I’m a bit rubbish with bike maintenance so please bear with me, and if anyone can offer any advice, I’d be very grateful. For the last few months I’ve had loads of inner tubes split right near the valve. This is happening pretty much on every ride and I can’t work out why. It’s almost always on the front wheel and with different makes of tube. I’ve looked at the hole in the rim where the valve goes through and can’t see or feel any obvious cause. I thought it might be because the tube was slipping and pulling the valve at the hole but it happens regardless of whether I use those little screws to keep the valve in place.

almost always

or always ?

new wheels ? standard wheels ?

Used to happen to me a lot with old skin wall tyres when I switched to disk brakes. The tyre would roll round the rim a little under braking. Some suggest a bit of talc on the tube so the tyre can roll without taking the tube with it. I ended up with a few drops of superglue on the tyre bead which cured it completely. Not been an issue with black wall tyres, though. What pressure are you running?

not taking the p155 but just checking you havent been a bit overzealous with the hand pump action? or yanking the stem around when pumping up?

I fell foul of that a few times with the mini pump

If this happens again, use the damage on the tube to see where the problem is on the wheel and tyre.

Possible causes:

Burrs or sharp edges on valve or spoke holes, rim tape not covering spoke holes. (sounds like you have already checked this)

Old tyres with wire beads where strands are exposed.

Running too low tyre pressure.

When you change a tube, are you seating the valve tight in the rim before fitting the tyre to the rim?

You need to get the tyre bead in place on the rim, go round a squeeze the tyre together, look down into the rim to see if you have trapped the tube anywhere. Check the valve stem is free to move, add a little air to lock the tyre beads in place, again check tyre is seated properly all the way round rim on both sides. Fully inflate, the screw down valve lock ring.

How old are your tyres? I think if a folding tyre’s a bit tired (boom boom!) and it’s been on and off a lot it can get a bit looser, meaning it can move a bit on the rim, dragging the tube with it and pulling at the valve.

I’d go with tyre rotating a little on the rim and dragging the tube with it.

Talc the outside of the tube and also mark the tyre where it is next to the valve with a Sharpie so you can see if it has moved.

Thanks everyone.
I’ve had the wheels a couple of years, so change of wheel isn’t the cause, though I’ll take a much closer look for damage. It happens regardless of whether I use the track pump or my hand pump.
I use talc if I’m changing a tube and /or tyre at home but not if I’m out on a ride.
I tend to inflate to 30-40 psi with my usual tyres (maxxis cross mark). I know that’s a bit on the lower side but I’ve only had about 2 pinch flats in about 6 years so I assumed I wasn’t under inflating.

The tyres have had 3 years of regular use and I’ve noticed they are less grippy – if they are getting on a bit, could they be allowing too much movement of the tube?

I had something similar with my first mountain bike many years ago – got a puncture with a split tube near the valve virtually every ride – very frustrating! Turned out there was something wrong with the thread on the crappy pump I was using so when I was screwing it onto the valve it was causing it to twist round and weaken.

I would certainly avoid the hand pump if it’s one which connects directly to the valve – that just yanks the valve around against the hole in the rim – which could cause enough damage for the tube to eventually go.

This pump has a tube which comes out of the pump and stops that happening. It’ll do 100psi into a road tyre too, and it’s the same price as 4 new tubes!

Topeak

I had a similar issue, older tyres and loose rim strip causing the tube (and tyre) to move and the rim strip applying pressure to the valve base. Bit of electrical tape and new tyre. Sorted.

I’d go with mcnultycops option – the only time I’ve had problems with inner tubes splitting at the valve was due to a horrid plastic rim tape (Specialized, I’m looking at you sternly) which was just slicing through the tube.

Hi All, Mr Pea here,

I’ve tried new rim tape and carefully deburring the valve hole in the rim. The plastic sleeve is still in place in the valve hole and good quality tubes used with the valve nut nice and tight.

Gentlemen, after 30 years of fixing flat tyres and other assorted bike maintenance, I’m at a loss!

All I can think of is that it’s the maxxis crossmark 2.25 folding bead tyres which are quite old moving on the rim.

Heelllpppp!!!

Floss (Mr Pea)

I need new tyres, they were slithering all over the place the other day!

Used to happen to me a lot

Ended up getting velox cloth rim tape and putting a bit more wind in the tubes

My mate had this issue – a quick feel around his valve-hole (oo-er) revealed some nasty sharp burrs on his stock wheels. So what Neilwheel said, perhaps.

New tyres. I had this happen with Panaracer Fires. Tread was fine, but on one ride I got through six inner tubes, all of which went on the valves. Talcum made no difference.
Fit different tyres, see if that fixes it.

I had this for a while, for no apparent reason. Marking the tyre and rim proved that it was the tyre rotating on the rim under braking, and trying to pull the inner tube around the wheel with it. Running the tyres at higher pressures helped, but going tubeless got rid of the problem completely.

Probably not relevant but..when you pump up the tyres, just put a little air in at first and then rotate them if you need to, so the valve lines up well before pumping. If using those evil threaded ones then do not tighten the collar much until everything pumped up. And even then I just nip them up.Also check the valves holes for sharp edges, or bare metal exposed, and that rim tape is present.

If you like the tyres it may be an option to get some larger width freeride tubes or lightish dh tubes ( not too big though )? They’re likely to be thicker rubber and a larger diameter and may grip the tyre better.

This happened to me

Slack bead of a Maxxis High Roller was the cause. Letting the tyre rotate round the rim on braking

Cure with new Bontrager tyres (other brands are available)

The same tyre is fine on my nieces bike