What Happens If...

What happens if you overinflate a bicycle tube? I found out today.

My Fuji Touring bike took a screw in the front tire yesterday, and I just happened to be smart enough to pull it out rather than ride home the final 1/2-mile with the tap tap tap sound disturbing my peace. When I pulled out the screw, I also pulled out all the air behind it. Kind of like the guy who pulls the freshly embedded nail out of his head before going directly to the Emergency Room.

Then when I repaired the tube, I accidently overinflated it as well. Not a good day in the thinking department. The Touring bike's tires are 32mm wide, about a third of an inch wider than your standard road bike's 23mm skinnies. The Touring bike's tires plainly state the max. air pressure of 85 psi, but I blanked out, overinflating them to 115 psi, same as my best girl's road bike. Dopey me. But I'm better now.

About a mile into our ride today, a tiny strip of sidewall bead of the tires happily gripping the rims -- and holding back 115 pounds of explosive decompression -- decided to slip, allowing the tube to pooch out of the newly created crack between the tire bead and the rim. Seconds later, the neighbors were treated to a giant *POP*, as though someone had set off a firecracker. Eerie how it was the exact same sound on a day when that sound was so frequently heard across America. Only this *POP* was my tube -- and my fun -- coming to its useful end.

Fortunately, I had a spare tube in my pack, so I could quickly replace the tube. And away we went.

And now we all know what happens when one overinflates a bicycle tube. Have a happy Independence Day!