Things happen unexpectedly all the time. Sometimes, these things annoy us in a way that we do not expect because they have happened when we don’t want them to.
Now, nobody wants to get flat tires on their bike, you must know how annoying it is to have flat tires when you’ve just had them fixed.
This can really get on your nerves especially since you need to be as mobile as you can be at that moment.
Can your bike tires go flat when you’ve just had them re-inflated and fixed? Is it possible to get flat bike tires without holes and/or punctures?
Yes. Your bikes have the inevitability of getting flat tires on the road even when you have no punctures in them.
This situation has to be fixed quickly or you run the risk of getting more tire flats in the future.
When your bike tires go flat without punctures and/or holes in and on them, it must mean that the air and general pressure in the bike tires keep escaping through some medium that you may not be able to see at first.
You have to get your tires repaired as soon as you can because normal patchwork may not truly solve this problem for you.
Table of Contents
How do bike tires go flat without holes in them?
It is very possible for your bike tires to lose air and get flat even when they don’t have any holes in them.
It is important for you to note that the bike tires are not the only place that air can escape out of your bike tires.
If your bike tires lose air without any visible punctures and/or holes on them, you need to understand that the following reasons might be applicable to your situation:
- Pinched Bike Tubes
- The Rim Tape isn’t properly covering Bike’s Spoke Holes
- There is a Sharp Object in the Tire
- Low Pressure in the Tires
- Worn-out Tires
Pinched bike tubes
Your bike tubes may start to leak air once you get your tires poked with a lever while you are changing it or while you are getting it fixed up.
These tubes can also lose air and pressure when they are caught between the tire and the brake track.
When these things happen, you can get a flat tire even when you have had punctures in the bike tires at all.
You should regularly check your bike tubes because this is where the bulk of the air and air pressure in your bike is stored.
Don’t let your bike tubes have internal complications that make them cause you to have flat tires.
Your bike tubes can still leak out some air due to the mentioned factors (and some more) even when you don’t have punctures or holes in the tires.
When your bike tubes are compromised, it will inevitably lead to you having flat tires on your bike.
The Rim Tape isn’t properly covering Bike’s Spoke Holes
Your bike’s rim tape may not be adequately covering the spoke holes of the bike and this can surely lead to those unexpected flat tires that annoy the hell out of you.
The sharp metal corners of the spoke holes may cut the tube and cause punctures in them if you haven’t covered the spoke holes up with the rim tape.
The rim tape is meant to protect the tubes from getting punctured by the sharp edges of the spoke holes in the bike.
You should have it at the back of your mind to check and/or change your rim tapes as often as you can.
Old rim tape might be too compressed and deteriorated to do the job properly. You can have rim tapes that stay too long on the bike and get depressed into the spoke holes, even when it is completely covered.
This can cause the sharp edges of the spoke holes to then puncture the bicycle tubes and cause an internal leakage of air and pressure.
You need to buy new rim tape regularly in order to cover the spoke holes well enough to stop this from happening.
There is a sharp object in the tire
Even when you change your damaged/punctured bike tubes and replace them with new ones, the problem will not be solved unless you take out when punctured the last tubes in the first place.
Without taking out the sharp object (or objects) out of the bike, you might still get the replacement tubes punctured again.
The best thing for you to do is to thoroughly check the inner parts of your bike for objects that might have gotten stuck in there – causing punctures.
If you don’t do this, you will soon have the issue of flat tires again and again till you clean out the area.
Get rid of all the sharp objects in your bike so that you don’t lose the air in the tires from a source that is causing internal punctures and leaking.
Regular service and clean your bike so that this is not a problem for you. Don’t leave any sharp object stuck in your bike so that you don’t experience these kinds of flats.
Low pressure in the tires
Riding your bike with low pressure in the tires is a good way to get a flat really soon.
Low pressure means that the tires are under-inflated and therefore won’t be able to carry your weight and handle the pressure on the road without losing air fast.
When your bike tires are low-pressured, without enough air in them, you will get flats that happen constantly because of things like the tires getting punctured from grinding against the rim and the world in a grating fashion.
Internal release and/or escape of air can also occur when there is low pressure in the tires of your bike.
To avoid this, you should constantly inflate your tires to the best pressure that will make the bike tires roll smoothly on the road and serve you well as you ride.
