Annoying puncture

[Seeker]

When I went out the SV this morning the rear tyre was at 10 psi. I spent a while looking for the culprit but couldn't find it so I pumped it back up to 36 psi and now, 3-4 hours later, it's 34 psi.

Maybe it's fixable but I had bought a pair of Michelin Road 5 (by mistake) some months ago so I'll get them fitted. My front Avon looks like it is only halfway through its tread, the rear would have been good for another 3-4k miles I estimate.

Getting tyres changed is now expensive, my local dealer wants £20/tyre if I supply the tyres and that's wheels off the bike.

I must admit I'm not look forward to fitting the rear wheel. Axle alignment isn't the problem, it's the fact that the caliper sits on a carrier and the brake pads rest on it - if you tilt the caliper a little the pads drop off the ledge they're sitting on and dangle freely. The other issue being the carrier can fall off its sliding track.


Edit: note to self : RTFM. The caliper does not need to be removed from its carrier (doh!). That should make things easier, wish I'd read it earlier.

[garynortheast]

Can you pump up the tyre and rotate the wheel in a container of water to find the leak? It may not be a puncture but a leak from the bead/rim.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by garynortheast

Can you pump up the tyre and rotate the wheel in a container of water to find the leak? It may not be a puncture but a leak from the bead/rim.

Good idea Gary! Although my trug didn't think so. It's definitely the tyre itself there's a very tiny hole, nothing protuding, I'm guessing it's a thorn of some kind that snapped off since I went through a lot of hedge cuttings on my last ride. What's a little curious is there's something that looks like a plug not far away (1cm) from the puncture and I don't recall having a prior puncture with this set.

It's lost 6 psi in about 9 hours.

I want to try the Michelins on the SV so I'll just get them swapped.

[GeorgeRYoung]

Installed a rear Roadsmart III just last winter so this if fairly fresh in mind. When you rotate the rear caliper before taking it completely off the carrier, you can jam something (I used scrap wood) between the pads to keep everything together. This also helps the reassembly process, as you then only need three hands.

[R1ffR4ff]

I run with Slime/Goop tyre sealant in my tyres. Have done for around 20 years. I can attest to the fact that when I've removed tyres to put a new one on and check the old ones I have seen small blobs of Goop/Slime that have plugged small possible punctures. I've only had one puncture in all those years and that was a slow one so I suspect it was too much for the sealant to plug.

I recently changed my rear tyre and this little homemade device made it really easy to lift the rear wheel back up to get the axle in as per another recent post,





You don't need to make the box but it does make it more stable,

Air Wedge eBay less than a Tenner.

https://shorturl.at/fWa1s

HTH