Several years ago, I was using a traditional brass Silca presta pump head (of the sort that you can buy from Harris Cyclery). It is a great pump head, but it has no locking mechanism, so it is full on secure with no release. In fact, it locked so tightly on to the threaded Presta valves that I often suffered flats at the seam where the valve joins the tube. Not necessarily at the time of inflation.
I switched pump heads to a less "tight" fit - including ones with a lever. (Serfas, SKS, etc.) and the flat problem went away. When you pump up, is there a lot of friction to remove the pump head? Thanks, Sean --- On Thu, 12/15/11, Philip Williamson <philip.william...@gmail.com> wrote: > From: Philip Williamson <philip.william...@gmail.com> > Subject: [RBW] Re: Flat Tire Help > To: "RBW Owners Bunch" <rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com> > Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011, 10:36 AM > I had a string of tubes failing at > the valve stem. I think it was > caused by the tube creeping when the tire pressure was too > low. > Sometimes it was a hole, sometimes it was more like the > valve attachem > started peeling up. Hard to patch a tube that close to the > valve stem. > > Do you see your valve stems cocked over at an angle? That's > what I was > seeing on my mountain bike. I started being more careful > about proper > inflation, and started using the dork nuts instead of > keeping them for > M6 spacers. I haven't had that problem since. > > Philip > Philip Williamson > www.biketinker.com > > > On Dec 15, 5:25 am, Michael Hechmer <mhech...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > Yikes, front tire flats are scary; I hope these were > slow leaks. Is the > > stem breaking away from the tube? Are you using > tubes with threaded stems > > and a locknut? I know a lot of mechanics throw away > that locknut, claiming > > its superfluous, but I believe it helps to keep the > tube in position, at > > least during installation. Do you have, or can you > borrow a different > > front wheel and test your rim hypothesis? > > > > michael > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the > Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
