The Bennett Test - Testing Tires & Tubes
Conti Touring 2000 and Primo Comet
The Bennett Test is for new tires and tubes. It is also used every time you change a tire or tube if possible. Obviously, this does not apply to road repairs.
The Test
An inflated tire must sit in the garage over night and not lose pressure before you ride on it.
Here’s an example of what can happen:
I changed my Slipstream Tires back to light weight tires and tubes from the Slimed Tubes and Conti Tires I used in July for the Northwest Tour. Well, using the Bennett Test, I left them over night before riding on them. In the morning, the 20: wheel was flat.
I pulled the tube and could not find any leaks even using soap and water immersion. I am puzzled why did it go flat?
So as a test I put the same tube and tire back on the wheel and pumped them up to 100 PSI. They have now gone 2 days and looks fine.
The questions:
1. Are they OK. If it was the second time putting them on the wheel I’d say fine.
2. Why did they go flat the first time? The tube looked fine when I took it off and showed no signs of a leak when submerged
Follow-up Day 3
After 3 days the tire is soft and pressure has fallen from 100 PSI to 24PSI. I must have slightly pinched the tube on the 20″ wheel when installing the tire.
The Bennett Test saved me from riding with a slow leaker.
Tip
Small tires (20″ and smaller) are harder to install than larger tires and it is easier to pinch the tube, especially if the tire has a Kevlar bead like the Primo Comets I run.
Try inflating the tube slightly when it is on the rim and one side of the tire is hooked in just before you are ready to start hooking in the other side of the tire.
This helps prevent pinching by keeping the tube inside the tire and away from the rim while hooking the tire over the rim with your fingers.
Of course, you never use tools to put the tire on the rim. Tools are for taking the tire off of the rim.
Note: I’ll post my conclusions on riding with the Conti Touring 2000s and Slimed Tubes after I have a change to ride with the Primos again. You can see from this post why that has been delayed.
