On the road, which wheel gives you the most flats, front or rear?

I've always found that I have the most flats on my back tire because that's the wheel that goes through the most stress. I think I have more flats in the back because it's the drive wheel whereas the front wheel is the steering wheel.

Right?

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Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on October 24, 2016 at 4:43am

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/rear-flats.html

Definitely the rear tire for me on my MTB. 9 out of the last 10.

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Permalink Reply by Matt M. 18.5KM on October 24, 2016 at 5:50am

Ha! "Many sharp objects, especially those that lie flat on the road like nails and pieces of metal, more often enter rear tires than the front tires. That is because the front tire upends them just in time for the rear tire to be impaled on them." :-) There is still so much to learn from Jobst Brandt!!!

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Permalink Reply by mike w. on October 24, 2016 at 5:01am

The rear tyre carries most of the weight. Also, it's easier to dodge road hazards with the front and to easier see anything stuck in the front tread in time to deal with it.

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Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on October 24, 2016 at 6:25am

Does the rear tire actually carry most of the weight(load)? Perhaps, a majority of the time.

From Explainthatstuff.com:

"The frame doesn't simply support you: its triangular shape (often two triangles joined together to make a diamond) is carefully designed to distribute your weight. Although the saddle is positioned much nearer to the back wheel, you lean forward to hold the handlebars. The angled bars in the frame are designed to share your weight more or less evenly between the front and back wheels. If you think about it, that's really important. If all your weight acted over the back wheel, and you tried to pedal uphill, you'd tip backwards; similarly, if there were too much weight on the front wheel, you'd go head over heels every time you went downhill!"

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Permalink Reply by Paul Lazzaro on October 24, 2016 at 9:52am

On a diamond frame, the distribution is typically assumed to be 40/60% front/rear. But as Yogi Berra said, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."

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Permalink Reply by Jim Reho on October 24, 2016 at 10:23am

I think that article is a little bit sloppy. It's not a theory that the front and rear wheels on a bike support different percentages of the rider's weight. It's easy to measure with a simple scale. Even a cruiser or comfort bike has more weight on the rear wheel. Also, I'm still trying to figure out this sentence from the same article: "When you sit on a bike, your weight pushes down on the hubs, which stretch some of the spokes a bit more and others a bit less. If you weigh 60kg (130lb), there's about 30kg (130lb) pushing down on each wheel (not including the bicycle's own weight), and the spokes are what stops the wheels from buckling." Maybe it's just a typo. My own experience is that rear-wheel flats occur occasionally and front flats hardly ever. As real-world evidence of difference in weight on each wheel, just think about how much faster rear wheels wear than front ones.

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Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on October 24, 2016 at 2:44pm

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/bicycles.html

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Permalink Reply by David P. on October 24, 2016 at 4:17pm

That is poorly written and substantially inaccurate or misleading. Load on each tire is determined by the wheelbase, static weight distribution of the bicycle itself, and the fore-aft location of the center of gravity of the rider in any given position, and the location(s) and masses of any loads carried.

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Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on October 25, 2016 at 4:14am

"without a rider, the weight was distributed fairly evenly between the two wheels. With a rider aboard, the center of mass moves rearward, with nearly 60% of the total load on the rear wheel. Once our rider started pedaling, the front and rear wheel loads oscillated by about 10%, although ON AVERAGE the total load was just about the SAME as it was while seated without pedaling."

http://www.vernier.com/innovate/investigating-weight-distribution-o...