the wheel off we can see what we find -- he told me this evening he hadn't inflated it since last fall when he went out those two brief times. (But…he's not as oblivious as my dear wife, who once rode on a bike where I think there was zero PSI and didn't think anything of it until I looked -- he does tend to notice things, so I doubt they were *very* underinflated. I'm guessing that a pinch-flat could occur at modest under inflation, though.)
I appreciate the comments re: looking it over and doing it myself. I'm capable of doing a basic tyre change when I have to, but not particularly adroit. Frankly, the benefit of having an experience mechanic do it is that they can look for other issues and get everything aligned correctly. Given that I put in long days between work, family, etc, I just don't have the time to spend tinkering with bicycles. (And my own commuter bike is a bear to do a tyre change on -- the internal hub and fully-enclosed chain are a delight in many ways, but tyre changes are not easy as a result. :-) In this case, given the mystery of the repeating flats, having the knowledge and expertise of an experienced mechanic was well worth it, I thought. I accept (somewhat) that this could be a run of bad luck. Given I've had so few flats myself (riding on city streets for many more miles) and this has been the case with this new bike pretty much from the get-go…it starts to feel like I don't need a bike mechanic, but rather someone to perform an exorcism. Thanks! Peace and Prosperity, Dipesh On Apr 24, 2013, at 4:56 PM, Mitchell Nussbaum wrote: > Do the flats tend to occur on the same side of the tube -- are they under the > tread, near the rim, or somewhere in between? > > In my experience, the most maddening runs of flats are away from the tread. > But when I've had problems like that, they've usually been caused by aging > equipment -- rusting rims, beat-up tires, deteriorating rim strips, etc. I > don't know what could go wrong on an almost brand-new bike, but presumably > there's something. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Dipesh Navsaria" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 2:23:17 PM > Subject: [Bikies] Repeated flats > > Good afternoon. Wondering if folx had any advice on a situation of repeating > flats on my 10-year-old son's bicycle. We bought a new Trek 7.1 for him last > year (outgrew previous bike). About a week or two after purchase, he had a > flat on the rear tire. We took it back to Budget, the mechanics looked it > over and replaced the tube. Another week…another flat. This happened four > times last fall, all in the space of about 2-2.5 months. Keep in mind he was > riding it about 10 miles once a week, maybe a shorter distance on the weekend > once, but certainly nothing major. The third/fourth time, I pointed out how > frequently it was happening -- they looked over the wheel and all, but didn't > see anything obvious. I'm trying to remember if they changed out the tyre > itself -- I think they did. A couple of times they found a small piece of > metal or the like that got embedded in there. > > Today, after the winter, we were getting ready to go to school. He hasn't > ridden this bike all winter until the last week or two, both times just a few > blocks. Guess what? Rear tyre, flat. (i.e. you pump it up and you can hear > hissing.) > > Each time, the Budget mechanics (who have always done right by me on the many > other things I've brought them -- virtually never had a problem) have chalked > it up to a run of bad luck. Still: we never had a flat on his bike > previously (granted, they were kid "mountain bikes" with thicker tires, but > these aren't exactly racing slicks), and it's always the rear wheel. He > doesn't ride his bike particularly "rough", and if there's roadside debris > he's biking through…I'm usually with him and biking through the same stuff, > without any issues. > > I'm considering contacting the owner (anyone have an e-mail address for Roger > Charly?) this time, but before I do -- any thoughts about what could be > causing this? Five flats with only 1-2 weeks of effective cycling since the > previous flat, all on the same wheel? That sounds statistically improbable. > And I'm getting sick of this… > > Would appreciate any advice or thoughts. Thanks! > > Peace and Prosperity, > Dipesh > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
