On Wed, 01 Jun 2011 02:58:41 -0700, Travis wrote:

Should I blame the tyres, and possibly ask for a refund from Torpedo7, or
blame the tubes and maybe try for a refund from the eBay vendor, or is a
bursting rear tyre normal enough when one tries to load them up with a
100kg+ rider, a 20kg bike and 15kg of luggage?

What let go? You should be able to see an obvious rip in a tube if it went
that loudly. If it's on a seam, it might have been a dodgy tube, but you'd
be doing well to get any kind of refund on a tube - there are too many
non-obvious ways to install them badly.

If the tyre has obvious damage, then I'd speak to T7, but that's still
going to be a case of showing you hadn't hit anything, etc.

Assuming it's the tube:

If the hole is near the valve then you've probably got a dodgy rim strip -
look for exposed metal and incomplete coverage.

You may have got part of the tube caught between the rim and the tyre,
which will work fine until you manage to flex the tyre enough that the
tube snaps back inside. This tends to make them go pop pretty quickly.
This is one of those gotchas I was mentioning earlier.

As far as what's best - I'd run a larger tyre on the back at slightly
lower pressure to give me a bit of comfort on a commuter, but my current
commuter is a 700c x 28mm tyre that's normally somewhere between 50 and
110 psi, depending on when I last checked it... Commuter bikes tend not to
get a lot of love!

Best option is to get a new tube, carry a spare and a pump, and try to
avoid sharp edges.

--
Dave Hughes -
"First things first, but not necessarily in that order." - The Doctor