The Wipe Down
Frank’s maddening post about doing things because, well, because that’s the way to do things made me question some of my own questionable cycling behavior.
My sensi taught me to clean off my tires immediately after riding over something that might cause a puncture. This was done while riding, finger tips floating over the tread to dislodge any potential trouble. The front wheel is easy, the rear requires some technique, indexing one’s hand against the seat-stay. Did sensi mention the indexing part? I don’t think so, sensi did not have to state the obvious all the time. The obvious being: if your hand gets too close to the seat tube your hand becomes firmly wedged between tire and seat-tube, hilarity ensues.
Drunk people are not interested in recycling or redeeming the $0.05 deposit on their beer bottles. It is much more fun to throw them out the window, resulting in me wiping off my tires, usually a few times a ride. I do this and have not had a flat tire in a long time so you must all start doing this, except my wife’s bike roll with the same Veloflex Arenberg tubulars and she never does this and she has not had a flat in a long time either. We train together and she blithely rolls over the same glass that I’m madly wiping off my tires.
The conclusion is, on dry roads glass rarely punctures tires. I have found tiny wire segments are what sometimes punctures my tires, possibly from destroyed car tire radial belts but one never rides through a glittering, highly visible, pile of those. All bets are off when the tires, road and debris are wet. My current theory is the water provides enough lubricity to let glass and other fun things go right through the tire tread. I have no data to prove this; it might be standing on the side of the road in the rain makes a more vivid memory of getting a flat.
Paul Sherwen is always saying the rain causes more “flints” to wash into roads, hence more punctures on rainy days. I’m thinking, if anything, the rain washes “flints” off the road but in any case the wet causes the troubles. Again, Paul was a Pro but I’m one year older (we share the same birthday, I did not know that) so that’s a wash.
Have we learned anything today? Not bloody likely as I will continue to wipe off my tires as I ride over bad things despite no evidence that it helps. Have I cursed myself and my wife by mentioning our lack of flat tires, quite possibly. Does this mean I should shift my bike into the small/small cogs when putting her away for the night, no.
I do it too. But mostly for the thrill I get from conquering my fear that maybe this will be the time I finally get a sharp piece of shit in my fingertip, and touching that tread despite the better inclinations of my amygdala.
In 45 (?) years of riding, I can’t count but a few times seeing, then flatting from, an object, be it wire, glass, roofing nail, “flint” (is that an arrowhead?), pointy dildo, or whatever.
Usually it’s the sensation of either something’s wrong, followed by a bounce or two to check, verified by a “merde” or a “fuck”; or the more certain “bang & psssssshhhh”.
I used to wipe, but all I did was occasionally cut my finger (that didn’t come out right).
Surface Tension from the water coating everything is what increases your chances of flats in rain. The water increases the surface tension between other wet objects and your wet tire. This makes debris stick and slowly work into the soft rubber rather than just flinging off as you ride.
I love my veloflex!
Veloflex FTW!
And, as @DCR put it, it’s surface tension allowing “pointy things” to work their way into the tire. A shard of glass does not (usually) instantly pierce the carcass (I just want to write “pierce the carcass”… and try to say it without giggling) but instead insidiously works its way into the weave.
Great article. Surely now it’s time for a bit on valve washers and value caps?
Front wheel I use my glove, back wheel i leave alone after witnessing the finger wedge between tyre and seat tube. Also the scary bit of whatever trying to wipe off, slashing finger tips.
Anyone remember 2013 TdF Stage 17? It was a newspaper being removed on Chris Anker Sorensen. Wasn’t a wipe, but ouch!
I learned this habit on my old Merckx Corsa SLX that had plenty of room behind the seat stay. The first time I tried it on my S-Works i had my thumb snatched though the miniscule space it had. I then learned to unclip my left foot and use the top of my shoe underneath the chain stays.
Another way to get a flat is to ride the gutter in Roubaix and bang your 5.5 bar tire fully into a cobble while trying to pass a quickly-slowing Dutchman.
William attempted this, and Johan Museeuw came to his aid with a spare tire.
@sthilzy
I think this business of the material cutting the finger is grossly exaggerated. I’ve been doing this for…going on thirty years and have never been cut even a single time. But you do want to do it right away, before anything embeds, and you do want to have a light touch with the fingers to keep the material just flicking off into oblivion, presumably waiting to flat another rider’s tire.
Maybe we haven’t learned anything today, but it’s a reminder of things we already know. Like Frank’s post (last May?) about a love of our tires inspired by Krabbe’s, “ik veeg mijn banjes schoon” — kinda like gently wiping a baby’s lips after breastfeeding. The opposite of “Ouch,” but part of the mystery of Rule V nonetheless.