Worn-out tires
Your bike tires might just be going flat all the time without holes because you have used them for a very long time without replacing them.
The tire rubbers can become worn and torn after you have used them for a reasonable amount of time: changing your tires is then the right call for you to solve this issue.
The threads and backbone of the bike tires will be exposed to more wearing, tearing, and/or punctures when the tire rubbers are overused and not changed at the right time.
When the casing tears off, you are no longer fully protected from getting flats in your tires as the bike tubes can then get stretched beyond the usual dimensions and measurements.
It is important for you to consider changing your bike tires once you start getting flats for no apparent reason.
Preventing bike tires from going flat: What to do
You surely don’t want your bike tires to go flat when you are on the road with your bike.
There are many simple ways you can stop this event from happening to you unexpectedly as you will soon learn.
Some of the ways to prevent your bike tires from going flat are:
- Using Tube Sealants
- Regular Servicing and Clean-Up of Your Bike
- Install Your Bike Parts Back Carefully After You Take Them Out
- Use Tire Liners to Protect Your Tires
- Invest In Puncture-Resistant Bike Tires
- Get Some Thorn-Resistant Bike Tubes
- Ride with The Proper Tire Pressure
Using tube sealants
Tube Sealants are really great because you can repair already flat tires with them and you can also use them to really prevent future flats from happening to your bike tires for a long time.
When you use tube sealants, your bike tires have extra protection against the punctures and tears that cause flats.
All you need to do is squeeze a bit of tube sealant in through the valve stem so that you can thoroughly coat the insides of the tube to avoid punctures.
If you already have small punctures and/or holes in the tube, the tube sealant will quickly fill up the leak and stop air from escaping any further.
Tube Sealants also create plugs that often outlast the bicycle inner tubes and the bike tires around them.
Although tube sealants don’t protect against large gashes and punctures on their own, these sealants can really be used to offer a super flat-avoidance situation since they are so functional and durable.
Regular servicing and clean-up of your tire
In order to avoid running the risk of having flat tires on your bike, you need to often inspect your bike tires, tubes, spoke holes, and the whole bike in general for sharp objects that could cause punctures in the future.
Embedded glass, loose wood, sharp rocks, and other sharp objects like these could get lodged up in your bike as you ride around on the tires.
Clean your bike well enough by using your fingers and a small plier to take away the dirt and/or objects that could cause you any leakage problems in the bike tires.
Service your bike well enough and you will have an idea of any issues that might arise inevitably.
Check the tires for excessive wear and tear, dryness, cracking, etc. at adequate times in order to avoid getting flat tires when you don’t expect them.
You can use these tire levers to adequately service your bike as you change and/or repair the tires:
Install your bike parts carefully after you take them out
After you service your bike and/or repair it for further use, you might have some problems with leakages and punctures if you do not install the parts back in the bike correctly.
Your own wheels can cause you to have a flat tire (or flat tires) when the parts are not secured as coolly as they should be.
For example, if you don’t cover your spokes well enough with the rim tape after you have repaired the bike, the bike tubes can be sliced and punctured by the sharpness of the spokes and/or spoke nipples.
Make sure that your spokes are not too long in the first place so that you don’t get flats from the internal punctures that they can cause.
Also, make sure to tape the inside of your rims with some layers of electrical tape after you have banded them with a good rim strip.
Use tire liners to protect your tires
Tire liners are thin strips of extruded plastic that are placed between the bike tires and the tube as an extra layer of protection that can prevent punctures and cuts in the bike tires.
Liners are a very popular option that is used to prevent your bike tire from cutting up against the thorns, sharp stones, and debris that you will face on the road as you ride along.
When your tire liners are well-placed, you will see that there is more weight on the tires. This extra pressure will do well to keep your bike tires from getting punctured.
Invest in puncture-resistant bike tires
Buying strong and durable puncture-resistant bike tires is another way to avoid getting flat tires on the road.
These bike tires have more pressure on them so the risks of getting flat tires are reduced; however, because of their increased pressure, they are less speedy than standard bike tires, but they are actually safer.
People who ride bikes regularly have said that they don’t experience flats frequently when they make use of their puncture-resistant tires to ride around the place in their bikes.
Puncture-resistant bike tires are made with aramid fibers that are meant to resist as much of the dangers of punctures and tears that your bike gets all the time on the road.
