This was a bit strange. For over a year I had suffered no punctures on the Highway which was quite an achievement as prior to that I would not go more than a fortnight with either wheels having a flat tyre when I came to bike home from work. Fortunately each time had been slow so after pumping back up I had enough time to bike home. I started talking about punctures and it was not long after when they started up again, a lesson to learn there.
It was the back wheel that had to come out and a puncture fixed, all nice and neatly done. Interestingly, or worryingly, in the same place as I had a puncture the other week, all the signs of something sharp stuck in the tyre. I inspected and there was the signs of a hole in the tyre but feeling on the other side there was no longer anything sticking through. I ran my hand over the inside of the whole tyre just to make sure, nothing sharp or worrying.
I fitted the fixed tube and tyre, I put the wheel back on the bike and heard the hissing sound of air escaping. Bugger. That didn’t seem right, I took it all off and checked for sharp bits inside the tyre but nothing. I checked the wheel for anything sharp, nothing.
Life is too short. I had a look on the Internet for a couple of cheap tyres but ones with a bit of puncture resistance, and nothing too knobbly. The front tyre had a bulge in it which had been there for some time so it seemed wise to finally replace that at the same time. I found a pair of CST Classic Tuscany tyres which were cheap but suggested they would have a bit of puncture resistance.
It took a couple of days for these to arrive. That evening I planned out an evening of fixing the puncture and fitting the new tyres. Strangely, even though the tube on the rear wheel had by now completely deflated, when I checked it big bucket of water there was not a single bubble seen.
I fitted the new tyres on both wheels, a task that seemed to take for ages. For cheapish tyres they seemed pretty tough and inflexible (maybe because they were brand new?) and nearly killed me to get them on. While they didn’t kill me, they did kill my well used plastic tyre levers which left me with with a butter knife to continue the job. It seemed a bad idea and within seconds I heard a hiss as the last bits of air escaped the newly holed tube. Bugger.
New tube and start again, this time being pretty careful and finally I had everything back on and ready to pump up. The new tyres have a much smaller profile and are slightly thinner width wise, giving a much nicer ride than the ones that came on the bike.
Since then, the rear tube remains inflated, fixed as if by magic.
