Puncture by lewismorgan2011, on Flickr

If there is ever a chhance of a puncture its me. Always, and walking a bike’s the most heartbreaking feeling ever!

Has anyone any excperience with slime tubes? How affective are they?

Also Is it Schwalbe that do punctureless tres? I’m sure i saw them in my LBS once?

P.S Anyone guess where the picture is?!

P.S Anyone guess where the picture is?!

“**** miles from the car”… it always is!

Slime tubes work but after a few punctures they stick to your tyres and dont are a sod to get off if you change your tyres. That or they throw slime out of the valve when you let the air out.

The Schwalbe puncture protected tyres work reasonably well but they aint light.

Since changing to tubeless I have only had one puncture and that was on the very first day when I ripped the sidewall.
None since 3 years on.

No-body ridden the almighty trail before then and recoignises it? 😀 😀

Yeah i considered tubeless, not feeling a change of rims though!

Slime tubes go off after so long if my thinking is correct?

Punctures are a chance to catch your breath while everyone takes the pi**
On recent group rides the last 3 punctures of note have been people running tubeless.(2 tyre repairs and one tube fitted).
Not convinced yet.

Whats worse is i burnt my legs climbing, i get to the top and hey presto, puncture!

looks like high st

By far one of my best XC rides!
The descent is nothing but incredible

Alfine & Flat pedals….

Your bound to get punctures 😉

not at 8pm in october after it’s been lashing it down its not.

I’m in love with Alfine,
Anyoone who dares that with clips, I take my hat off to you!

Yeah i considered tubeless, not feeling a change of rims though!

You have heard of http://www.notubes.com/ (and various DIY methods)?

^what a way to make a mess of your rims though!

incase anybody wondered, its the corrieyairack pass between Laggan and Fort Augustus

Scotland.
Corrieyarrick…?
Burma Rd??

I’ll go with Burma Rd.

close its the corrieyairack!

Although Burma Rd’s here too!

[/url] tom burma road by lewismorgan2011, on Flickr[/img]

AArgh – there’s your mistake you see. Lifting your bike above your head at the summit – it’s the altitude. T’will cause punctures time and again.
Did you go E-W or W-E?
Did you include Glen Roy?

A bit of an aside but that’s a wonderfully defined vastus medialis you have there lewismorgan.

never been bothered by punctures. just one of those things.

We travelled from Laggan To Fort Augustus, I.E we rode up the Zig-Zags, and we didn’t include Glen Roy primarily as we were all shattered, in a way, wish we did.
And I noticed that! I think its all that climbing has filled my legs with Lactic Acid!

I think Hitler, Nukes and global pollution slightly beat punctures in the history of the worst thing known to man.
Fixin a flat barely registers on the scale.
Get some perspective dude!

Toobs are good. I’m campaigning on behalf of the tube party.
Tubes save your ass when your tubless tyres let you down (literally)
They’ve been keeping riders propped up for years, so why don’t we support them in the same way they’ve been supporting us?
Why swap 100g of tube for 100g of liquid latex rubber when you’re not saving any weight?
And the most important part, how can you wrap liquid latex round your chainstay to protet it when you take it out of your tyre?

I am of course, winding you up. But thanks for taking the time to read this drivel.

“I think Hitler, Nukes and global pollution slightly beat punctures in the history of the worst thing known to man.
Fixin a flat barely registers on the scale.
Get some perspective dude!”

I have a life tip for you,
Get your dictionary, and research the word Sarcasm

Who likes short shorts?

Go tubeless.

I Like short shorts!
Cant beat em for biking!

Mmm short shorts 😉 Doubt i’d look good in them though 🙂

What’s a puncture? Vaguely remember them from back in the day when I ran tubes…

^what a way to make a mess of your rims though!

How does it make a mess of you’re rims?
Going back to tubes if you don’t for some reason like tubeless is a 2 minute job with no damage whatsoever done

unless you’re a mechanical clutz, it really is a piece of piss to try tubeless

I hate punctures…nothing ruins the flow of a good ride like a puncture.

