I need a bike for 1 month only so I found a used road bike for £79 from a bicycle shop. It looks a bit run down but they said it's fully serviced and ready to ride and I rode it around for 5 minutes before buying it and it seemed fine.
2 days later and my front tire is out of air. I took it apart and whilst doing so found out the tire is cracked in some parts and the tube has already been patched up once.
I'm not a bike expert so I'm clueless about this: Is there a good chance that I had the tube punctured because the tires are very thin and the roads I ride on aren't perfect (I ride over some big cracks in the road sometimes though I never hit any potholes or other major things), or is it most likely because the tire/tube are quite old? Should I go to the bike store and complain or just save the trouble and get the tube patched myself and hope it lasts for the rest of the month?
Thanks
Pic related, it's the bike I bought (not my actual bike, just a pic from google)
As long as your tires are inflated to the proper pressure, riding over cracks or potholes shouldn't cause punctures. You were most likely running too low PSI and got a pinch-flat. Of course the cracked tire walls probably had something to do with it too. Get new tires and tubes.
Also you can patch tubes multiple times with no problems.
>>>/n/bqg
>>961548
>get new tires and tubes
Before this, analyze where the punctures are happening:
If they are in the "sides" of the tube,look in the side which went punctured and look if there is a single puncture or are more than one, symmetrically located from the centerline of the side of tube. Single: cracked tirewalls/rimwalls or bad procedure at mounting. Two symmetrically: that means you are using them with low presure and in bad shaped surfaces.
If the puncture is in the side which is in contact with Surface, there must be edgy shit from streets trying to penetrate your tire.
If the puncture is in the side of tube which is facing the rim holes/screws, go buying this shit from my pic for your rims: high presure rim strips.
MTB-quality rim strips (65 psi) works fine at 80 psi at max, but probably your tires need 120 psi. That means you need harder shit to prevent tube escaping through the rim holes at those presures.
if the tire is rotted i'd take it back and they will prob give you another used one.
You can get two new tyres and tubes for under £20. Don't bother worrying about if the shit you have now is salvageable, just replace it with nice new stuff.
Don't bother going to the store, they'll just tell you to get fucked. It's a decades old bike that was sold as seen, you looked it over and decided it was worth buying.
>Spoked wheels
>"Road bike"
Yes, you bought a shitty bike.