Water in tyres

[frank9755]

Is it normal to get water in tyres?

I just changed mine and there was a couple of tablespoons worth of water inside each one. Never noticed that before.

Frank

 

[giguana]

I thought you meant the inner tube for a moment - I almost went through a lake today, I saw a massive stretch of water about 20 m at the corner of the field and because puddles are so fun I had to go through it except it was probably one meter in the middle so I ended up going round the edge!

 

[flecc]

I've only seen that in two ways. One is when a water bowl is used in finding a puncture and only the patch are is dried before tube refitting. The quantity involved is small of course.

The other was a rather funny episode on a used car. The owner had taken it into KwikFix for a severely vibrating front wheel to be balanced, the job given to a concientious junior. He meticulously checked it and fitted a weight, then rechecked it was ok and found it haywire, so he fitted a second correcting weight. The test through up the same very bad imbalance!

His boss suggested removing the tubeless tyre to check, and inside was about half a pint of soapy water slopping about all the time. It subsequently transpired that the chap the car had been bought from had manually fitted the tyre with levers, aided by copious quantities of soapy water, to get it to slide over the rim.
.

 

[frank9755]

I guess it wouldn't run very smoothly after a heavy frost!

 

[Cyclezee]

Used to live in Canada, when it got cold, and I mean -30c and below, tyres freeze, so the flat contact area stays that way when you are driving. It's almost like having square wheels.
I'm talking cars by the way, only an idiot or a Newfie would ride a bike in those conditions.

John

 

[frank9755]

Note to Wisper owners with the wide Kenda tyres fitted:

After cycling in heavy rain, be sure to remove your tyres to drain excess water. This is particularly important if frost is anticipated!

 

[coops]

Just wondering if the water ingress might have occurred while riding in wet conditions with tyres which had already been penetrated by glass & grit, which you'd removed - possibly leaving holes?

Didn't you say you'd had the same tyres off just before the wet trip & not mentioned water ingress then?

I'm also curious as to what type of puncture protection the Kendas on the Wisper & Powacycle have, compared to the very tough 'K-shield' protection of the Kendas which eZee bikes have - I had hardly any wear & no punctures in several hundred miles on those before I too switched to marathon+ which have also been flat-free (touch wood! ).

Interesting, too, to note that the eZee hub motor kit being sold in Canada comes with marathon plus tyres pre-fitted as standard, it would seem , as per recommendations & requests on pedelecs for eZee to give at least an option for m+ on their bikes, so thats plus points for eZee there .

Stuart.

 

[Ian]

I'm a bit puzzled where the water may have been lurking. Water can get into double walled rims but as far as I can tell from pictures the Wisper models use single wall types so the entire space inside the tyre should be filled with the inflated tube. The only explaination I can think of is that the water got in when the tube was deflated, either at manufacture or in transit and became trapped by the tube when pumped up.

 

[frank9755]

Ian,

No it must have got in when I was riding in the wet on Friday. There was no water there the previous weekend when I had the front tyre off, and the bike shop took the rear one off to fix the puncture on the Wednesday.

Stuart,

The Wisper tyres are in fact the 'K-shield puncture resistant' Kendas which sound like the Ezee ones. I've seen that you and others got on OK with these Kendas. I have to say the PowaCycle ones were ok, but not very smooth and the puncture I got with them was really my fault - trying to bump up a kerb with a rear hub motor and panniers was not clever!

Maybe both John/Aldby and I were unlucky. Maybe the Wisper rear tyre has a harder job to do because both motor and pedal power go through the same wheel. My best guesses are:
1. That the Kendas used, being the extra-wide 1.95", didn't fit the rims very well, or
2. Valve holes

I saw the Ezee kit was shipping with Marathon Plus from the thread on Endless Sphere where you posted - its certainly plus points for Ezee's Canadian dealer, Ebikes.ca!

 

[frank9755]

Ian,

I've just thought about your comment a bit more as with an inflated tube there's no space for water to physically go. The Wisper rims are (like Powacycle) a type I'm not familiar with which has a large v-shaped bit on the inside. I think the water would go there, then find a way through to the tyre, possibly when I deflated it to take it off.

Frank

 

[coops]

Thanks for the information on the Kendas Frank - I must remember that different cyclists can get very different results from the same tyres on the same bike even: I do recall that some have had worse luck than me with the k-shield kendas (and even the tread pattern & thickness may have an effect on puncture protection too I suppose), and Ian's Kendas certainly wore right down & had flats albeit after many more miles than mine.

Good point about the m+ on the eZee kit - may well have been fitted by the distributor, so maybe kudos to him instead! .

Stuart.

 

[Ian]

a large v-shaped bit on the inside.

It sounds like it is a double wall rim, the inner wall will have holes for the spoke nipples, normally covered by the rim tape but not waterproof. Water can get into the V gap between the walls by seeping around the edges of the nipples and valve, it normally goes out the same way given time.