You should really consider getting these kinds of tires for your bike.
Get some thorn-resistant bike tubes
Buying and installing some thorn-resistant bike tubes in your bike is another sure way to prevent punctures from happening to your bike tires in the future.
These bike tubes are thicker and heavier than the regular kind of tubes that you can put on your bike.
When you have thorn-resistant bike tubes in your bike, the chances of you losing air and getting flat tires are greatly reduced and you will certainly enjoy your bike’s effectiveness for a long time to come.
Ride with the proper tire pressure
Always check the pressure of your bike tires before you ride out with them. You have to be riding with the proper and adequate bike tire pressure as this will allow you to have a really comfortable ride that is void of too many risks.
The bike tire pressure is usually measured in PSI (Pounds Per Square Inch). You should check the sides of your tires for the recommended air-pressure range for the bike tires.
Keep the following in mind:
- Road Tires should have air pressure between 100 to 140 psi in them.
- Run your Urban and Casual Bike Tires in air pressure ranges between 60 and 80 psi.
- Mountain Bike Tires should run between 30 to 50 psi.
Under-inflation could have your tires going flat even without having holes in them.
You should use a tire pump and/or gauge to constantly check the air pressure in your bike tires at all times before you ride on them.
What do you do when your bike tire goes flat?
When your bike tires go flat, you have to obviously check throughout the bike to see if you can see where the offense is.
If you can’t see any noticeable punctures or tears on the bike tires, then it must mean that the problem is from any internal source that has to be addressed quickly to avoid further damages.
Check through the bike and see where the problem is coming from before you proceed to start with any fixes and/or repairs on the tires.
Depending on the kind of problem you have with your bike, there will always be solutions for the flat tires that you can get (even when you get them with no holes and/or punctures on the tires).
We have already discussed some of the situations that could make your bike tires go flat without any visible holes.
Now, let us discuss some of the solutions that would eventually help you to get your bikes back on the road with fully functioning tires.
Fixes that can help you when your bike tires go flat
THE FIX FOR PINCHED BIKE TUBES
- Replace the bike tubes if they have gotten too damaged
- Inflate the new tubes till it holds their round shape well
- Put the tubes on the wheel
- Pass the valve carefully through the valve hole
- Press the tube between the brake track wheels so that it sits well in the wheel
- Re-install the bike tires. (Don’t allow any part of the bike tubes to be outside the brake track while you are putting the bike tires back on.)
- Use your hands to snap the tires back on the wheel once the tubes are well – seated on the wheel. (Don’t use a lever to do this because it can swing around and poke a hole or more in the tubes by pinching it on the metal sidewalls).
- Ride on the bike to see if your changes worked well.
Order for these awesome Puncture-Resistant Bicycle Inner Tubes today:
FIXING THE BIKE WHEN THE RIM TAPE ISN’T COVERING THE SPOKE HOLES
- Buy some new rim tape that can cover the spoke holes adequately
- Lay the rim tape flat across the wheels and the entire tire bed
- Make sure that the rim tapes cover the spoke holes well enough
- Check to see if your fix worked.
These Rim Tapes are the best ones for you to use to do the job effectively:
THE SOLUTION FOR SHARP OBJECTS IN THE TIRE
- Check your bike tires thoroughly for any sharp objects once you have gotten a flat tire. Use water to clean the area and then use some sandpaper to roughen up the area for a bit
- Pull out any sharp objects that you find stuck in the tires
- Run your fingers along the inside of the bike tires to remove any objects that are poking through from there
- Once you have removed the sharp objects, replace the tubes in the bike with a new one
This Bike Repair Kit will work well for you as you do this:
THE FIX FOR LOW PRESSURE IN THE TIRES
- Inflate your bike at regular intervals
- Prevent pinch-flats by avoiding potholes and some other obstacles like that on the road as much as you can
- Consider getting tubeless bikes if you still want to run low-pressure
Some of the best bike pumps for you to buy today are the following:
REPLACING WORN-OUT TIRES
- Replace your bike tires once they are worn out and the threads are exposed.
- (Your rear tires will wear out faster than the front tires but you should switch them both at the same time to avoid future worries).
- Check your new tires to see if they fit.
You can buy these great puncture-resistant bike tires today: