New bike but overweight

veganrun

Fighting Tao wrote: »

Any chance you're leaving the valve open? I mean when you unscrew the valve thingy to put air in on presta valves are you sure you're screwing outback in tightly again?

I don't think so but I guess it's possible. Will check when I go to fix the flat.

Chuchote

Sounds like a slow puncture. And if it's happening repeatedly, it sounds like there's something sharpe inside that's puncturing the tube; maybe a spoke end? More technical people here may suggest trying tubeless tyres…?

Tell me how

Chuchote wrote:

More technical people here may suggest trying tubeless tyres…?

That would be way over the top. It's likely a simple reason once the OP gets to investigate correctly.

veganrun

Both tyres are flat now. If my weight isn't the issue I must have messed something up when pumping them up. I'm 99.9% sure I tightened the presta valve.

Maybe the pressure was too high, I went up close to 120 psi.

Might replace the tubes and only go to 100 psi max and see how that goes.

Right, start ruling things out. Get the tyre off feel it on the inside for objects then inspect the rim. Do this carefully and slowly as you don't want to nick your self if theres something there.

Then check the tube. Pump it up to the pressure you use while out of the tyre and into a basin / sink of water and check for bubbles.

Chuchote

veganrun wrote: »

Both tyres are flat now. If my weight isn't the issue I must have messed something up when pumping them up. I'm 99.9% sure I tightened the presta valve.

Maybe the pressure was too high, I went up close to 120 psi.

Might replace the tubes and only go to 100 psi max and see how that goes.

Both tyres are flat? Sounds as if you went over broken glass and there are slivers lurking. Run your fingers (carefully) around inside each tyre carefully to see if you can find any poking corners of glass, as well as checking the inside (tube-facing side) of the rims to make sure there are no poking spokes coming out under the rim tape.

Macy0161

When I started back cycling I was 125ish kg. Didn't have puncture issues on the BSO road bike I was riding at the time, so I also wouldn't be going with you're too heavy.

Durano plus would be pretty bullet proof, but Schwalbes real bullet proof ones are their marathon plus, and you could still get a puncture (I have them on my commuter and still carry a tube and a pump). You could also consider Tannus solid tyres if your confidence is gone - keep the durano for later or put them up on the adverts forum.

I missed this thread before, but the only thing I had to at peak weight was how to true a wheel enough to get me home (and not sure whether that was really weight related or just equally crap wheels to match the BSO bike!).

C3PO

veganrun wrote: »

Well another couple of spins and another flat wheel. Took the bike out last night and again tonight. Before I went out tonight I checked the pressures and the back wheel was down to 30 psi so I pumped it up to near the max. The front wasn't as bad but I pumped it up to near the max too. Came home drenched after 8 miles in the rain, showered and the front was completely flat.

Unless it's just incredible bad luck, I think I will just have to accept that at my current weight (106kg) I should stick to my hybrid and put the road bike away until I've lost a good chunk of weight. The roads are reasonably good roads and while a tad rough in places, definitely not bad at all. I see lots of speedsters on their bikes on the same road so it's definitely suitable. I also got Schwalbe Durano plus tyres on which I thought would have helped but it seems perhaps not. Which all leaves me to believe it must be my weight.

Kind of annoying but it's my own fault. Grrrrr.

The problem is definitely not with your weight. Lots on here (myself included) started to cycle at your weight and above without having problems with regular punctures. Don't let these issues put you off getting out on your bike!

What sort of punctures are you getting? I would be very surprised if you are having issues with sharp objects penetrating a brand new set of Durano +'s? I would also be willing to bet that the issue is not with running the tyres at the proper pressure as stated by Schwalbe. Much more likely to be a problem with the wheels, rim tape or similar!

Bring the bike to a decent lbs and ask them for help to diagnose what is going on.

Don't let this put you off!!!

Fian

I was about 105kg when I bought a cheap bike to cycle to work - I had moved temporarily to just outside the canals while our house was being renovated and i had also temporarily moved office so the commute was only about 2km or so. Easy walk. I would not have considered myself capable of doing the 7.5km commute from my permanent house to my normal office.

Saddle broke on me as I cycled up along the canal home after a few weeks. The clamp where the saddle rails fit into just snapped. Like I said it was a crappy cheap bike.

Anyway i sorted that out and when i moved back to my own house I realised I could manage the 7.5km. More than that i realised i preferred to cycle the 7.5km rather than get the luas. There was a "hill" on the way that I walked up a few times but eventually i managed to make it up the top. I bought a better bike and commuted all year round. In a while that hill was no longer a struggle. Nowadays it barely registers and i would definitely not describe it as a hill anymore. very gentle upwards slope at most.

