Ever been unable to find the puncture on an inner tube?

I had a puncture that was slow but fast enough to be flat after a day. Put it in water in the sink but couldn’t see any bubbles. Do you just have to be more patient?

did you check the valve ? Sometimes they stick or even unscrew themselves.

Try loctite on the thread having pumped up then screw tighten and voila no more air loss.

Then again I could be teasing 😉

Pump it up loads. I mean massive. You will eventually find it.

It could also be your wife etc not wanting you to go out 😛

A bucket of water helps 🙂

Pump it up lots. I’ve also got a gadget you could make yourself, it’s a clear plastic container with a mesh bottom, filled with expanded polystyrene balls – detects even the slightest leak.

I’ve had a couple I can’t find. In those cases I don’t feel bad about just putting a new tube in.

I have a pile of them. I keep meaning to get a bigger bucket of water a couple of beers, then find and fix all the punctures.

I usually get fed up and bin the collection every two or three years.

Try not just the bucket / bath of water but stretch the tube as you pass it through your hands opens up the leak and makes it more obvious.

Have had a few of those devious little buggers that are hard to spot.

Best wishes,

James

yep sort of – out with mrs antigee on the tandem – something somewhere in the tyre causing repeat punctures – ended up leaving the bike chained up in pub car park and had a swift ale before taxi arrived – never found the problem

some holes are so small that even submerging the tube can’t find it.

In those rare cases I attach it to the compressor, don the ear-defenders, and let rip until it is MASSIVE, then explodes. Great fun. Kids love it.

Confucius say, pump it up more and you will find it.

Man with pressures on time and better things to do with his evenings say “fukit” and chucks them in the bin.

I’ve had one I couldn’t find until I left the right part underwater for ten minutes or so. It was a badly bonded lateral seam in the tube, and bubbles gathered along it eventually (I pulled the tube either side of it and it ripped apart easily)

yeah, if you have removeable core in the valve a small amount of stans fluid* will sort it.

*other brands are available 🙂

I’ve also got a gadget you could make yourself, it’s a clear plastic container with a mesh bottom, filled with expanded polystyrene balls – detects even the slightest leak

How..?!

Run the mesh face along the inflated tube and wait for the balls to start jumping.

If it’s too small to make bubbles, how will that work?

ghostlymachine – Member
Run the mesh face along the inflated tube and wait for the balls to start jumping.

Amazing. You gotta go on Dragon’s Den with that

Nah. It doesn’t work if there isn’t enough flow to make bubbles.

😉

But they do use them for detecting leaks in low pressure air systems at one place I’ve worked. You can probably buy them.

One of the advantages of having a fish pond – submerge the whole tube in one go.
Might still struggle with a very slow leak, but just pumping harder usually does the trick.

just pumping harder usually does the trick.

Reminds me of my third wife.

just pumping harder usually does the trick.

Reminds me of my third wife.[/quote]

If that’s your technique, I’m not surprised you’re on your third wife 😉

Go tubeless or buy a new tube.

But they do use them for detecting leaks in low pressure air systems at one place I’ve worked. You can probably buy them.

Mine’s made by Simson – definitely works better than water, and much less messy.

But they do use them for detecting leaks in low pressure air systems at one place I’ve worked. You can probably buy them.

Mine’s made by Simson – definitely works better than water, and much less messy.

Edit: http://en.hollandbikeshop.com/bicycle-tires-and-inner-tubes/bicycle-tire-repairs/simson-puncture-finder/

Hold the tube up close to the bit between your nose and your upper lip, it’s the most sensitive part and will detect very slow leaks. Looks kinda like your sniffing a rubber inner tube but it works well.

Hold the tube up close to the bit between your nose and your upper lip, it’s the most sensitive part and will detect very slow leaks.

Not if you have a manly moustache.

ghostlymachine – Member

I have a pile of them. I keep meaning to get a bigger bucket of water a couple of beers, then find and fix all the punctures.

I usually get fed up and bin the collection every two or three years. This. Also – by the time I get around to it, wheel sizes have changed and tubes are redundant.

About ten years ago, by the side of a cycle path in Colchester, passers by were surprised to see a red-faced man scream “J***s T***y Ch***t! Right! That’s it!” as both the front AND the rear wheel started to deflate. For several days, our man had been trying to trace errant punctures just like the OP described, with no success.

Our man was so irate that he picked up the gently hissing rear wheel and threw it hard into a hedge. That rear wheel happened to be fitted with a Hope hub, which duly spat out the cassette and freehub upon landing, sending pawls and springs into the shrubbery never to be seen again.

The man swore some more, cried a little, phoned his girlfriend and begged her to come and collect him in exchange for a meal out. He sat on the green verge, trying hard not to look like the beaten, broken man that he was.

Dear readers, that man was me.

Since then, I’ve used slime tubes and/or tubeless and I’ve not looked back.