MikeJ
Member
Hi All -
If there were a section in this forum entitled "Believe It or Not!", I would post this writeup there. What happened to me tonight is so unique, I just had to record it and ask "What happened here?".
I was prepping a Garage Queen to be a useful ride once again. The Queen: A Specialized Rockhopper purchased from a pawn shop.
Study the pictures. I was adjusting brakes on the front shocks. The original rim was wobbly to all getout, so I got a spare rim and tire that was still under some small amount of pressure from my parts bin. I deflated the tire to get the tread past the brake shoes. The bead seal was broken all the way around. I mounted the wheel and tire. I went to air up the tire. It is a Kenda 2.125 inch 26 inch tire. Age is unknown; it came with a donor bike frame that was assembled in 1995.
I was passing the 35 psi mark, not yet 40 psi, when a quick rupture sounded and the doggone inner tube popped out like an intestinal hernia!
Nobody would believe my words describing this, so I had to take picture and post them. I could not have deliberately done this if I tried.
A quirk, maybe an hour before: I inflated the rear tire and tube. Tire age is again unknown; I purchased it on the Garage Queen frame. The tube is a Bell inner tube, purchased brand new from a bike shop mid-afternoon today. I know everything fit well. I inflated to 60 psi and set to the side. An hour later, I noted some crackling sounds, like an ice sheet stressing. A few seconds later, BOOM! That tire ruptured out of its bead. That time, the tube simply let loose like a high pressure balloon! I was ten feet away, no injuries. But my ears are still ringing.
Noted: Both tires were old, kind of dried out. When the bead seal was broken, they both seemed to fit a bit more sloppy than if the tires were new.
Do tires and beads stretch with age? And if the bead is broken, does the tire not seal its bead well anymore?
Any comments are welcomed. I ride a 15-year-old Haro with an engine I almost tossed away as a lost cause because a cylinder stud stripped out. But I rebuilt it and call it Frankenmotor. I use quarter-inch diameter steel rod to lock the engine to the downtube because the bottom studs sheared off a long time ago. I use 14-gauge wire and turnbuckles to lock the engine to the bike frame seat post to control runaway vibrations. The shift kit is anchored the same way to the bottom bracket. It is a royal pain to start.
But it runs great and smoothly when it is running.
Yes, motorized bikes are an adventure.
MikeJ
1,248 long distance miles with Frankenmotor and a shift kit. Half a dozen rides each over 100 miles.
If there were a section in this forum entitled "Believe It or Not!", I would post this writeup there. What happened to me tonight is so unique, I just had to record it and ask "What happened here?".
I was prepping a Garage Queen to be a useful ride once again. The Queen: A Specialized Rockhopper purchased from a pawn shop.
Study the pictures. I was adjusting brakes on the front shocks. The original rim was wobbly to all getout, so I got a spare rim and tire that was still under some small amount of pressure from my parts bin. I deflated the tire to get the tread past the brake shoes. The bead seal was broken all the way around. I mounted the wheel and tire. I went to air up the tire. It is a Kenda 2.125 inch 26 inch tire. Age is unknown; it came with a donor bike frame that was assembled in 1995.
I was passing the 35 psi mark, not yet 40 psi, when a quick rupture sounded and the doggone inner tube popped out like an intestinal hernia!
Nobody would believe my words describing this, so I had to take picture and post them. I could not have deliberately done this if I tried.
A quirk, maybe an hour before: I inflated the rear tire and tube. Tire age is again unknown; I purchased it on the Garage Queen frame. The tube is a Bell inner tube, purchased brand new from a bike shop mid-afternoon today. I know everything fit well. I inflated to 60 psi and set to the side. An hour later, I noted some crackling sounds, like an ice sheet stressing. A few seconds later, BOOM! That tire ruptured out of its bead. That time, the tube simply let loose like a high pressure balloon! I was ten feet away, no injuries. But my ears are still ringing.
Noted: Both tires were old, kind of dried out. When the bead seal was broken, they both seemed to fit a bit more sloppy than if the tires were new.
Do tires and beads stretch with age? And if the bead is broken, does the tire not seal its bead well anymore?
Any comments are welcomed. I ride a 15-year-old Haro with an engine I almost tossed away as a lost cause because a cylinder stud stripped out. But I rebuilt it and call it Frankenmotor. I use quarter-inch diameter steel rod to lock the engine to the downtube because the bottom studs sheared off a long time ago. I use 14-gauge wire and turnbuckles to lock the engine to the bike frame seat post to control runaway vibrations. The shift kit is anchored the same way to the bottom bracket. It is a royal pain to start.
But it runs great and smoothly when it is running.
Yes, motorized bikes are an adventure.
MikeJ
1,248 long distance miles with Frankenmotor and a shift kit. Half a dozen rides each over 100 miles.