Using a latex tube or butyl? How is the rim tape on the wheel?

I've used a FLO 60 front in 10+ races with a latex tube and haven't had a flat or issue yet.

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

Grand new wheel with brand new tape. Like I said I don't fee any sharp edges. Butyl tubes.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

Inspect the tubes and see if they punctures are occurring at the same place

Does anyone else notice that these sort of phantom flat threads often include this phrase?

There is nothing magical about installing tires, so there is no reason to pay someone to do it. You know this since you have since had several flats and needed to fix them yourself.

Otherwise, the big clues sound like: unsure about pressure & no barbs or burrs. That sounds like a pinch-flat problem. Take the whole thing apart and try to fix the funky fillup problem. It sounds like its leaking because they didn't install the tiny O-ring with the adapter. They say the thread coating should be enough, though. If that doesn't help, take the wheel to the shop and try out all their pumps. Maybe your pump head simply doesn't work well with the Silca adapter.

The flats were legitimate road hazard flats. One of the flats was due to a small rock. I live in Arizona. The other happened on a turn. So in those cases, I knew where the flat is. As far as the tubes loosing air, I checked them all before they flatted because of this recurring issue. I put them under water and nothing was coming out. If there is a hole it is so small it isn't immediately obvious. This is my frustration and why I suspect the silca valve with an open valve under it may be the culprit.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

I didn't pay somebody to do it, I bought tires and they did it as a courtesy.

Also, I added latex tape (plumber tape) to the threads. Truly baffled by this. Like I said, road flats aside, when I checked the tubes due to their faster air loss in the since, there were no obvious leaks. These problems seemed to pop up after the temperatures dropped below 50 degrees at night.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

Bad luck, you just went through a bad stretch. It 's like me with latex. I got them for my mountain bike year ago before tubeless and got flats in both within a week but I was always getting flats back then from thorns. Then I got them a few years ago for my race wheels, flats again in training. I just bought a Hed3 and fit came with a Conti Supersonic and latex tube. I took it out on a fall day when the shadows were weird, it a pot hole and pinch flatted it. So I just say that I have bad luck with latex. You just went throuh a bad stretch for flats. Now you should be good for all of next year..

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

If you have a tube with an open valve (with an extender over it) I would not be surprised if it lost some air in a few days, in fact I would expect it.

As long as I'm not losing it on a race, I'm fine, I just want to make sure that is the case? Should I put some sealant in it?

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

Before you put your valve extender on, wrap the threads on the valve with some plumbing tape (the pink stuff)... Guaranteed to give you a good seal and then you will be sure of your tire pressure.

Absolutely. The pump head I have on a my pump takes 2 people to inflate my FLO race wheels with extender. One to hold on the valve straight (me) and a second to inflate. My training tires aren't as finicky.

Another tip from a friend who is a bike mechanic of 40+ years is to inflate tube to about 50psi, then release all the air and reinflate. It can help prevent a pinch flat and I do that whenever I've just installed a tube.

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

if you are using an open extender(ie not removable core) and the issue keeps happening, my suggestion is to use an extender that allows you to close the valve. I ran into this with some mich latex, they all seemed to leak air fast(40min to flat) if the valve was not closed. cost me a state TT. solution is either removable core extenders/tubes or something like the topeak extender which allows you to close the valve after filling.

I have some of those for my 404's. I talked with a wrench at a bike shop and he looked at it. He said the ones like the silca (not specific to silca) are horrible in his opinion. Open valves lose air faster and depending on the tube it can be hours or a couple days. He said since my last two rides on the current tube have been solid I should be good on the race. Besides, I've had three flats in such a short period, so since they come in 3's I should be good. ;). With that said, I have a couple spare zipp extenders where you take the core from the tube and put it in the extender. In fact, they are in my crash kit. I never had an issue with those, so I'll stick to those after I'm done with these tubes and only buy tubes with removable cores. Why so many do not, I do not know.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

Which Silca extenders are you talking about? Mine take the removable valve core from the tube ...

There are two kinds. Ones that do and ones that do not. The ones that came with my flo 90 does not.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

I don't think sealant would help.

If you feel they will leak quickly then perhaps you should change to and extender like this one:

http://www.treefortbikes.com/..._333222368901___1538

Those are what I use.

jaretj

Can't say I have extensive experience with valve extenders but I've been using open core extenders with Michellin and Vittoria latex tubes without issues. The extenders I use are made by Mavic and they use a tiny rubber seal between the valve and extender. They can also be removed after you inflate the tire and use the opposite end to close the core. I like them because they're easy to take off and reuse in case I get a flat.

Sounds like you are missing a small issue somewhere. Sometimes these flats happen and they are surely frustrating. It appears that two of the flats happened from hitting things (which happens) and the air leak is now the issue. Give me a call if you'd like to chat through it. I've fixed plenty of flats in my day ;). I'm 702-529-4744.

Take care,

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Chris Thornham
Co-Founder And Previous Owner Of FLO Cycling

Extenders with RVC core at end >>> 'straw' style extenders like you are using. IME anyways.

The nut on presta valves doesn't really do much to hold the air in. Air pressure inside the tube is what is keeping the valve seated. If you've ever broken off the nut (done that) you will notice the tire will stay inflated.

When you pump up the tire, the valve stays closed until you build up pressure in the pump/hose that is greater than the pressure in the tire - this forces the valve open until the pressure equalizes. While you are pumping the nut serves the awesome purpose of keeping you from blowing the core into the tube (done that).

I'd check the rim tape again, especially if it's not fabric. Had a brand new Kestrel with Oval Concepts wheels and flatted almost every ride. Tried everything, so frustrating, until I noticed the rear plastic rim tape was just not quite as tight as the front. Apparently, the plastic rim tape was squirming just enough to allow the tube to pinch into the spoke hole and puncture. Once I replaced the plastice rim tape with Zefal fabric tape, no more flats...

I have Flo 90's - i use veloplugs (yellow) and latex tubes. I had bad luck in early - flats on 3 consecutive rides as well. Could never find any actual issues, just kept fixing them. Have now gone 2500+ without issue. I chalk it up to bad luck.

tires sometimes will have tiny bits of debris embedded in small cracks, and these will cause flats over and over after a bit of riding.

if the tires are older and full of cracks, toss them. otherwise, carefully check and pry open any crack and see if something is in there and flick it out.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

It is the silca valve extender. Plain and simple. As others noted it can require holding the actual pump head to the extender while you pump with one hand or have somebody else do the pumping. In other words it seems to make pumping a simple tire. Top that it seems that pumps not dedicated to presta valves exclusively are a problem. My joe blow works but my others do not. When I was at a race, 4 different pumps I borrowed didn't work. By holding the pump head to the valve I get a stable pressure reading and can pump to 100+. And guess what, the tire pressure remained as constant as he front tire with no extender and closed valve. This all makes sense now. After I tried pumping the way I was and the. Figured it out , I found the pressure was not at the 100 I thought it was, it was actually at 70-80. On of the flats happened on a sharp turn. So it likely pinched , due to low pressure. The others appear to have been bad luck.

I don't know what pull you have with silca. But I've have never had problems with enve or zipp extenders which are cheaper. You may want to address with them or consider issuing a different one.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

Have you been using a pump that doesn't have a presta fitting?

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Chris Thornham
Co-Founder And Previous Owner Of FLO Cycling