First ride on the new setup

[trivet]

I posted earlier about my new ride:

Before

After getting a great deal on a set of drops/levers from @ITA97, I was able to make the Motobecane into exactly what I wanted, and still at less than 1/2 the cost of what the bike would have been new.

Well, I took my first ride yesterday on the new setup - everything was going perfectly....until the back wheel locked up and I heard a loud bang! Being a veteran rider, I know a blow out when I hear/feel one. Luckily I was just cruising on a straight road and had no issues.

Well, one issue)

I was about 4 or 5 miles into a really good ride, REALLY loving the drop bar setup (thank you again @ITA97 !) when it happened. Luckily, I had my phone so a ride home was just a few minutes away...

This is the 3 tube I've blown on this bike, but to be fair, the first 2 were the original cheap tubes that were "God Knows How Old" so I wasn't to upset that I had to replace those. But now I'm starting to think it's me. Max pressure for the tires are 75psi, and I fill to about 65-70.

Anyhow - here is a pic of the new setup (flat included)

Time to look for some "heavy duty" tubes to hold my fat ass I guess......

[facw]

@trivet Any commonality between the blowouts? I assume you've checked for crap embedded in the tires and protruding spokes?

Bike looks great with the drops!

[Highlander]

@trivet Depending on your weight I would be running about 40-50 psi on a 40mm tire. I run 35-40 psi on my 44 mm tires on my gravel bike and I'm 200 lbs. Those inflation numbers on the tire are for maximum pressure not recommended pressure. The most common reason for an explosion is getting the tube pinched between the rim and tire bead. A little rubbing from ridding and it goes boom.

[VincentMalamute]

@trivet Second @Highlander 's comments. My road bike has 38mm tires and I'm running 40/45 psi and I'm 150lbs.

Nice color.

I just saw this Motobecane on a bike forum.

[ITA97]

@trivet Awesome! Glad you're digging the drop bar setup.

Like others mentioned, I run 38-40psi on my gravel bike with 45c tires, at my 155ish pounds.
Adding some Stan's, or other sealant of your choice, to your tubes can save you some punctures.

[facw]

@highlander I always run a tire lever once around the bead with the tube slightly inflated to make sure it isn't getting pinched in there.

I'm also a fatass on 23mm tires, so I keep them all the way to max sidewall pressure, I need it.

[trivet]

Well, I'm about 215 - well above my racing days at around 175. I'm trying to get down to 190-185.

I'll drop the pressure and see if that helps - I'm used to running 100+psi on my road bikes back-in-the-day.......

[Highlander]

@facw I run 90 psi on my 26 mm tires. I've never run over 110 psi on a road tire and that was probably a 20 mm tire.

[StuckMTB]

Back when I was running tubes, during a tire install I would pump the tube up to 5-10 PSI and then fold the tire back and forth a bit all the way around the rim to be sure it wasn't pinched.

Nowaways, I've switched to running tubeless and almost completely forgotten about flats.
I use orange seal endurance sealant which is good for at least 6 months in between applications. I've flatted exactly twice in the last 2 years, one was due to a huge glass shard tearing a 1" gash in my tread, and the other one was a smaller glass piece in the tread but I knew my sealant was getting very old and likely mostly dried out by that time.

https://shop.orangeseal.com/products/endurance-sealant-w-inj-system

[drVanTraveler]

@trivet There has been some online discussion about covid era innertube quality. I don't know if that's true, the last one I blew was a pinch of my own doing.
I'm not doing any MTB, so I'm just doing tubes. None of my old stuff is tubeless ready, and I just don't feel like it for my fatbike.

[Highlander]

@stuckmtb If you are like me you ride for 6 months with dried out sealant and don't even know it.

[StuckMTB]

@highlander exactly!

Well.... I can do this on my MTB as the rims and tires are from the same manufacturer and fit together so well I can set them up and they hold air without sealant!

My road bike on the other hand, those tires fit the rims like a square peg in a round hole, so inflating those requires a fair bit of mess and cursing. Those need to be topped up on schedule because if a flat or something happens for long enough for the bead to unseat, I'm not fixing it on the side of the road without a tube.