Help! Tire/tube/wheel problem

Tighten the stem valve if you can.

Make sure you run your fingers slowly around the rim and tire, make sure your not pinching the tube when you install it and try to avoid using tools if you can to put the tire on. Even if you can't see it there might be a tiny hole in the rim strip I would invest in a cloth rim tape. Same thing happened with my rim and I bought rim tape from my lbs and haven't had a problem since.

BRANDON_90 wrote:

Tighten the stem valve if you can.

How do I do that?

there is a tool available with a notch that fits down the stem to grab the flat sides of the valve, but if this has happened on different tubes... I mean I could see one or two different tubes having loose valves. Kinda, not really though.

Follow fitbikerider's advice about installation w/o tire levers or other tools to ensure you're not pinching the tube on installation.
Spokes poking through would be obvious from where the actual hole is (inside of the tube). Pinch flats look like snake bites, two small holes next to one another.

Can you see where the holes are? If there are no holes, obviously it might be the whole valve stem thing with a slow leak

check the rimstrip

I blew upy old tube by accident cause I didn't put the tire on the right way and the bead wasnt completely lined up under the rim. The tire was a little off the rim and I went to let air out of the tube and it blew up. Should I just get a new tube? And I put the tube underwater to see if I could find a leak and I didn't see any air bubbles coming up. The day before I realized it was flat the first time (they went flat overnight) I was messing around with ghost feebles, could that have caused it?

the stem would bubble underwater too & would be easily seen. If it is at the rimstrip, bubble on the inside diameter of the tube.

those tricky small leaks can be more easily found if you put a shit ton of air in it before putting it underwater. It is amazing how much those things stretch when thy're not in a tire. I've inflated 'em to the diameter of a cruiser (24") & a good 4" around when I am having to find those lil' fucking leaks. They can be a pain in the ass to find, but it'll help you diagnose what is going on with the wheel... if anything is wrong with the wheel too. Though, snake bite is usually pretty obvious

So should I just buy a new tube? I'd rather try the cheaper and easier solutions first

sure & I guess cloth rim strip too. And don't use tire levers or tools on installation. Make sure the tube is kinda firm when you're seating it so it is less likely to pinch. Just hate it when you buy a new tube and the real issue isn't resolved & it claims a brand new tube. Been there, done that. It is frustrating

Sounds good man, thanks for the help

What kind of rims do you have? Obviously run your fingers around the inside of the tire to check for thorns. But a few years ago I had a similar problem with my back wheel (a GSport rim) The eyelets on the inside of the rim were actually so sharp that they would create a tiny leak. I put a few layers of electrical tape onto the rim (under the rim strip) and haven't had the problem since.

I have the cinema rims that were stock, and its the back wheel which is a double wall rim, if that makes a difference

you could remove the rim strip & see if there is the metal burrs zach is talking about. It should wear on your strip too, if that were the case you would visibly see wear on the strip close to where the eyelet roughness/sharpness is located. I've done the electrical tape trick as well, it works. I prefer the Velox cloth rim strip, but tape might be a few bux cheaper. Cloth tape usually runs about $5. I've never run both, but it sounds like a solid way to eliminate the possibility.

Pretty much everything has been mentioned now to look for... be sure to run your fingers over the entire width of the inside of the tire and look for small slices/wear that go all the way through the tire itself . I've had to turn the tire inside out to put it under stress to find holes or embedded objects. The tire doesn't want to be in this shape, so it stretches out the curvature to let you see at things a bit better.

One last thing that I am sure would've bubbled if you put the tube under water... sheared stems from not having the valve stem sticking out nice & straight. If the stem is at a slight angle, it could get a slice from the rim itself. The stem should be perpendicular to the surface of the rim where it penetrates through. But, again... this kind of issue is fairly obvious when trying to figure out what happened to the the tube.

Sometimes you can't even see the hole in the rim strip and to be safe you could cut out a square of an old tube or rim strip and cut a hole in the middle of that and push the valve through it and it will help make sure the valve doesn't get fucked up.

I took out the tube and inflate the fuck out of it and found a tiny ass hole