We got a P&T Vibe 3 weeks ago, 2nd hand, 6 months old - generally in very good condition but with one flat tyre that they were honest about, said they'd bought a new inner tube from a bike shop but didn't own a bike pump (perhaps missing the point that the valves are car-type so a car foot pump does the job).

Anyway, the "new" inner tube was leaking from a seam, so I replaced it, and bought another spare inner tube for the next puncture (from a reputable independent bike shop that I take my bike to for servicing).

Today when I got it out of the nursery pram store in the evening one back wheel was totally flat and the other was half flat. The totally flat one was an original P&T tube, also leaking from the seam, so has been replaced with the spare. The other I could pump up, but it might be flat again in the morning.

Anyway, is this normal??? Other than our driveway which is gravel and a trip to the garden centre last weekend, it is only used on pavements, doing maybe 10-15 miles a week. It is going to be a right faff and very expensive if we have to replace inner tubes this often.

Ros

When the last puncture was repaired did they remove the culprit from the actual tyre?

We have a P&T sport and got a puncture with a big shard of metal in it, oh replaced the inner tube but also had to remove the metal from the tyre as it was jammed in there?

I've only suffered the one puncture so far that was repaired by a puncture repairkit so havent actually bought an inner tube!

that doesn't sound too normal

we have had our p&t for over a year now and we've only had one flat!! but the day it got punctured we had 10(yes 10!) different holes...we eventually found there was glass lodged in the actual wheel...so be sure to check yours over carefully, there may be something lodged causing repeated problems

also we've found that we have to keep a constant eye on the pavement incase we go over glass

I've got an iCandy apple and used to get loads of punctures until I went to halfords and got chatting to man and suggested filling my innertubes with this slime stuff (it's in an aerosol) he explained that if I get a thorn etc in, as soon as the air hits the slime it changes into a solid gunge that blocks the hole. So even if you lose a bit of air you can pump it up as it will be sealed. I've had the same inner tubes since May!

I always check the outer with my thumb, particularly at the location where I've found the puncture - before having Seb I cycled 10 miles a day to commute so I'm used to punctures, but not at this rate.

But I've now changed inner tubes on two different back wheels and both were leaking from the seam, which to me suggests failure of the tube rather than a puncture caused by a sharp object. I've also had bad experiences of trying to stick a repair patch on a seam (i.e. I've failed!), hence replacing the tube completely.

I've had inner tubes with slime already in them for a bike before now but didn't know you could add the slime to tyres that don't have it (they only seemed to come in certain sizes), will look in Halfords.

Fingers crossed I've just been unlucky so far, at least I only had one child in the pushchair and OH was able to meet us on his walk home from the station.

RosP wrote:

I always check the outer with my thumb, particularly at the location where I've found the puncture - before having Seb I cycled 10 miles a day to commute so I'm used to punctures, but not at this rate.

But I've now changed inner tubes on two different back wheels and both were leaking from the seam, which to me suggests failure of the tube rather than a puncture caused by a sharp object. I've also had bad experiences of trying to stick a repair patch on a seam (i.e. I've failed!), hence replacing the tube completely.

I've had inner tubes with slime already in them for a bike before now but didn't know you could add the slime to tyres that don't have it (they only seemed to come in certain sizes), will look in Halfords.

Fingers crossed I've just been unlucky so far, at least I only had one child in the pushchair and OH was able to meet us on his walk home from the station.

they sell the slime in aerosols with I pipe thingy to stick in your innertubes. The man in halfords did mine for me, they're really helpful in there. I just do the dumb lady thing and they jump through hoops to help!

Well closer inspection in daylight of the inner tube I took off last night has so far revealed 2 pinpricks close to but not on the seam, puncture repair patches are currently drying. I can't decide yet whether the 2 back wheels have slow punctures at the moment or not; given the weather today and the distance I needed to walk we got the old pushchair back out. So now it has become a job for the weekend, or later, and in the meantime we trip over the Vibe on the kitchen floor...

I did look at the slime but you do have to remove part of the valve somehow to put it in and I didn't think the instructions were particularly clear. There were 2 middle aged women in (/smoking outside) our local Halfords who didn't inspire confidence!

I have a maxi cosi mura that kept getting punctures so I slimed the tyres. I just put the name of the slime into google and it came up with really good instructions on how to do it - really easy.

You do have to remove part of the valve but the slime comes with a tool to do it.