January 15, 17 and 19, 2019 Bike rides....

Here are a three more Twin Cities Bicycling Club (TCBC) bike rides I've led in January 2019.

01-15-19: Mild Weather Tuesday

01-17-19: Somewhere Thursday

01-19-19: Balaclava Saturday

On Tuesday, 01-15-19, Chuck showed up for my 59 mile Mild Weather Wednesday ride. We headed SW of Champlin to Maple Plain where we took a break at Blackwater Coffee.

01-15-19

01-15-19

01-15-19

01-15-19

On 01-17-19 Chuck and I rode 52 miles on my Going Somewhere bike ride. This time we took a break at the Dunn Brothers in St. Michael. We took the opportunity to ride some gravel roads before the break, since I hadn't been on them since the snow, rain, more snow, very cold weather, several more days of very warm weather before getting cold again.  There were some sections of ice but rideable.

01-17-19

While on today's bike ride I got a flat front tire at about mile 10. Luckily, I was close to a house that I saw had the garage door open. Although, the homeowner allowed me to use his garage he was pretty reluctant and said was going to leave soon. So I changed the tube as quickly as I could. It was nice to be out of the wind while changing the flat...

I’ve had 4 flats with my studded tires in the past two seasons. All on the rear tire. The studs have pushed through the inside of the tire causing very small pin sized holes in the tubes. So after the last flat I put some tire liners in each tire to hopefully prevent the studs from pushing through the tire and puncturing the tubes.

When I was changing the front tire I looked at the front tube I noticed some longitudinal cuts that were different from the previous holes made by the base of the studs. I checked the inside of the tire and couldn’t find anywhere the studs had poked through the tire. I put a new tube in and we were back on the road for another 42 miles without any more problems.

The next morning, 01-18-19, I checked my bike and notice that the rear tire was flat. I took off the rear tire and notice at least seven cracks in the tire liner. I also saw at least seven cuts in the tube. I located the cut that was letting out air and matched it up to the crack in the liner. Then I checked the area of the tire where the stud was located and it hadn't pushed through the inside.

What appears to be happening is the very cold weather is making the tire liner more brittle than the rubber compounds of the tubes. So when the area underneath the studs strike the tire liner over and over it’s causing the liner to crack which ends up cutting the tubes.

I put the tire liners in both tires on 11-29-18 and rode 695 miles on the front and 737 miles on the rear tire before getting the flats. On 01-20-19 I sent an e-mail to Clean Motion about my issue with their tire liners.

UPDATE: 01-20-19. Since I wrote this I read a review on the RhinoDillos from someone else who had a similar issue, so now I'm not too sure about my theory on what is exactly causing the cracks.

Here was his comment, "I do not like these liners because they have destroyed two of my tubes. After ~800mi of use, the blue plastic-like part of the liner cracked and formed a hard sharp plastic edge which sliced into my tube. My tube then rapidly deflated, while I was riding. Not a good situation...". He also had some images of the cracks in the tire liner similar to mine.

 I’ve never had a problem with getting a flat caused by a stud in front so I removed the tire liner.

Today, 01-18-19,  I cut the bead off an old Challenge Strata Bianca tire and put it in the rear tire today.

Tomorrow, 01-19-19,  I have another ride so I’ll see how the rear tires holds up....

01-18-19...from the front tire that had the hole

01-18-19...not all the way through, but getting there

01-18-19... cut, but not completely through yet

01-18-19..crack in the plastic that lines up with the cut/hole in the rear tube

01-18-19...the stud hasn't come through the tire where the crack in the liner cause the tube to leak

01-18-19...this cut was leaking air

01-18-19...more cuts in the rear tube

On Saturday, 01-19-19, Paul and I rode this very chilly morning. It was -9 F when we started the ride. We rode a loop up to Elk River and back from Champlin. The route was 42 miles long.  The average temperature was 1 degree F, even after bringing my Garmin inside Dunn Brothers to charge while we took a break.

01-19-19

01-19-19

01-19-19

01-19-19

01-19-19

01-19-19

01-19-19...i do carry extra sets of headwear and glove liners...

01-19-19

01-19-19

 This year I bought some Dermatone to use for my face on those cold mornings. I've used the Dermatone in the lower left, but haven't used the other stuff with Zinc Oxide.