Tires Tire tubes keep popping.

[ImpulseRocket]

2 things.

1. If your Walmart beach cruiser has fenders on it, take them off before they kill you.

2. If you aren't dusting the inside of the tires or the outside of the tubes with talc powder, do so. It reduces friction from vibration between the tire and tube, and that too can cause punctures/flats.

 

[Gordy]

1. If your Walmart beach cruiser has fenders on it, take them off before they kill you.

Yes, fenders are dangerous. Im fortunate my rear fender decided it was done with me rather than my front fender

 

[robe]

My cheapo China tires say inflate to 40 but it is like riding on steel wheels. I have them around 30 to 35 so there is a bit of give. Not had a flat yet but they are new.
Maybe your tires have been sitting around too long and are starting to deteriorate. Time for some new ones? You don't need super top of the line ones if you are just commuting on the road.

 

[Wrench]

Looks like a really nice bike, I apologize for replying so late.

They give you the best answer I can. The bicycle tires state to inflate to 40 PSI, It was a huffy cruiserback from Walmart and it had been sitting for probably 5 years at my house. If I'm truly honest, I haven't kept track of it. It's always been indoors but it was never ridden more than a mile in total. It's entire life so the original tires definitely have some age on them.

The package of slime tires that I purchased do appear to have been old too.
As promised though I took the advice and I actually didn't do 5 under. I ended up doing 15 under. I kept sitting on the tire and checking it until I saw a little bit of sag, I'm not having any trouble with it but the tire is relatively bouncy and there's a lot of bad roads out here where the asphalt just isn't flat and there's just little ripples quite constant just all over the place. These back roads are in a bad state of disrepair and so when I hit them I'm probably not going to lose traction, but it feels unnaturally bouncy considering there's no suspension.

I've been trying to keep the weight on the bike to an absolute minimum. I myself might be about 185 to 195 lb. The bike in total probably doesn't weigh no more than 70 lb. That's motor side saddle everything, I didn't really throw any special new stuff on there because at the moment money is tight. The whole reason I did this swap was so that I could start putting back money to repair my car while still having a job.

I could definitely see myself putting some nice rims and stuff on it in the future though.
The side saddle I've been carrying the bare minimum. I keep two headlight units on the bike. I keep a tail light unit that does turn signals and a backup tail light unit that just has a red light.

And inside the side saddle I carry a flashlight pocket knife. A. Bearman Derringer 22 handgun.
I keep my wallet in there as well along with because of the weather recently a beanie for my head. A spare pair of clear riding glasses for at night simply because my shift ends at 10:30 at night and I drive home in the 40° weather this way.

The bag does often include a mountain dew or sundrop bottle and I have a personal size Gatorade bottle that has been spray painted thoroughly and label very thoroughly as bike gas so that no one can mistaken it for a drink. I think in total the whole bag may weigh 20 pounds so I've been inflating the tire to roughly 25 in the cold night air. It probably sits around 30 during the day.

The problem here is that when I drive to work the weather is between 75 and 90. God bless that North Carolina weather and then at night the weather is between 40 and 60 so the tire pressure is definitely going to be different there and back. I'll include a photo . As far as the problem goes this week I haven't had anything pop but the tires are definitely sagging for me. It feels like if I was to have to take a really hard turn, they're just wouldn't be enough pressure to keep the tire where it needs to be

If these tires and tubes are 5 years old thats your problem ya need new tires and tubes Old tubes loose air naturally
Inner tube manufactures recommend replacing tubes every two years Slime is also good for 2 years from the time ya put it in your tube, then it can become clumpy

with new tubes you won't loose tire pressure overnight

 

[artmaker]

I may as well chime in here since I started out having issue after issue with flats.

Two photos of my ride, first is when I first got it, white wall tires were so cool looking but wow, ride over a grain of sand and flat!

So what to do?
1. Next time you have to figure out why it's flat, make sure you note where the tube is on the bike before you remove it. (Meaning if you turn it around finding where the puncture is will be harder.)
Sink the partially inflated tube into a bucket of soapy water to find the hole (unless you know where it is, say a nail or something.)
THEN you can hold the tube against the wheel and see exactly where to examine. If the hole is on the inside of the tube, it's an issue in the wheel. Burs or what ever. Outside edge of tube, something punctured the tire.

2. Knowing where the hole comes from is big. For me I had multiple issues. First the thin spokes that came with my bike were ever so slightly poking into the wheel and were razor sharp. And a few spokes actually broke just with normal riding. So had the whole wheel respoked with thicker ones and had it done at a good shop where there was NO chance of spokes poking the tube from inside. That alone solved the inner hole issues.

3. I have to strongly disagree with the under inflating advice here. Now I'm heavier than you. (290) and the bike alone is close to 80 lbs. Another reason I got flats is because those darn white wall tires were kinda roomy and if they were even slightly soft, just hitting a small bump would cause a flat. Or I'd get a pinch in the tube along the edge of the rim and boom, down. I swear it's almost like the tube had to be stretched just to fill the tire space. That's not good. Those tires were probably about as poor quality as your walmart bike. Looked cool but a birthday balloon would have been stronger.


