Puncture on both wheels....?

[Mtolesen]

Hi, i got a 2019 Radrover, and yesterday it suddenly lost all air in the rear wheel.
I could not find any leak in the tube.
Tonight it also suddenly lost all air pressure in the front wheel......
I do not think it is a puncture, is this a known problem, is there a ea a known problm with the valves, and can this be repaired?

[handlebar]

Something liked that plagued me for months in 2021. The rear tire might be fine for a couple of weeks, then lose a lot of pressure or go flat overnight. I thought it must be the valve. The third time I removed  the tube to test for a leak, I pumped it up until it was definitely swollen and patiently held it underwater in the kitchen sink, section by section. I'd never seen such a small hole in a tube.

I patched the tube and checked the tire. Another intermittent leak appeared. Again I checked the tire. This time, I marked the drive side of the tube at the valve and the drive side of the tire at the valve. The next time I got a puncture, I knew exactly where to look in the tire. I saw a small discolored spot and felt a little prick. I used a blunt probe, maybe a little nail with the end ground flat, to push the object farther into the tire until enough protruded inside to grab with tweezers.

It was a 6mm hair-thin wire. I tried to measure it with a caliper, but it was so small that it disappeared when I dropped it on the white countertop. If I'd run over a wire so thin, it would have bent or broken instead of going  through a tire lug. It must come from the factory in the tire. As the lug wore down, the wire was pushed farther in until there was enough exposed to make a tiny puncture.

I wondered if somebody at the tire company was in the pay of a company that produces puncture protection inserts. One brand seems to enjoy a huge profit margin, and riders need persuasion to hand over all that money. The fact that troubles have appeared with both wheels at about the same time, suggests to me that your tires were sabotaged at the factory, and the odometer was ticking.... so to speak.

The guy at Bolton tested Slime against Flat Out and a couple of brands of inserts. He found Flat Out to be the most effective, and it was much cheaper than inserts.

Once I found the wire, I had no more trouble except the time I pinched a tube. However, the OEM tubes were somewhat porous. I bought a different brand. They require less topping off.

[Mtolesen]

Hello handlebar, thank you very much for the description, today i will look for puncture, and investigate the inside of the tire, the strange thing is that i happend on both tires, within the same 24 hours.

[Radio Runner]

Juice both tires with 1/2 a bottle of Flat Out and it won?t matter where those micro punctures are. It will clog them up. Great stuff.

[Tree]

Hi, i got a 2019 Radrover, and yesterday it suddenly lost all air in the rear wheel.
I could not find any leak in the tube.
Tonight it also suddenly lost all air pressure in the front wheel......
I do not think it is a puncture, is this a known problem, is there a ea a known problm with the valves, and can this be repaired?

where are you riding?

Last summer I had a tube blow, and then the replacement went flat overnight, before i even rode it. turns out there was a splinter from a goat's head on the inside of the tire that was so small both myself AND a tech missed it....

[mrgold35]

I have a lot of goathead stickers in NM and was getting flats several times a month with my 2016 Radrover with Kenda tires.  I added Mr. Tuffy liners and two  2oz bottles of Stans tire sealant to each tire.  My flat went down to 1-2 times a year.  Those yearly flats were from larger debris that created a hole too large for Stans to work (have a spare tube for those occasions). I usually have to add a 2 oz bottle a few times a year because of it working so much patching holes as I work commute or dirt trail ride +1000 miles per year.