@DeKerr
I feel vindicated. And I had to work at juggling “lubrication” and “penetration” in this post without the usual adolescent male remarks, and it was work!
@freddy
Wow…that’s what I meant to write.
@frank
Yeah, me neither, on the finger cutting. I have done it wiping my finger around the inside of a clincher trying to figure out what had caused a flat…oh hell yes, it was that shard of glass still embedded in the tire.
But on the outside, just light grazing of fingers, as Frank says.
What really matters, here, is that Gianni used the word “lubricity.”
That is a word with a long and storied history, and there are reasons why it shows up here and almost nowhere else.
I have always wiped them, an always will. Just what I do.
@Glenn
Top of of your shoe?! Are you serious man? Your shoes must look like they’ve been run over by a thousand b-doubles!
I wipe, and yes usually nothing comes of it but occasionally I feel something for a rotation or two then it’s gone so for me it works and I’ll keep doing it.
As for the rear, I prefer to use the brake bridge as a rest and lower slowly from there.
Obviously we wipe them. Especially the back one.
Learned to do it in the 1970’s on silks, expensive tires at the time. Still do it today and get a lot of looks. Never wedged a hand or finger, but have definetly dislodged what ever was in my tire and lodged it into my hand/finger/glove. Much cursing and bleeding and splinter removal later, proud that maybe I saved that flat.
@EBruner
A-Merckx brother. I have also heard mythical stories of people amputating their fingers doing it, but those are usually told by the dude who flats just after you clean your tire.
@frank
I’ve managed to cut myself quite spectacularly. Kicked myself afterwards cos my sensei taught me to use the web on the glove between finger and thumb and the one time I didn’t…
What Simon said. Easily done on the front, carefully executed on the rear. Carefully, as I’ve had embedded glass slice through most of the leather on one pass. Not easily done on the CX bike, and why bother? Thorns and the like hide between the knobs.
With over 10,000 k in 2015 and still riding into 2016 north of the US border where cold really is cold as in more than just a long sleeve jersey and arm warmers I have had only one flat and only because the tire was almost worn to the casing ,with that being said I never wipe my tires although I do now and always have left my bike resting in small ,small .
Haha, I’ve jammed my hand not once but twice! Luckily only once at slow speed did I topple over, but it was only sheer fluke the full rear wheel lock-up at 35kph on a busy arterial route didn’t result in my ending up under the wheels of much traffic – I managed to get my foot down somehow, but my shoulder, arm and hand weren’t happy!
I find changing tyres prior to them being bald/perished is the secret to reduction in flat tires. Sure you’re thinking ‘that must cost a fortune’ however a tube is $10 + canister $3….so a flat is $13. Changing your tyres over when they are still healthy is a small price to pay.
Tangentially related, but something I haven’t figured out yet. Perhaps another intensive study of The Rules would answer my question. Perhaps just flat-out asking would be easier.
There seems to be a certain distain for gloves among some of the supplicants, which I “Frankly” don’t understand. Back when my standard cycling kit consisted of a pair of red nylon gym shorts, whatever T-shirt, Nike sneakers, Aviator sunglasses and a Weyless cap, gloves were the first cycling specific addition to the wardrobe. I’ve always felt they served a useful function, offering better grip, some padding, protection whilst doing The Wipe Down, and hopefully sparing some dermatologic trauma in the event that you do get hand jammed between the rear tire and seat tube and go over the front.
So WTH is there not to like about gloves?
More confirmation that tires tend to flat in the rain. Less than 10% of my rides are on wet roads, but at least 50% of my flats are in the wet.
@Simon
Yep, the web of the glove!
Like I said yesterday, been doing this forever, last flat was a pinch flat I’ll attribute to improper application of talc before seating the bead. Use the palm not the fingertips when sweeping the rubber. This lesson learned when knit fingerless gloves were de rigeur. Works on cross tires too.
Thirty-odd years ago there were still devotees of Pelissier tyre savers using them as they racked up the miles across rural South Auckland where I trained. About the same time I managed to jam my hand between rear tyre and seat tube while in a depleted and fatigued state. Stayed upright, but slid the wheel for a bit… Ever since I’ve only used fingertips to brush both tyres, without repeating the feat or getting cut. Once or twice I’ve felt something on the tread, stopped and found a piece of glass, and removed it before flatting. I’ll brush both tyres at the mere sight of broken glass, and reckon I do better than most flats-wise. I do less than most mileage-wise, but that’s another story…
Having got in the habit of brushing the rear tyre without reference to seat stay, it’s also become an ongoing coordination self-test…
These are little risks I’m prepared to take along the journey. But any ride without cycling gloves/track mitts? Never. Madness.