SO.... First thing as I mentioned, respoked the wheel. Then I bought extra thick heavy duty tubes. And got the slime guard shields, AND bought much better tires. (Forgot the name, if you want I'll go find it tomorrow. They may be hard to find though, I really had to hunt for my last set.) I'm sure someone here knows where to find really good tires though.

But with just those fixes I haven't had a flat since. Wore out the first set of tires they way they should be. USE. Lots of miles. (I think I had about 1200 or so on that 2 stroke motor before it crapped out and I upgraded to the 4 stroke on the other photo.) Tires were darn near bald when I decided to get new ones. On my second set of those tires now and those are just starting to get thinning tread, probably be good for one more season. Never once went flat.

 

[rawly old]

Kind of new to all of this but I'm a mechanic tech 2
Purchased. A bicycle with a tire that is already true. Very true. Already had tire liner in it but seeing that people are having some issues here and there went ahead and added a second layer of liner using electrical tape wound in the exact same direction. The tire will be rolling to prevent it from unwinding or any other such thing.

Had my motorized bike about 3 weeks around 2 weeks with no problems. Got my first flat last week while at work. Had rode the bike to work emergency shelled out $45 to have two inner tubes delivered through Uber and then road home. No problem. Next day got on the back. Had a flat tire called out of work. Sat down to look at my vehicle and fix my issue. Cannot use my actual car because the motor is currently blowing up and I'm trying to put the money back in order to put a new motor in it.

Long story short of examined every single inch of the bicycle tire. There is no cuts. No nicks no sharp things of any kind anywhere on in the outside inside or near the rubber tire replaced it with a different tire. The inside of the rim is smooth and coated in three layers of protection. I've been over it thoroughly with a fine tooth comb of precision so much so as to ask my fiance to look the bicycle rim over.
Top speed is only about 31 mph and that's probably roughly going downhill.

But after week three started, I have been through seven different inner tubes. The hole that the inner tube stem sits in is not sharp and I've even tried wrapping the inner tube in some electrical tape as I push and force it through that hole to give it a little extra, something to protect it and every time I have a flat tire and it never seems to be the inner tube stem being cut, it just simply has a hole.
Genuinely truly no explanation and the inner tubes I've been buying are heavy duty thicker slime filled inner tubes to prevent flat tires.
Any advice or previous experiences would be greatly appreciated.

I've wasted money on $45 tubes. I'm guess you're have the same issue if they're ripping at the valve. The thick heavy duty
tubes will slip on the rim or pinch. A motored has more torque. A valve that threads with a lock nut will help. Can't think of the
name, But Schwable also make them with a schrader valve,( i;m gittin' old). making you rim strip a little stick might help.
The worst thing about popping tubes is it leads to busted spokes too.

 

[fivestar45]

I guess I'm getting into this discussion
Since the tire is the only protection your rims have, under inflating will cause more problems than it will solve.

If your valve stems are on an angle, either you installed the tube that way or your tire is spinning on the rim (usually the rear). Once inflated to the correct pressure the tubes themselves don't spin on the rim without the tire.

Punctures are always a possibility, removing the cause, if necessary, is the first step to the repair.

For some folks all metal stems might be helpful.

 

[DAMIEN1307]

under inflating will cause more problems than it will solve.

I have to strongly disagree with the under inflating advice here

OK guys, two of you have mentioned it was due to underinflation...Do you actually read the posts in the threads before answering????????

If you had, you would have read that his tires are rated to top PSI of 40 pounds, he had been making them rock hard at 55 PSI which means OVER INFLATION, not under-inflation...Now combine that with the fact that bicycle tires cold inflation settings are for the usual 11 or so MPH...Motorised bikes go 3 and 4 times that speed.

Of course the tires popped.

Please read threads entirely so you can know what is already discussed so as not to cause confusion and covering the same ground over and over again repeatedly in the same thread.

READING IS FUNDAMENTAL !!!

I don't think anything is poking but I have been inflating to a solid 55 PSI. I don't think that that is the accurate PSI, but with the bike going as fast as it is, I really want a solid tire.

The bicycle tires state to inflate to 40 PSI, It was a huffy cruiserback from Walmart and it had been sitting for probably 5 years at my house.

 

[fivestar45]

My post agreed with some prior posts, and disagreed with some others. I did read all.
I now get the message, don't add to what has already been posted.

 

[DAMIEN1307]

My post agreed with some prior posts, and disagreed with some others. I did read all.
I now get the message, don't add to what has already been posted.

Don't be like some of the "snowflakes" that come on here from time to time, Of course posting and adding to a thread is fine...YOU said "under inflating will cause more problems than it will solve." True enough, but that was never the problem at all here, in fact, once he deflated them to where I said, he stopped having flats...He was way overinflated by 15 PSI over max inflation to begin with and now we're adding 2 to 4 times the normal speed of the tires and tubes to compound the problem???

Enlighten me as to overinflation not being the problem here then...We discovered the cause was OVER, NOT UNDER inflation...This was the OPs main problem all along.

Again, this is all due to reading without comprehending what was previously written, as to what the original problem was all about. it happens way too often, and then I get the PMs from everybody who is now confused by contradictory posts.

I have much better things to do with my time and eyesight than rehashing old stuff over and over again and answering individual PM's to clear up where they are confused by conflicting posts just like this one went.