jlee565 wrote:
I've been riding tubulars longer than most of you have been riding bikes. You can definitely have a blow out with a tubular. When it has happened to me, it was just like a blow out with a clincher, a loud pop followed by a medium to slow speed deflation.I guess I've been lucky, because it has always been a rear wheel blow out and didn't effect steering to a stop.
By my definition, you have had flat tires.
To me (and I've had this happen twice) with a blowout, there is a load bang of a pop. Deflation is instantaneous (even faster than a wife can fly off the handle!). The result is a (clincher) tire with a tear in it. The tube either has a long tear also, or there is a star shaped explosion hole.
I was riding a century ride years ago and there was a distinctive loud bang/pop, followed almost instantly by a metallic bang as the rim hit the road. It was the guy beside me thankfully. He asked WTF was that? I replied "your back wheel". Yes, he was fairly new to riding. :-)
TriDork
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