@Oli
I take it Andre Greipel hasn’t called asking for his gloves back yet? Or are they Tom Boonens?
They were Didi Thurau’s.
“Paul Sherwen is always saying the rain causes more “flints” to wash into roads, hence more punctures on rainy days. I’m thinking, if anything, the rain washes “flints” off the road but in any case the wet causes the troubles. Again, Paul was a Pro but I’m one year older (we share the same birthday, I did not know that) so that’s a wash.”
I believe he was talking about roads round my neck of the woods where gravel, flints and everything else does wash into the roads. Loads of the lanes around here have fields above the road level. Sample locations below.
@Oli
Looks like that lever by your hand could be turned in some .
Enough already, STOP doing this!
I used to use my shoe to clean potential detrius, but that was only when commuting and using (ugh!) mud guards. Typically employed the much discussed and, I thought, more elegant method of my glove on the front tire and a light finger or more on the rear. That all came crashing to an end while on a social ride on my much loved Colnago C40. I came to an abrupt, painful and damaging ‘hard landing’ resulting in a crushed vertebrae, nine weeks in a body brace and months more recovering. It seems the Colnago has a little less clearance between tire and seat tube than my other bikes and my hand got jammed as I was extracting it from the completed task.
In conversations with other riders afterwards, I discovered three friends had managed the same trick but with somewhat less serious consequences. One resulted in a dislocated shoulder, another survived more serious damage by falling onto the barrier railing. It seems cyclists never talk of the results of this kind of foolishness in a preventative fashion, only in terms of survivor.
To repeat: STOP doing this! The potential and unproven savings of flatting just aren’t worth the risk.
I’ve been cleaning my tyres for years with my fingers, especially in the winter to remove all the crap off the tyre. Gives you that nice feeling looking at a clean tyre, knowing it’s ready for another days hard work.
@Oli
This
@frank
Or just outside Iper ride over something sharp and agricultural and slice your tyre clean in two.
Although on the plus side we now know that you can run a Shimano cassette on a Capagnolo set up for at least 130kms without dying
Also this is part of Rule #40 – because your tyre label is always over the valve, when you find the hole in the inner tube you can match it to the point where the thorn went through the cover.
True misery is detonating your last tube in the pissing January rain because – even though you know that there has to be something sticking in the carcass your fingers are too numb to find it.
Although if you start squelching your way to shelter (looking like one of Napoleon’s currasiers walking back from Moscow after having eaten his horse) Police Scotland will sometimes give you a lift home.
During the drive home they will take a keen interest in your mental health.
@Gianni
If something pertinent had cropped up you should have just worked it in.
In other news, I am NOT going to start doing this. With my luck it will only end in disaster, pain, misery and/or severe cases of death. I’ll take my chances.
I have always done this and was in fact surprised by the reactions of others who don’t. You have to be careful, but then what is there in cycling that doesn’t require some care and attention?
I use The Wipe in winter a bit, and think about it in summer before I remember I’m not wearing gloves.
I am going on record as saying i consider this practice looney tunes ! I like to keep my hands and fingers away from really fast spinning things that can remove my hands and fingers or parts of them. And I think that that is pretty sound thinking. Cheers all
@wilburrox
Nope! Did it again this morning. Found myself boxed in and forced through a glass shard field. Fingers on both wheels – front I could feel something pass under twice and popping off on the third. Rear, popped off on the second pass. Works, and I’ll keep doing it. No blood yet althoug I tent not to use the very tips of my fingers since they contain the highest desity of nerve endings. I prefer to use below the “pad” of my fingers.
@Spider
Really? Tubes are $5, and canisters are $1 (AUD)… buy in bulk. Not that I do, I ride tubulars (yes, always, and I do 15’000km a year) which has the added benefit of a free tyre with every tube. $75.
@Uncle V
I think that’s just a slight fisheye camera distortion – rest assured it’s perfectly aligned parallel to the top-tube. Nice try though.
I always wipe, but all this talk of bleeding fingers, jammed hands, and resulting mishaps is proof that using hands and fingers is not the proper way. Pull out your bidon and hold it against the tire for a few revolutions to clear debris. Didn’t anyone else learn this method?
Are you nuts trying this on a MOVING bicycle??? Did you not see a pro in the tour a few years ago nearly lose several digits trying to remove a newspaper from his front wheel? Need to wipe? STOP!!
@Puffy
gives me the willies just thinking of it… yea man, protect those nerve endings, they’re not overrated! Cheers