As above, how often do people get the dreaded stop at the road side?

I have been running tubeless for 3.5 years now with no problems at all, but it has got me thinking about how often does it really happen.

I got loads when I had a **** great hole in my rear tyre. Apart from that, knack all, but I don’t do that many road miles.

Not that I ever mention the Scottish Play, but I don’t appear to seem to feel the need to stop and take tires off to look at them very often. The last time was Paris Roubaix Easter 2013 when I ran into a 12″ piece of pave at 40kmh…

About twice a year. Normally back tyre and normally when i’ve not checked the pressure for a while.

Did have a bad week 2 years ago. 5 punctures in a week. I was not best pleased.

Not daring to answer this……

I find it’s usually when the tyre is getting worn and the rubber is prone to getting cuts. Then a foreign object gets caught in the cut and pushes through to the inner tube. This only happens if extra pressure is put on the tyre at that point, say hitting a small crease in the road – the FO punctures the inner tube; you repair/replace and check the inside of the tyre but because there’s now nothing pushing on the FO you think it’s all OK. A few miles later the same thing happens.

I now check the outside of the tyre as well, the tyre usually feels quite old and tired so puncture fixed I’ll replace it ASAP.

Pretty rare for me, but I suppose I don’t do that many miles really and less still in winter.

This question is meaningless without posting the mileages involved

What dunmail said.

I suddenly got a rash of punctures in a relatively new tyre and despite checking it carefully I found nothing.

After yet another flat on the next ride I checked it even more carefully and found a tiny flint buried in a small cut, not detectable by checking the inside of the tyre.

Removed and tyre has been good for months since.

Rare but this –

I find it’s usually when the tyre is getting worn

Light, cheap, long lasting.

Choose any two from the above 🙂

Depending on the roads you ride on, your riding style and the particular tyres then you might be looking at replacing a tyre every 4000Km or less. Once you’ve settled on a make/model you should get a feel for when to think about replacing a tyre. It’s quite easy to rack up the miles/kilometres on the road, much more so than off-road.

I find it’s usually when the tyre is getting worn

Yep. My commuter bike gets hand-me-down worn training tyres from the race bike which puncture all the f’ing time.

Rarely puncture on the race bike, but that said I’ve flatted two tubulars already this spring, one was a Veloflex carbon on its maiden voyage. Not best pleased.

15-18,000km/yr.

got back into road riding 2.5 years ago. Do at least 100 miles a week year-round, but for 6 months last year I was commuting 36 miles a day on top of the recreational riding.

In that time Ive had 3 punctures, only 1 which actually needed a roadside change, the other 2 were slow punctures which I pumped up and it got me home.

I have 6700 Ultegra wheels which are tubeless compatible but it seems to be a solution to a non-problem; I dont suffer from punctures and dont want to run at such low pressures that pinch flats could be an issue.

To me, the lower pressures are one of the big selling points. I ride on a lot of chip sealed roads and quite broken up uneven roads, so lower pressure = better

5000+ miles until my first puncture on the road – had a couple of slows that I notice when getting my bike out of the garage. Changed from fast puncture resistant tyres – Krylion, Rubino Pro tech etc – to racier tyres – Pro 3 – and had a 3 punctures 1 flat and 2 due to flints within 1.5k. This year I’ve done about 1k on a bike of Runbino Pro tech and Pro 4s and haven’t had a single one. Have ridden with people who’ve seam to get them all the time so maybe my sacrifice to the puncture fairy worked 😀