Mostly bad luck. The LBS possibly could have suggested replacing the front tire, but hard to say as it may have looked fine.

With the uneven pavement, are you sure that your tires were inflated properly? Underinflated tires it's easy to get pinch flats.

You could get the notubes wheels, not sure it's going to be ultralight though.

John

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Top notch coaching: Francois and Accelerate3 | Follow on Twitter: LifetimeAthlete |

If you can't see, my head is slowly shaking from side to side as I emit a low groan - noooooooooo.

Learn to fix your own flats. Look at your tires to see if they are worn, if you don't know, ask someone to show you how.

There are many videos online that show how to change a flat. Even "he who can't be named" and Greg Lemond have done those videos.

Depending upon mileage, you'll want to change your bikes booties (both tires and tubes) every year to 3 years even if not worn. Tires and tubes rot and wear in other less visible ways. You don't want a valve stem ripping off as you are inflating a tire in Transition at the start of a race. You do know how to do that - right? And you do know what pressures to use - right?

Finally, a bike isn't like a car that you buy and take in to service a couple of times a year an otherwise expect it to work and be fine. If you have a failure of any kind when you've got any sort of speed on your bike, it will not end well. Blown tire, pedal comes off crank comes off, fork breaks, breaks jam up, handlebars come off or break, seat post breaks etc. Learn to check your bike over, especially every Spring if it is has been in Hibernation.

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BC Don
Pain is temporary, not giving it your all lasts all Winter.

When I lived in Pensacola Florida I used to get a flat every week. I have had 3 flats in one ride. Really, you have to learn to change a flat yourself. It is REALLY easy and you can't really mess anything up. Just try it. If you ride your bike enough, you are going to either pay a fortune to the bike shop, or eventually learn yourself. While you are at it, spend some time on the Park Tools website. I am not a mechanically inclined guy. I can't fix anything on my car but I learned how to do my own bike repair from the Park tools site. I got to the point that I could totally strip down a bike and build it back up with no problems. It is all really simple. Plus, when you do it yourself, you know it is done right.

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Simplify, Train, Live

My money is on a pinch flat. How much do you weigh? Your wife probably weighs less so is less likely to get a pinch flat. Do you pump up your tires before every ride (or at least check the pressure)? I find that people that don't know how to change a flat don't usually know that your tire pressure needs to be checked before every ride.

ETA: And here's another free piece of advice (worth exactly what you've paid for it): learn to wipe down or clean and then lube your drivetrain. It needs to be done more than most newbies realize.

I weigh 245-50. I check them before every ride and the back tire was just inflated by the LBS on Tuesday so it was less than 48 hours between inflation and rapid deflation.

What exactly is a pinch flat and how do I avoid them going forward?

A pinch flat is when the inner tube gets pinched between the tire and the edge of the rim, usually due to incorrect installation. It will pop if you hit a bump and put sudden, heavy impact on the tire (bump, pothole, etc.). If the tube is installed correctly and inflated properly, they don't typically happen.

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My business-eBodyboarding.com

what psi do you inflate your tires to? I inflate mine to 110 and i weight 159lbs. There is a graph someone posted on for weight to psi if you search for it on this forum.

As others have said, definitely learn to change your own tires. On your first flat, you could have "booted" the tire by putting a dollar bill or something (I've used a napkin, a gel wrapper, etc) inside the tire between the tire and tube to prevent the tube from pushing through, which likely would have gotten you home.

Flats can happen for any number or reasons. It's a good idea when you get a flat to try and figure out where on the tube the hole is, and then you'll know where to look on the tire/rim to see if there are any issues (using the valve stem as a reference point). One time I had a tiny sliver of metal apparently from someone's steel belted car tire which was sunk into the tire. I had to look very closely to see it, and it barely stuck into the tube so that I'd get a flat but not until riding about 10 miles each time, and it was a gradual leak. I had to inflate the tube and hold it under water to find the hole, and then go back and look at the tire and that's how I found the sliver, which I picked out and put some tape over the hole on the inside and rode the tire for another 3000 miles w/out flats.

So, check out the videos about changing flats or ask someone you bike with to show you how, and next time at your LBS grab this stuff:

http://blog.bikewaysource.com/?p=416

A description of the hole(s) in the rear tube would help us find a reason why it failed.

Was there a hole in the top where the tread is?
Were there two holes one above each other on the side?
Was there a hole in the tape side?
Was there a longer slit in the side?

jaretj

Really .. I am 6'4" and 245 lbs... I rarely get pinch flats and I ride all over the Golden Horseshoe.... Buy a good pump (Park et al) and learn to change a tube...... I run 110-115 lbs in my tires and check them EVERY TIME I ride....
Ps... Get a repair kit (tube, inflater/co2 and tire levers) pack in a zipp lock bag and carry in a jersey pocket or tied taped to seat post.
Good Luck

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You can't fix stupid ..

THIS. what BC Don and kdw said.

x infinity - learn how to fix a flat and change a tube.
(They are not always one and the same).

Practice at home. Several times.
It's not hard, and with zillions of YouTube vids to show you how, there's really zero reason anyone can't master this in like an hour of practice.

Then, always have a minipump, spare tube (or 2) tire iron, dollar bill (can be used as a tire boot, or to buy a snack) and a patch kit with you on every ride, and other than catastrophic tire failure (like from running over a broken beer bottle for example) you can DIY and keep on riding.

