Repeated punctures in Schwalbe 700x28

[mjr]

I'll check about the rim tape, the spoke ends, but when I started to ride it the tyres were hard, not soft. I don't have the facility for a photo, but what you said about Schwalbe tyres and wire does rather scare me. I sure aas hell won't be buying as many more on the other hand I'm too hard up to buy another tyre currently

It's a minor manufacturing fault and they should be replaced free of charge by any reputable shop. I wouldn't avoid the whole brand for that.

I've had what you said (bump, no visible bulge, fast non-violent punctures pretty much immediately on riding) when the rim tape had come unstuck and wandered - or maybe pushed by something during tyre/tube refitting - up into the bead seat (where the tyre bead ordinarily sits on the rim), probably also leaving a corner of a spoke fixing exposed to cause the puncture. It was a devil to find because once the tube was deflated and side of the tyre removed, the rim tape fell back into the bottom - once I noticed the tape was partly unstuck and replaced it, the problem ceased. Yours might be a different almost-as-annoying cause, though.

[PH]

First thing I'd want to know is if it was the wheel or tyre, just swap your tyres round and see which one the problem follows.

[peetee]

I wouldn't be surprised if it is a poor tyre. I have seen bulges, wire beads showing, sidewalls cracking in a few months and rough internal surface on Schwalbe tyres recently.

[RickH]

Does the hole happen in the same place in the tube relative to the valve?

I had a set of punctures that occurred where, when braking hard for a junction at the bottom of a steep hill where I had been travelling at 25-30mph before braking (different locations each time but the same scenario), I got a puncture.

After the second one (I had a puncture on the way out one evening & the second was on the way home later) I started to wonder about the role of the rim tape & what was underneath it. I didn't have time to investigate before I needed to be out on my bike first thing the next morning. As a precaution I took a spare roll of Velox rim tape that I had in hand. Sure enough, braking for a junction about a mile from home the tyre went down. I quickly added a second layer of rim tape & replaced the tube and the result - no more punctures! The rim tape was about 3 years old at this point & I realised later that I had something similar when the bike was about 3 years old. It was only a single instance & I just put it down to braking heat (it was descending in hot weather in the middle of France - a fast run followed by a few hairpins & into a very steep section that needed constant braking) but it may well have been the same thing.

I reckoned it was the extra heat from braking causing an increase in pressure enough to push rim tape, that was already sagging into the spoke holes a bit, down enough for a sharp spoke end (or a jagged bit round a spoke hole) to poke through the tape to cause the punctures.

[QUIST]

I have hopefully found the cause - a bead wire some 8?mm long- much to my surprise.

Anyway thanks for all your replies

[Brucey]

a bit like this?



if so send the tyre back

cheers

[QUIST]

Yup. I think I'll stick to tyres I know and love (Continental) - who remembers the old style Continental Top Touring?

[andrew_s]

Yup. I think I'll stick to tyres I know and love (Continental) - who remembers the old style Continental Top Touring?

I do.

The grip wasn't of the best, but they lasted for ages.
One clubmate got 10,000 miles out of a pair of 700x32, and another got over 40,000 miles out of a pair of 26x1.75 (and it was age that got them, not the tread wearing through).

IIRC, they were the tyre that created Conti's reputation for weak sidewalls, when the chafing strip by the bead got reduced from 8 mm to 5 mm (or whatever), placed by the same machine that had placed the wider tape, with the result that the tape would sometimes wander too far up the sidewall, allowing the rim hook to cut the bead away.

The Top Touring 2000 that replaced them wasn't as tough, but gripped better.