Some time later I bought a road bike and started doing longer cycles at the weekend. Then I started going over the dublin mountains, and doing even longer cycles.

I am 90kg atm, have put on about 5kg in recent months which will drop off again - mainly caused by holiday food/beer and by working late which results in snacking as well as dinner.



Though calories burned should not be underestimated either. 100km for someone weighing 100kg at 25km/h average speed is around 3,000 calories. That is more than a day's food. That is on the flat too, must be more over mountains. More calories than typicly consumed in a marathon.

Ok inevitably you are going to eat to bring your blood sugar back up when you get home and probably during the ride. Even so, it is not to be sneezed at, ofc. it is not something you can do every day but even once a week/fortnight makes a difference.

Anyway point of all that is: don't worry about cycling with excess weight.

I would not have dreamed of getting into lycra when I started, now it doesn't bother me mainly because I am going out for a cycle, not a fashion parade or beauty contest.

I definitely agree that diet is the most important part. It is equally true that if I hadn't started that 2km commute a few years ago i would be more than 105kg now. Cycling definitely made the difference, not because of the calories it burned but because of the general wellbeing it caused.

Chuchote

C3PO wrote: »

Bring the bike to a decent lbs and ask them for help to diagnose what is going on.

Don't let this put you off!!!

(Local Bike Shop)

Tell me how

C3PO wrote:

Bring the bike to a decent lbs and ask them for help to diagnose what is going on.

Don't let this put you off!!!

Definitely agree with these points.

Don't by afraid to go to bike shop and ask them to educate you. No shame in not being familiar with something.

Seaswimmer

veganrun wrote: »

Both tyres are flat now. If my weight isn't the issue I must have messed something up when pumping them up. I'm 99.9% sure I tightened the presta valve.

Maybe the pressure was too high, I went up close to 120 psi.

Might replace the tubes and only go to 100 psi max and see how that goes.

My father recently bought a hybrid bike in Halfords (against all advice!!)

He has been back 3 times and has had 7 new tubes in total (all free) He might get a few days and then goes out in the morning and tyre can be flat on one or both wheels.

Eventually I had a look yesterday. Wheels are cheap and there is a visible weld opposite the valve hole. He kept the last punctured tube and there is a tiny hole in the tube right beside the weld. When you run your finger over the weld inside the rim you can feel a rough edge of metal

Bike is back in Halfords again and he is looking for his money back or a new bike.

May not be your problem but step 1 is to find the hole in the tube and try and match it up to rim and tyre position.

if there is no hole in tube then you are looking at a valve issue.

Chuchote

And if the punctures are like a snakebite, two little holes close together, it's a "pinch flat", caused by the tyre pinching the tube when it hasn't been pushed right inside the tyre.

veganrun

I thought Durano plus would have meant less punctures or none hopefully. Don't know if it's worth buying a set of Marathon plus and fitting them with new tubes.

If so I'm tempted to go back to 25c seeing that is what the bike came with.

I might have went over glass last night, not sure. I know it was raining a lot and I came back seemingly covered in grid etc.

Macy0161

veganrun wrote: »

I thought Durano plus would have meant less punctures or none hopefully. Don't know if it's worth buying a set of Marathon plus and fitting them with new tubes.

If so I'm tempted to go back to 25c seeing that is what the bike came with.

I might have went over glass last night, not sure. I know it was raining a lot and I came back seemingly covered in grid etc.

I don't think the tyres are the issue, I was just making the point that even with puncture resistant tyres, no tyre and tube combination is 100% puncture proof.

07Lapierre

Seaswimmer wrote: »

My father recently bought a hybrid bike in Halfords (against all advice!!)

He has been back 3 times and has had 7 new tubes in total (all free) He might get a few days and then goes out in the morning and tyre can be flat on one or both wheels.

Eventually I had a look yesterday. Wheels are cheap and there is a visible weld opposite the valve hole. He kept the last punctured tube and there is a tiny hole in the tube right beside the weld. When you run your finger over the weld inside the rim you can feel a rough edge of metal

Bike is back in Halfords again and he is looking for his money back or a new bike.

May not be your problem but step 1 is to find the hole in the tube and try and match it up to rim and tyre position.

if there is no hole in tube then you are looking at a valve issue.

+1 That's the Key to solving these kind of Punctures. Carefully remove the tube, inflate it and once you find where its punctured, match it back to the Wheel and tyre.

