… are all technologies that supposedly make the tyre more resistant to pinch flats, like having 1.5 ply rather than 1 or 2.

But are they all about the same, or is one much better than the others? Does Bonty have an equivalent too and how does that measure up?

I think those are all cut protection rather than pinch prevention?

Specialized certainly is- SX is their ply-and-a-half line, and very effective. Control includes cut protection but depending on the model they’re still often pretty lightweight tyres (the heaviest duty Control, the Butcher, is still a fairly thin-walled tyre) I think it more or less means “Just a normal tyre”

Maxxis Exo is advertised as not reducing tyre flexibility. Schwalbe do Snakeskin and also Snakebite Protection on the Supergravities so it seems to be 2 different things.

Ooh, confused now. All I know is I have ridden some schwalbe nobbly nic’s with snakeskin and am very impressed with their pinch flat resistance compared to my single skin high roller/minion. So whatever I end up getting I want something comparable!

I’ve only once cut a tyre sidewall but I pinch flat them all the time.

How does continental PROtection fit in with this picture?

I’ve used them all and from memory exo is the ‘toughest’, snakeskin and control a bit less sturdy. As above I don’t think any are supposed to stop pinch flats. I run tubeless so wouldn’t know, but always go for one of these type of sidewalls to avoid sidewall tears from rocks.

I tried running tubeless on a maxxis high roller + stans flow, first ride, got a 2mm hole from a sharp rock that the sealant couldn’t fix. Since patched the hole but can’t get the tyre to seal tubeless with all the old gunk stuck to it. Stuff that! Was great while it lasted though.

Thinking of grabbing some conti MK2 Pro-tection now so wondering how sturdy that stuff is.

Controls are very thin sidewalls. I don’t think control casing means pinchflat protection. I am running Butcher controls and they’re very nice, but thin sidewalls and I wouldn’t like to run them with a tube to be honest.

My experience of Schwable Nobby Nics was that even the pinchflat proctection version (whatever it’s called) was not as pinch flat resistant as standard Maxis Highrollers. The Nobby Nics were much lighter though, so maybe that’s to be expected.

@traildog really? I have had the opposite experience, I pinch flat my single ply maxxis all the time but not the nobbly nic (haven’t ridden the latter much yet but when I did it was nan bield pass – quite rocky). Or when you say standard high rollers do you mean the original dual ply version?

No, single ply. I had no luck at all with the Nobby Nics my High Rollers (2.35) were very solid. Not sure if they were wire bead though.

Having said that, I tried an Ardent Lust tubeless (which was heavy and lifeless) but sliced the wall on it so it wouldn’t seal anymore.

Ah well my high roller and minion are folding, perhaps the wire one is tougher. Lovely tyres apart from the pinching – if I ever buy those again they’ll be exo or dual ply!