Re: Very Slow Leaks.

On 5/6/2025 2:31 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Tue, 6 May 2025 13:10:21 -0500, AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:
 

Teeny little holes (wire, syringe needle, thin glass shard,
thorn) can be hard to find at only moderate inflation.  More
air, as you show in image, distends the aperture so it's
easy to feel the escaping air on one's face by passing the
tube across it.

 No thanks.  I use my hands (palms) to detect air leaks.  ... After reading about the
horrors of having almost invisible wire hooks (steel belt cord) cuts,
I don't think that using my face to test for air leaks is a good idea.

I doubt that's a real problem. I'd imagine any wires would be lodged in the tire, not in the tube.
I think the best anti-flat strategy is to ride away from the road's edge or shoulder. If your tires are rolling where car tires roll, almost all debris will be tossed or blown off the pavement. Much of it lands at the far right, and unfortunately, most cyclists seem to prefer riding exactly there.
Before our coast-to-coast ride I was worried by tales here about Goat Head thorns and radial tire wires. But we had almost zero flats, maybe because of our usual riding position.
The majority of the flats we had (three in quick succession) were caused by a bad rim strip on my daughter's quite new bike. Later, she did get one really nasty cut from hitting a sharp rock, and sure enough, that happened just after she moved onto a highway shoulder to let traffic pass more easily.
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- Frank Krygowski