Roger Hassenforder

Rokta wrote: »

I am more than that and riding on 28 Conti Grand Prix, 1 puncture due to crap on the road and no pinch flats. I ride below the max pressure and had no pinch flats yet.

You calling me a skinny c**t?

Interested Observer

Just another thing to mention, my rear tyre kinda got offset recently and it would lose pressure pretty rapidly, not sure exactly how it happened but if I turned the bike upside down and spun the wheel there was a pretty clear point where the tyre didn't line up anymore. Brought it to a bike shop to get fixed and it has barely lost any pressure since.

veganrun

I had a bike shop put both tyres on so assume they did it correctly.

I bought the bike from Decathlon so I might bring it back to see what they say although I can see them trying to wash their hands of it seeing I got tyres fitted elsewhere after buying it from them.

Chuchote

veganrun wrote: »

I had a bike shop put both tyres on so assume they did it correctly.

I bought the bike from Decathlon so I might bring it back to see what they say although I can see them trying to wash their hands of it seeing I got tyres fitted elsewhere after buying it from them.

Well, not if the new tyres were an attempt to solve the problem it came with.

C3PO

veganrun wrote: »

I had a bike shop put both tyres on so assume they did it correctly.

I bought the bike from Decathlon so I might bring it back to see what they say although I can see them trying to wash their hands of it seeing I got tyres fitted elsewhere after buying it from them.

I would think that there is very little point in going to Decathlon - my guess is that their mechanics would be similar to the Halfords guys! Find a good local bike shop with experienced mechanics!

veganrun

I got CRC to fit the new tyres so assume they did it correctly. Might take the bike to them and get them to figure it out. I probably won't attempt fixing the punctures until next week.

TonyStark

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

I'm going to be the bad one here, cycling is not going to help you lose huge amounts of weight and the person telling you that once you start cycling the weight will weight will fall off you is not being helpful. Weight loss is through 90% diet and 10% exercise. Cycling will help you keep weight off once you sort your diet out but if you think you will suddenly start losing kilos by cycling alone with no change in diet then you are going to be very disappointed.

Agree. As someone who brought my weight from 107kg down to 97kg. It's only through self discipline that this works. The best thing as the weight falls away your cycling improves fantastically!

TonyStark

07Lapierre wrote: »

+1 That's the Key to solving these kind of Punctures. Carefully remove the tube, inflate it and once you find where its punctured, match it back to the Wheel and tyre.

Get into the habit of aligning the lettering on the tyre to the valve spot... makes it easier to trace things.

veganrun

Took one of the tyres out, it seemed twisted in places. When I tried pumping it up the air was going out of it straight away, seemingly an inch or two from the valve. I checked the rim and it seemed fine, as did the inside of the tyre.

Fitted a new tube and pumped it up. About 20 mins later I hear something and it's the air going out of the newly fitted tube and the tyre is flat again.

I inflated it to 100psi and I think the max is 116 so don't think it's overinflated.

One thing I noticed was the tyre wouldn't fit between the brakes when I put it back on. I had to let the air out of it first.

Really not sure what's going on. I'm thinking of going back to 25c tyres seeing that's what the bike was supposed to have. Don't know if it's the bigger tyre that's causing the issue.

One or 2 holes in the tube?

Regards breaks and clearance you should be able to release them so you can get the wheel off easily. From the breaks follow the cable up a few centimetres and you should find a release or it may be on the break itself. Just remember you've done that after you pop the wheel back on !!!!

Do you know if you are on 17c or 19c rims? thats the width of the rim inside.

veganrun

With the brakes released the wheel comes off but only if the tyre is flat. If it's inflated it won't go back on.

Couldn't see any holes just heard the air come straight back out when pumping the tube up.

There's a sticker on the rim saying 622 X 15c.

Chuchote

A couple of things this video doesn't say. If you're getting repeated punctures, are they in the same place on the tyre? (You can check this by always having the tyre aligned with the first letter of the maker's name level with the valve.) Second, check there are no spokes poking out from the rim tape.

If these are new tubes, I'd be inclined to ask for money back and buy better ones.

veganrun

When I get the chance I will take the bike to CRC probably and get them to figure out what's wrong and if it needs 25c tyres so be it.

veganrun

Finally got around to leaving the bike into the local bike shop. When I spoke to them on the phone they suggested it could be one of the spoke eyelets sticking out a bit too much or the rim tape. When I dropped it in I was talking to someone else and he mentioned BTwin rims can be quite deep and sometimes the tubes can get pinched.

Anyway it will be a few days before I can get it back. Hopefully they will get to the bottom of it.