KS16S: Rock jammed my tire on a trail ride. How often does this happen??

[Jimmy Chang]

I was having a nice trail ride when my tire seized up. A rock got jammed up inside. How often does this happen and how do you prevent it? I can't seem to find much out there about this problem so I figure it's rare. Lugging that EUC through the forest was a pain. You can watch the rock get stuck here, skip to about 7:16: 

 

[ZoomWheelz]

That does not sound good.  From the video, it was difficult to see any rocks  that you could have picked up at the point it made the sound, but either way, you were going so slow, it seems unlikely that is caused by a rock.  Also, you were able to continue moving a bit, so if a rock was stuck, you probably would have seen some scrape marks from it on your hub, rim, or wheel.  Couldn't see that from the video.  Hopefully it isn't the motor suddenly going bad.  Very interested to see what you find out.

[Jimmy Chang]

22 minutes ago, ZoomWheelz said:

That does not sound good.  From the video, it was difficult to see any rocks  that you could have picked up at the point it made the sound, but either way, you were going so slow, it seems unlikely that is caused by a rock.  Also, you were able to continue moving a bit, so if a rock was stuck, you probably would have seen some scrape marks from it on your hub, rim, or wheel.  Couldn't see that from the video.  Hopefully it isn't the motor suddenly going bad.  Very interested to see what you find out.

I didn't see the rock at the time either. When I went home, I used a flashlight and could see the rock. The end of the video shows it.

[ZoomWheelz]

OMG...  I just saw the end of the video...  That is a huge rock to be pulled up for going so slow!  Wow!  I'm glad everything turned out okay.

[Jimmy Chang]

2 hours ago, ZoomWheelz said:

OMG...  I just saw the end of the video...  That is a huge rock to be pulled up for going so slow!  Wow!  I'm glad everything turned out okay.

I know. So weird. If you slow the video down, you can see the rock coming before I go over it. What are the odds of that?

[Mono]

Wood is in my experience more common to get stuck under the shell than rocks. The frequency seems also greatly depend on the wheel. 

[Mono]

3 hours ago, Jimmy Chang said:

If you slow the video down, you can see the rock coming before I go over it.

Watched it about ten times and still can't see it.

[tessa25]

I would never be able to carry my 16X far. So I purchased some inline skates with large wheels and I'm going to buy some long bolts I can use to make a wheeled cradle that I can quickly attach to the wheel. Don't need the boot part of the skates. Then I can roll the wheel out without carrying it. The pieces should fit in my back pack without too much weight.

[Jimmy Chang]

1 hour ago, Mono said:

Watched it about ten times and still can't see it.

Weird. You're right. It must have been edited out in the YouTube version. Here is the real clip, I think you can see the rock right before I roll over it at the 8 second mark.

 

[ZoomWheelz]

26 minutes ago, Jimmy Chang said:

Weird. You're right. It must have been edited out in the YouTube version. Here is the real clip, I think you can see the rock right before I roll over it at the 8 second mark.

 

I saw it that time.  You must have hit it right on the edge causing it to flip up and under the shell.

[Jimmy Chang]

3 minutes ago, ZoomWheelz said:

I saw it that time.  You must have hit it right on the edge causing it to flip up and under the shell.

Lucky me ☺️ ... oh well. I had taken it on a lot of trails that week so I just assumed I had broken the motor or something. At least this was a quick and easy fix.

[meepmeepmayer]

9 hours ago, Jimmy Chang said:

How often does this happen and how do you prevent it?

Never heard of an obstacle blockading a wheel, crashing the rider (and possibly frying the board). Very occasionally , some twigs can get in the wheel well and produce a sound until you remove them. Just like your rock.

I think you just had really bad luck. If this happens regularly to you, maybe some kind of brush (think nail brush) fastened to where the tire enters the shell might help prevent bigger stuff from getting in? But I doubt it's necessary.

[photorph]

Great video Jimmy.  This honestly has been one of the very few reports of this, I would say it's extremely uncommon.  You can have leaves and stick in there, but not something to this extent.  You should have no issues with this normally, I believe it was just a rare coincidence of a rock just going at the correct angle to get lodged in there.  On your other EUC, this is even more unlikely due to the larger clearance between the the shell and tire.  