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float , hammer , and jog

You've obviously captured the sentiment of the crowd; that is, learn to change a flat and learn to look at your equipment with a discerning eye. I'll share what my Dad told me when I was in a similar situation many years ago. He said, "Unless it was built by men from outer space, then it was built by a guy with no more brains than you. So, dig in and take it apart and figure it out." That's been pretty good advice and encouraged me to learn a lot about mechanical systems.

I'll also share the seldom-discussed insider mechanic secrets. There are three of them and these secrets will allow you to accomplish any mechanical feat on your bicycle. They truly are the keys to the bike mechanic kingdom.

Secret #1 - Lefty Loosey
Secret #2 - Righty Tighty
Secret #3 - Secret #1 and #2 apply to everything on your bike EXCEPT the left pedal, most right-hand bottom bracket threads, and some crank self-extractor bolts.

... and IMO even that's a little high unless you have super smooth roads. I go with 105 in my narrow rim front wheel on race day... 164lbs.

But yes, a 200+lb rider should be at the mfg. max. pressure.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

This is not a pinch flat. A pinch flat occurs when the tire is compressed (often by hitting the edge of a pothole) between the road surface and the rim. The layers are, from the bottom: road surface, tire, tube, air, tube, tire, rim. The rim puts pressure through the tire into the tube forcing all air out at that point and putting holes on both the top and bottom of the tube (hence the term "snake bite"). Latex tubes are less susceptible because they stretch more (IIRC). Inadequate tire pressure is the main cause, other than, of course, not watching what you are riding over.

The situation you describe is called "incorrect installation." :-)

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"Go yell at an M&M"

I stand corrected.

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My business-eBodyboarding.com

So you think I had inadequate inflation in both tires? Is that the solution just inflate them before every ride?

Everyone else, I realize I need to learn to change the tube but at the moment it is not a priority. I've gone from sedentary slug to doing an Oly in five months (and I'm scared shitless I won't be able to finish) and I've been learning a lot of other things like hydration, fuel, wetsuits, and training for what will be my biggest personal athletic achievement to date a week from Sunday. I never had a flat until this week and the first one was from a chunk of glass. Trust me I don't want to spend the money but at the moment it is a better allocation of my resources and time to pay for them to do it so I can get back out there and ride instead of taking an afternoon or two learn to change it. Since we have long winters in Chicago I figured it would be a good project to learn bicycle mechanics etc. after everything happened. You guys have kind of saved me another post asking hey where do I learn this stuff and is it hard.

In addition to what everyone else has said: You can also learn to ride "softly" so that your wheels don't slam into bumps/potholes. It involves putting less weight on the saddle (instead of sitting on it like a chair), and then quickly shifting your weight to the rear and then to the front as you hit any unavoidable bumps. It's sort of like a bunny hop without your wheels leaving the ground. Of course, learning to bunny hop on your road bike is an extremely useful skill as well.

I ride on totally crap roads and flat about once every 3000 miles, and that's almost always when I've been too lazy to change a tire that's at the end of it's life.

At your weight, the tire pressure you'd need to avoid most pinch flats would make the ride unbearable…or blow the tire off the rim. The most important thing you can do is watch the road surface very carefully and avoid going over things (like potholes) that can cause the pinch flats. That comes with experience. Unweighting the saddle as someone explained is next when you don't have time to avoid an obstacle. After that comes bunny-hopping. Finally, learning to bunny-hop *while on the aerobars* is the last resort. :-)

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"Go yell at an M&M"

OK, but it's kind of hard to avoid uneven pavement when it's the lip of a bridge over a river that one needs to cross. I will try to learn the bunny hop thing, but I'm not all the comfortable on the bike quite yet (I've had mountain bikes since the 4th grade with big ole fate tires).

Well covered topic already, but I would highly recommend that you get a good floor pump if you don't already have one. Check your pressures with the pump (and gage) before every ride, it will save you a lot of these headaches.

At your weight, I'd also recommend wider tires. My personal favourite training tire is the Specialized Roubaix Pro at the 25/28 size. It is easy to get on and off, wears like iron, and still provides a bit of cushion at higher pressures. Note: this tire is a "luxury" in that I have separate racing wheels for tri that have MUCH different setups on them. However for the bulk of my regular riding a nice wide tire like this addresses a lot of concerns with crappy road conditions, littered broken glass, etc. It is NOT a "Fast Tire."

Finally - some tires are much easier to mount than others, especially once you go for Kevlar beaded tires. Ask your LBS which ones can be re-seated on the rim with thumbs without tools.

Your bike won't be there for you if you flat during a race. Learn how to change your own flats. DNF a marathon is one thing, thats usually for physiological reasons, but to DNF because you don't know how to fix a flat? Embarrassing.

I'm doing Chicago and they have bike support on the course for newbies/idiots like.

I have weighed upwards of 250 and very seldomly get flats anymore. I pump my tires up before every single ride. You would be surprised how much they lose in one day. Once I hit 115 psi I usually give them one more pump. If your not going to learn to change a flat in the near future look into Continental Gatorskins for tires and pump every time. I can't remember the last time I got a flat on that combo. At least 4 years.

I will try them out. I plan to learn to change the tire, but would prefer not to have to.