I parked the Panasonic road bike out in the sun at my friends house the other day and after 45 minutes or so we all heard a "BANG" come from the drive way. When we went out there the inner tube of the road bike had blown up and actually dismounted half the tire! I had just inflated it to 90PSI (the max). This has never happened to us before, so all we can figure is that the 90+ F˚ sun expanded the air inside, causing it to do this. Have you guys ever had this happen, or have any tips on how to prevent it from happening before I start riding the bike?
Just happens sometimes with the high pressure. I run 26" slicks on my lightbike for stacking km, and pump them up to 100psi. Sometimes the tubes just let go. Had one blow when I was pumping it up, and near the limit. Shot the tire clean off the rim, and made my ears ring for about 4 days. I think shooting a .45 is quieter...
A few years ago I was doing an XC race in PA and about 1/2 mile in on a completely smooth section of doubletrack, my rear tire inexplicably exploded. There was a massive hole in the side wall on a brand new Kenda Karma. I was only running around 40 psi. I didn't hit anything, so either the tire got some kind of nick in the sidewall beforehand or possibly the tire was defective. I told my LBS about it and they were kind enough to replace it for me.
When I was a kid I pulled into a gas station to air up a tire on a big old 3 speed. I rolled up to the first airhose I saw and went to air up. I had grabbed the high pressure hose they had for semi trucks. It only took seconds to blow my tire up and when it went, it flipped my bike over. The explosion as mentioned above was deafening. People came running from every direction and one person had called the police and fire before they figured out what had happened.
Good question! When I was out in Denver last month, I opened a tube of sunscreen and it freakin' erupted when I took the cap off. It's amazing the effect a few thousand feet has.
could be worse, about a year ago I was inflating a tire on an old rim that was bent just enough. After I had it to pressure I started to carry it back over to the bike and happened to notice the bead had slipped off the rim and the tube was bulging through. I started to turn to set it back down to run the hell away and it went boom. I was kinda loopy for a few minutes, it was so loud that a couple kids form a block away heard it and came running to see what happened
This happens all the time. I've seen crits where the asphault is so hot that tubes blow during the race! If it's hot, try and keep your wheels in the shade.
