[Closed] fed up with punctures

On an MTB, tubeless for sure...

On a road/CX bike? Erm... I know tubeless exists, but don't know how proven it is yet... Tougher tyres I'd suggest, though it's going to slow you down somewhat!

can you go tubeless on a 29er?

better tyres,
on my road bike conti gatorskins have never punctured for me,
conti's are generally the most durable ive ridden on,
my touring tyres are conti travel contacts 1000s of miles and again no punctures

dunno about cx

I find that liberally coating the inside of the tyre with Talc helps to prevent flats.

flipiddy - Member

I find that liberally coating the inside of the tyre with Talc helps to prevent flats.

The talc stops the tube and the tyre sticking to each other. Not sure it will have a direct affect on punctures unless you keep snagging the tube with the tyre when riding.

Run the stans notubes on mtb and works fantastically - no punctures, less weight, what more do you want?

What kind of punctures are they? Snakebites or thorns/glass? If it's the former then pump the tyres up harder, if the latter then tyres with puncture protection would be my first try.

maybe just a run of bad luck. Whether you run tubes or tubeless you can go months, maybe years without any punctures then you'll get a few at once.

Keep perservering with what you have, your luck will change

2 mins before a ride checking for and teasing out any flints from your tyres on road tyres makes a big difference. What pressures are you running? What sort of punctures are you getting (pinch/snake bites, thorns, flints)? Are your tyres knackered and carrying a lot of cuts?

On a road bike I skim my tyres on the go with my mitts after going over rough stuff to knock off any picked up flints but this comes with a health warning!

I think Hutchinson are the only people who do tubeless specific road tyres and some mavic road wheels are UST, however there aren't many people playing around with 'ghetto' tubeless on the road so the evidence of what other rims/tyres work isn't really there.

You can run tubeless on a 29er, there is more than one thread about it on here somewhere.

thanks guys...punctures tend to be glass or thorns...there is so much glass in the road from broken bottles thrown from cars and the like...

Gator skins sound like the answer for both c/cross and road bike I think.

I tend to ride under inflated according to my mates but do not generally suffer from snakebites!

I will try tubeless for my 29er as I have had some success with my 26" MTB going tubeless although I did not set it up (bought it second hand like that).

I run dual ply minions all nice and soft soft and squidgy - never get punctures with these . They would look a bit odd on your CX bike though...

can you go tubeless on a 29er?

Yup, just like on a 26" wheeled MTB, except you don't currently have a proper UST option.

The Ghetto method is very easy, use either a 24" or 26" inner tube, the rest is exactly the same as with 26" wheels (do a search on youtube for a video).

Or you can go down the route of a Stan's kit. Or even better, Stan's 29er rims...

Tyre wise, well some seal better than others, but Bontrager "Tubeless Ready" tyres will be about the most reliable, though Maxxis and Kenda seem fairly reliable too.

The talc stops the tube and the tyre sticking to each other. Not sure it will have a direct affect on punctures unless you keep snagging the tube with the tyre when riding.

Talc [i]helps[/i] with flats... that is snakebites and tearing. Of course it's not going to stop thorns and glass, but snakebites are the bane of many a biker. An easy fix.

Under inflated?
Not necessary for road, only necessary on the crosser for racing or serious training though justifiable off road you don't 'have to' run lower pressures.
I run inner tubes on all three and had my first puncture in two years on my MTB and that was after lowering the pressure to cope with a wet race.

For the last 18 months or so (maybe a bit more as it's paid for now) I've been running a Specialized Tricross with 32mm Borough tyres. One of the first things I did with these was convert them to Stans using a normal MTB kit. It was only a little bit of a stretch to get the rim strip on and did it no harm at all. On the advice of one of the guys at Stans, I stuck to 50 psi but over the last 10 or so months, that has crept up to 60 psi without issue.

I'm convinced enough that the next commuter I build up will have Stan's Arch rims and the 25 mm Hutchinson Intensive tyres running around 90~100 psi.

Under inflation quite possibly. I know many mtbers who dont realise than skinny road tyres really need 110psi or more to avoid pinch punctures

I tried going tubeless with a Stans kit and Conti Speed King Supersonics. On dunking the wheel in water, there was air leaking out everywhere, round the rim and fine mist of bubbles all over the rubber tyre. Messed around with it for ages, trying to get the sealant to evenly spread around inside, but gave up after I got fed up.