Tire unseated during ride

Nate Parady

3 miles into my RR ride this weekend my rear tire locked up on me.  Luckily I was just riding along and was able to maintain control of my bike and come to a stop.  I remember riding over or near a few branches and suspected that something had lodged between my tire and frame.  However, when I got off the bike I was surprised to see some of my tube had come out and the tire was unseated from the wheel rim.  It locked up my wheel because it couldn't get passed the rear brake housing.  the tube did not pop, I did have to let the air out to get things fixed and then filled it up with a CO2 on the side of the road. 

-This was a newer tire with only 300 miles on it

-I had inflated it in my house and not checked it after driving about 15 minutes to my training area

-I did just change it from a trainer tire (did I just screw up the change?)

What do you think caused this?  What the tire and tube just not changed correctly.  This is the first time in over 5 years that this has ever occurred. 

Steve West

Nate, I had a violent blowout once on my rear tire because it came off the bead like yours. The first time it happened I was doing 20+ mph on a flat straight section which scared the crap out of me. Then it happened 8 miles later on the same ride - a race rehearsal at that! I did manage to finish the ride but was petrified of it going off on the big hill at Lake Placid on race day......

So, in a panic I went to my LBS... took him about 30 minutes to figure it out..... my rim tape had slipped up one side and was obscuring the bead lip. After taking care of that (no charge) it never happened again. I will say that now when changing tires I do look at the condition and position of the rim tape.

Nate Parady

Rim Tape. Wow, never would have thought of that. so this is something on the inside of the wheel rim that you can adjust manually. or does it need to be replaced. I had a Gator Skin on this wheel previously which is a pain in the butt to get off. I bet I screwed something up trying to get it off.

I hear you on being this being scary. I was going pretty slow and it almost took me out.

Coach Rich

Posted By Nate Parady on 31 Aug 2015 10:32 AM


Rim Tape. Wow, never would have thought of that. so this is something on the inside of the wheel rim that you can adjust manually. or does it need to be replaced. I had a Gator Skin on this wheel previously which is a pain in the butt to get off. I bet I screwed something up trying to get it off.



I hear you on being this being scary. I was going pretty slow and it almost took me out.

Rim tape is a strip of kinda specialized tape that is layed inside the rim, creating a barrier between the ends of the spoke nipples and your tube. If in doubt, just replace it. Very cheap and easy to do.

Steve West

My guess is that your tire lever pushed it sideways while digging around to the the Gatorskin off. If it looks fine, only pushed to the side near the bead, just get it back to center. If it looks boogered, do like Coach says and replace it.

Al Truscott

A more common issue than migrating rim tape (that's never happened to me in probably 125,000+ miles, plus all the riding I do with others) is not ensuring at the time of the tire change that the tube lies completely inside the tire bead on both sides all the way around. If even a little bit of the tube is peeking out from under the bead, that can lead to a poor seal between bead and rim. Whenever I change a tube or tire, I work my way all the way around the wheel, squeezing and lifting the tire to make sure it is inside the rim and the tube is inside the bead.

John Henault

I'm in Al's corner on the cause of the problem. If it were the rim tape, I think the tube would have popped. My educated guess is that there was a piece of tube that was not seated inside the tire and, as you rode, the pressure pushed more air into that section of tube eventually pushing enough air to unseat the tire bead. I've had this happen before and it was purely operator error in seating the tube and tire.

Steve West

99.9999999999% of the time it is likely to be a pinched tube.

In my case the rim tape had slid sideways and butted to the bead lip for about a 4" making it impossible for the tire to seat there. Very obvious to see with the tube deflated just by pushing the tire to the side like when you check for a tube pinch. You don't even need to take the tire off to check.

Nate Parady

thanks All,
I am changing my tire tonight back to a trainer tire. I will inspect the rim tape and then do a better job at making sure the tube is properly installed. I think I dodged a bullet this time.
I would say over the last 5 years 99% of all my bike issues have been operator error..

Brad Marcus

@Nate- this exact thing happened to me last season while racing Quassy 70.3. In my scenario, it was a new tire/tube that I'd ridden maybe 100 miles before the race without issue. At mile 44 during the race I was descending down a hill and heard something rubbing very hard on my back wheel and as I slowed, the wheel locked up (I was probably going too fast for it to lock at first). The tire had come unseated, just as you described. I wrote something in the forum about it afterwards, but can't seem to find the thread now. In any event, I could swear that it was a defective tire. After fixing it for that race, I went through 2 tubes in a very short period of time (not during that race!). As soon as I tossed the tire and installed a new one, I had no issues whatsoever. By the way, I was using (and continue to use), Continental GP4000s tires. Hope you get it out of your system now, before race day!!

Nate Parady

So I inspected the Rim Tape last night...No issues, still looks brand new. I changed to a new tire and as I was inspecting the tire and tube placement before pumping up sure enough the tube was sticking out a bit. Had to stretch out the tire to get it to sit right.



I'm convinced now that this was caused by what should have been a "pinch flat" but ended up pushing the tire out.



@Brad. the defective tire theory could be valid. I plan on switching to my race tires in a few weeks for my final race rehearsal. Fingers crossed. I use a very nice Vittoria Corsa Evo tire. I've had zero issues with this tire over 5 years.