Like little ripples? Mine get that sometimes, doesn't make them pop.

Or was it still inflated a bit? If you inflate them outside of a tire little bubbles will pop up in them

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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

That white disk of stuff would be talcum powder? So there's a place in your rim tape where the talcum powder (why use that anyway?) settled into a depression above a spoke hole prior to tube installation. The tube pushed the tape down into the hole where a spoke end poked through the rim tape and punctured the tube. You say it isn't above a spoke hole, but unless you have another perfectly round depression in your tire/rim strip that isn't from a spoke hole…

Did you hear a bang or a simple whooshing of air?

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"Go yell at an M&M"

This is why I have all of the Slowtwitch Approved(TM) aero tweaks on my race bike except the latex tubes. Too much of a pain in the ass. I'm running butyl tubes with GP4000S.

I've been using latex tubes exclusively for over 30,000 miles and find them to be less of a PITA than butyl. I think my pump is getting worn out, though...

Maybe. I suppose I should have taken a picture, but it really looked like a sting of very small pearls going along the length of the tube.

It is so round that it does look like a spoke hole. If it was in the side of the tire check the tire very carefully where it lines up with this tube puncture. Latex will make its way through the very tiniest hole. Some new tires can have tiny defects like this and you'd never know it running a butyl tube. Latex will flex its way in and fail. A buddy recently blew two tubes on a new GP4000S install and was going crazy thinking he was pinching the tube until he found a pinprick defect in the new tire. Use a bright light if necessary to check yours.

LMAO!

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<We all know that light travels faster than sound. That's why certain people appear bright until you hear them speak>

I blew 3 new Michelin latex tubes last week from spoke holes due to rim tape movement. First one was immediately upon install, the next two, the wheels hadn't been ridden for a week, when I put them on and reinflated them, they both blew. No more latex for me until I get some veloplugs in for all of my wheels. They do ride beautifully, even around 120psi.

>latex tubes aren't any more likely to puncture from crappy roads.

That's not entirely true. Latex tubes are more likely to flat in the event of significant damage to the tire casing. Because they push through surprisingly small tears or holes, then burst. Butyl is far more tolerant to casing damage. Another reason why the flat kit tube should always be butyl.

But latex is more tolerant to the classic sharp object puncture.

I'm not sure how it all balances out. But I've had the bubble-through-the-casing type of flat at least 3 times in the past two years.

hmm, maybe.
latex also is more resistant to pinch flats, and works better with sealant.

But anyone, if you use newish tires when you race, you will very rarely flat anyway =)

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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

unless doing mega descents, in which case fabric tape protects the inner tube more effectively than plugs and removes the very low chance of a veloplug going soft and blowing through the rim into the rim cavity....

Yes I have had that happen, thankfully it was the rear at 60kmh on a bitch of a desent.. front would have meant hospital..

But yes latex for the right course and aet up... else lightweight butyl all the way..

Can you expand on a "veloplug going soft"? Do you mean during the mega descent that the rim heats up and softens up the veloplug so that it effectively gets pushed through into the spoke hole?

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-Alex

In short yeah...
The fine thinned edge of the plug got warm enough to soften allowing the air pressure in the tube to push side of the plug into the rim... The tube obviously followed it and bang...
Now it may have been a single plug moulding fault combined with the extreme descent but what ever it happened....

I will say I have done thousands of descents on plugs with no issue... However... One event like that is enough to get you thinking of suitability etc.....

I am back with velox cloth tape now...

P-R was won on clinchers?

That's a very odd scenario. I'm regularly approaching 50mph on descents and weigh 205lbs and have no heat issues that I've ever had to deal with. Unless you were riding the brakes the whole way down, it doesn't seem like there would be enough heat soak to soften plastic at that speed.

Were your velo plugs on the small side for that size spoke hole?

2-3kms of 20-30% descent with torn up surface and many switchback corners.... Any more than 30-40kmh and you won't make the corner....
So yeah it's a ridiculous descent, and this happened once of many runs down it....
I was stunned at the failure mode... But not at the scenario that caused it... It's a stupid descent quite frankly....

where is this road that drops 3000' in 2 miles???? sounds like a death trap and a frequent cause of brake pad replacement

Road is polite....
It drops about 1500ft and is made up of steep ramps into role outs into steep ramp switchbacks... All on a shit surface...
It's a back road off tambourine mountain...
So it's not a consistent 30% of course... It's more the fact you have to run your brakes hard due to the steep drops the 20-30% gradient sections... into corners and slow yourself a lot more than normal due to the terrible surface...
Anyhow I always run he's Ardennes down it with butyl at lower than normal.temps... The plugs blew out once... But it was a dangerous enough pull up (6inches from a barb wire fence) to make me look at changing the set up.... After conversations with experts in the bicycle wheel braking business I followed advice and fitted traditional cloth tape to further protect the inner tube from higher temps...