 

Edited November 8, 2019 by photorph

[JZT-Colorado]

@Jimmy Chang, You said you bought another wheel from eWheels.com, what did you get? :-)

[Rywokast]

wow, that was supremely unlucky.. i havent heard of this before.. at least, not to this extent.. that looked to me like a piece of concrete? i guess it happened to be the perfect shape and you happened to hit it just right.. didnt even look like a rocky trail just bad luck.. looks like it was this little bastard here

[Mono]

11 hours ago, meepmeepmayer said:

Never heard of an obstacle blockading a wheel, crashing the rider (and possibly frying the board).

Means you don't read my posts carefully I already wrote several times that I sort-of faceplanted once due to a piece of wood that was stuck in the shell and completely blocking the wheel. So here we are again:

On a MCMC2s I once collected a piece of wood into the shell which immediately and completely blocked the wheel. I fell, but neither me nor the wheel were seriously hurt.

[meepmeepmayer]

Point taken. Let's agree this is extremely rare then

As a new rider, I was worried about this, too. Every time, a blade of grass or a little twig or pebble made a sound in the wheel well I got scared. Well, turns out tire blockage isn't really a thing.

[Jimmy Chang]

11 hours ago, photorph said:

Great video Jimmy.  This honestly has been one of the very few reports of this, I would say it's extremely uncommon.  You can have leaves and stick in there, but not something to this extent.  You should have no issues with this normally, I believe it was just a rare coincidence of a rock just going at the correct angle to get lodged in there.  On your other EUC, this is even more unlikely due to the larger clearance between the the shell and tire.  

 

Yeah, I have to believe that this is not common at all as I could find nothing about it online. But, it does happen.

11 hours ago, JZT-Colorado said:

@Jimmy Chang, You said you bought another wheel from eWheels.com, what did you get? :-)

Gotway Nikola. So far so good. Just been too busy to ride it much.

2 hours ago, Mono said:

Means you don't read my posts carefully I already wrote several times that I sort-of faceplanted once due to a piece of wood that was stuck in the shell and completely blocking the wheel. So here we are again:

On a MCMC2s I once collected a piece of wood into the shell which immediately and completely blocked the wheel. I fell, but neither me nor the wheel were seriously hurt.

My device still balanced, the wheel would have a hard time turning and it made a grinding noise. I was so surprised, I assumed something inside the motor had broken. I could have tried prying it out in the field, but the rock was wedged in there pretty good. Luckily nothing serious and no injuries.

[Mono]

3 hours ago, Jimmy Chang said:

My device still balanced, the wheel would have a hard time turning and it made a grinding noise. I was so surprised, I assumed something inside the motor had broken. I could have tried prying it out in the field, but the rock was wedged in there pretty good. Luckily nothing serious and no injuries.

Right, I am also catching stuff once in a while which just makes noise but doesn't block the wheel. Wood is generally more common than stones, but IIRC I also had already a stone under the shell which didn't want to go away without insistent intervention.

[Gaz Bon]

I had something very similar on my MSX 

Some broken plastic pipe jammed between the the tire and shell threw me of like an emergency stop

Pipe piece would have been 4-5mm thick at a guess from an underground electrical service 

No damage just a WTF 

[Nic]

This happens to bicycles with mudguards too, so I suspect it can also happen to a OneWheel.

[mrelwood]

A local rider got a piece of a thumb thick branch to jam his 18XL. Jammed the tire and literally made the fuses explode. Black dust all over the place. Careful cleaning, new fuses, and he went back on riding.

My replacement tires on the MSX have been large enough that the clearance is noticeably smaller than with the original. Rocks do make a louder and more scary sounds when passing through, but I guess bigger items won’t fit.

[Rywokast]

5 hours ago, mrelwood said:

A local rider got a piece of a thumb thick branch to jam his 18XL. Jammed the tire and literally made the fuses explode. Black dust all over the place. Careful cleaning, new fuses, and he went back on riding.

My replacement tires on the MSX have been large enough that the clearance is noticeably smaller than with the original. Rocks do make a louder and more scary sounds when passing through, but I guess bigger items won’t fit.

theres lots of 3d models for the MSX mudguard, i would definitely modify one to come down lower and hug the tire to prevent anything bigger than tiny pebbles entering

[Evan94116]

On 11/7/2019 at 5:38 PM, tessa25 said:

I would never be able to carry my 16X far. So I purchased some inline skates with large wheels and I'm going to buy some long bolts I can use to make a wheeled cradle that I can quickly attach to the wheel. Don't need the boot part of the skates. Then I can roll the wheel out without carrying it. The pieces should fit in my back pack without too much weight.

Sounds like a good idea.  How well did this work out?  Any more info?