Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
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Vetus Ossa
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Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by Vetus Ossa »

So I have a puncture. I repair it, refit it and pump it up. Overnight it loses pressure so I take it off again and leave it soaking in a sink of water for hours, without a bubble to be seen. I leave it pumped up off the wheel for several days and it stays inflated. I refit it and it goes flat again so repeat the above with the same results.
I have been repairing punctures for 50 odd years so do know how to do it.
The really odd thing is that exactly the same thing happened last year, different wheel, inner tube and tyre. I threw the tube away in the end, like I probably will with this one, but I am puzzled by what is causing it.
What’s going on :?
Beauty will save the world.
burnsie
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by burnsie »

I've got a similar problem with my mountain bike at the moment.....just cannot find it at all. Don't want to teach egg sucking etc.....but you are checking the tyre for offending objects? (of course you are......just asking :wink: )

Dave
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Mick F
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by Mick F »

I reckon that an inflated tube vs an inflated tyre are different things because of the pressures involved.
A bare tube will be inflated at (say) 10psi, whereas an inflated tyre with a tube inside it will be at (say) 100psi.

Personally, if I have a sniff of a problem like you describe, the tube goes in the bin. Not worth the effort in trying to find out what's wrong.
Mick F. Cornwall
Mattyfez
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by Mattyfez »

Just buy a new tube, patches are quirky.
If you happen to have a well patched tube, great, but don't take that as a long term fix.
Kenn
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by Kenn »

Had a sort of similar problem with a 20" folding bike tyre. Kept going down then suddenly held pressure and been OK ever since. A second similar one (Panasonic) did the same. I think it was down to slow leakage from the schrader valve which finally started to seat OK.
Brucey
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by Brucey »

some patches will lift and then reseal, leaving no sign that they have failed.

IME this happens most often if you try and patch a tube on the ID (eg from a pinch or a rim tape fault). It is also more likely to happen if the tube width is a bit small for the tyre it is in.

A Brucey top-tip;

if you are forced to use such a patched tube, you can often twist the (rounded out) tube as you install it; this can leave the patch under the tread or against the sidewall, where it is far less likely to lift vs if the patch is in the well of the rim.

cheers
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mercalia
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by mercalia »

The reason they go for you is they are NOT FAIRIES but PIXIES - Puncture Pixies. How would YOU like to be called a fairy? Pixies are very sensitive about that.
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cycleruk
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by cycleruk »

Check around the valve base.
Pull and twist it. If, like me you fit the knurled ring it may just be pulling enough to stretch the tube.
Other option is to really over-inflate the bare tube while doing the water bubble test.
You'll never know if you don't try it.
jb
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by jb »

Inflate your tyre until it's very hard , remove the wheel and place the valve in a bowl under water I think you will find your leak .
Cheers
J Bro
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Vetus Ossa
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by Vetus Ossa »

Jb…you win!

Tbh I suspected it must be the valve as I was sure my patch was sound and couldn’t see any other leaks.
I put the inner tube back in and pumped the tyre up to 120psi and immersed the valve in water. After several minutes a tiny bubble appeared around the valve cap area.
As others have said, it’s no big deal and not really worth bothering with, I was just curious.

Regards and thanks to all.
Beauty will save the world.
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gaz
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by gaz »

The fairy smote my M+ mightily a few weeks back and I decided to swop it out for a new one. I know that I used the workshop tyre levers for the job. I know that I put them back in the toolbox.

On Sunday I tidied the workshop, top to bottom, not a tyre lever was to be found. I've checked my commuter's and tourer's respective toolkits, no extra tyre levers have found their way to either set.

The puncture fairy has stolen my workshop tyre levers :shock: . Bad form :evil: .
High on a cocktail of flossy teacakes and marmalade
Brucey
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by Brucey »

puncture fairy? that sounds more like the work of the Tool Goblin to me....

if you see him, you could ask him when he's going to give my tools back.... :wink:

cheers
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MartinC
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by MartinC »

It's only and amateur tool goblin that will make your tools go missing permanently. The normal protocol is that the tool goblin will put your tools in an arcane place and only let you find them when you are looking for something else (which he's misplaced). His main objective is the psychological torture of knowing that you've seen this item recently (usually whilst looking for something else) but can't quite remember where.

He has more advanced tactics too. I had an extreme case last week when cutting some brake cable outers. I couldn't find a hacksaw. So I cut them with the cable cutters. I was unlucky and the cut put a big spur across the hole. Having lost a load of time and patience looking for the hacksaw I thought I'd save time and start cleaning it up with a [rude word removed] file. It ripped several turns out of the cable. So I gave up and popped to the hardware store (we have them out here in the sticks). Bought a new hacksaw (fancy plastic handle). I'd also been looking for one of my torx screwdrivers for several days to tighten a screw on the workstand, they didn't have one so ended up buying a fancy driver set just for one torx bit. Got home. Hacksaw blade wouldn't cut cheese. No problem I thought, I've got at least one packet of spare blades. Yippee, I can find them. Problem, the pins on the blades are too wide for the slots in the fancy new hacksaw fittings. So I hurled it out of the garage door into the yard and got on with the job of doing it properly with cutters, a vice and the right file.

Several days late my wife enquired why there was a blue hacksaw lying under the hedge. I explained. She went and retrieved a hacksaw from her sewing box (don't ask). On putting it back in the garage I idly opened the box containing the household tools and found a spare hacksaw still in it's wrapping and several torx screwdrivers.

These days the tool goblin is sponsored by the tool industry!
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Redvee
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by Redvee »

My last visit was on Sunday on the way to work. Did the weekly thumb pressure check and gave the tyre a few strokes from the track pump and 4.5 miles later she visited with gusto. The tube blew with a bang and a cloud of french chalk, luckily I was 50 yards from a bus shelter.
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gaz
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Re: Are the p******e fairies having a laugh?

Post by gaz »

MartinC wrote:The normal protocol is that the tool goblin will put your tools in an arcane place and only let you find them when you are looking for something else...

I've opted for buying some new tyre levers in the absolute certainty that the missing ones will turn up shortly after the replacements arrive :wink: .
High on a cocktail of flossy teacakes and marmalade
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