Last week, I discovered that my front tire was way down in pressure. This struck me as odd, because it hadn’t been that many days since I had last ridden, and the tire shouldn’t have lost that much air. Must have developed a slow leak.
I pumped it up and went out on my usual Saturday ride, which turned out to be the bad ride. When I put the bike away after only 10 miles, the tire was still firm.
The next morning, I put the bike in the back of the SUV to drive to San Marcos for what I hoped would be a 68-mile ride. But when I went to pump up the tire at the ride start, pressure was down again — to only 60 pounds. I decided to go the 41-mile route instead, just to be on the safe side. The tire performed well.
Then Tuesday, it was the time trial. Oddly, the tire pressure was just a little under the 100 pounds I’d pumped it up to on Sunday. I topped it off, headed out to the time trial, and had a great run (22:17 unofficial time for eight miles – previous best had been an official 23:02).
I didn’t ride again until Friday morning. Pressure had dropped to about 80 pounds over the three days since the TT – not unusual. I pumped it up and rode. Then rode another 25 miles Saturday. The tire barely needed pumping at all.
This morning, I had planned a fairly long ride – about 60 miles round trip. When I squeezed the tire in the garage, it felt firm. I put the pump on it, and only had to add about 10 pounds.
I rode to San Marcos and back. Total mileage 58. Just for fun, I checked the tire before writing this post at suppertime. Still at 100 pounds. Whatever slow leak is, or was, in the tire seems to be sealing itself.
I pulled the wheel, took off the tire, and put in a replacement tube. I think one can press his luck only so far.
I’ve got two of those very same tubes on my bike now. Both patched a month ago. One day the pressure will be way down, the next it will only take a little to top off.
Gotta tell ya, this is just a little frustrating.
LOL, man I LOVE my “Tire Goo”, (not Slime) and my kevlar protected tires! For the single hand count of flats I’ve had over 3 yrs., all I’ve had to do is spin wheel and pump up the tire and I’ve been good to go. We do lose some air here even after just 24hrs. At a starting elevation of 6012 ft. air just seems to find a way to disappear! 😉 I have noticed that my front tire loses more air than my rear tire in the same amount of time.
My mysterious leaks occur in two places/ways: 1. Valve stem; 2. A very slight puncture that doesn’t bleed out a lot of air unless the pressure is really high.
Sometimes I’ll wind up with the tiniest of foreign objects embedded in the tire that acts simultaneously as a plug and the cause of a leak.
Good move on replacing the tube. Having to constantly air up the tire is a pain.
By the way, I never did mention that I did find the slow leak by inflating the tube and dipping it into a sink filled with water. It was coming from under the side of a patch — ever so slightly. I don’t like to overlap patches, so I threw out the tube.