I went tubeless yesterday…first test today. At least they stayed up overnight.

I’ve used the slime tyre liners inside my panaracer fire xc tyres, and have had one puncture in 1,400 miles.

Think the schwalbe puncture protection is winning me over!

I’ve used slime tubes quite successfully (but they are not for weight weenies). I am particularly impressed with them on my kiddy trailer – it had less chunky tyres than the bike and being wider than the bike is often scraping through the thorny rubbish at the side of the trail. Prior to going slime it was picking up atleast one puncture on almost every trip out. Since going slime its had none.

I’ve also put them in my bike tyres and lasted well over a year without a puncture (I’d guess that is saving a couple of punctures) – but it might depend what causes the puncture – if it is pinch flats then slime may not cope with that – if its thorns you’ll probably be fine.

There are a couple of downsides to slime that might not be too well publicised. (1) if you do get a puncture that slime can’t self seal then getting that bit of tube clean enough to use a patch is difficult – probably possible in the garage, but not fun whilst being eaten by midges (2) getting the old tube out can be rather tricky (I think there may be a “right” way to do this [possibly put valve at top to let slime gather at the bottom? but I didn’t do this recently and the slime sealed inside the valve – meaning I had to cut the valve off. Because they work so well you may be out of practice changing tubes and forget this bit of the instructions!]

I’d say there are two obvious things to reducing your puncture frequency: (1) run your tyres at higher pressure (2) make sure your tubes are the right size for your tyres [on a recent trip the only person who got punctures was running 1.75-2.1″ tubes in 2.2″ tyres – they stopped the following day when running larger tubes].

I think some tyres are more puncture resistant than others but none are puncture proof.

Hitler, nukes and globl pollution are worse than punctures but they are next. Definitely.

I rank rides by the number of punctures/distance. Anything less than 3 in 10 miles is a good, almost flat free ride around here. I do use tubeless intermittently but then the flints tend to destroy the tyre which is a) expensive and b) a long walk (especially as I usually ride solo). Bah! Punctures! I curse you. Farmers seem to be cutting thorn hedges already so it’s peak season now.

I do use tubeless intermittently but then the flints tend to destroy the tyre

Why would the flint cutting the tyre be any different with or without tubes?

The get you home repair is the same too, I just don’t see the issue

having tried MANY different puncture protection and prevention methods, the best thing i have come up with is to get good at taking tyres on and off and MTFU.

slimes are such a faff when they do inevitably give up (they will protect you against thorns, but you WILL rip it

XC 717s with Folding race kings just fall off the rim once deflated, so mending a puncture is a 30 second job.

having tried MANY different puncture protection and prevention methods, the best thing i have come up with is to get good at taking tyres on and off and MTFU

Including tubeless? If you’re getting a lot of punctures and tubeless with sealant doesn’t improve things you’re a klutz.

Including tubeless? If you’re getting a lot of punctures and tubeless with sealant doesn’t improve things you’re a klutz.

Or maybe just maybe, tubeless isn’t all its cracked up to be?

Oh crap, I’ve thought outside the whole marketing bollocks box, am I going to die?

Or maybe just maybe, tubeless isn’t all its cracked up to be?

Well it’s ‘cracked up’ to prevent punctures becoming flats, you think it makes the situation worse I take it?

Oh crap, I’ve thought outside the whole marketing bollocks box

What marketing bollocks is there around ‘ghetto’ tubeless?

Well it’s ‘cracked up’ to prevent punctures becoming flats, you think it makes the situation worse I take it?

I don’t think it makes the situation worse, it tries to fix something that wasn’t broken in the first place. Tubes will last forever in your tyre unless you get a puncture and its easy to change tyres. Tubeless tyres need topping up with gloop every 6 or so months because it dries out and it makes changing tyres an arse ache.

What marketing bollocks is there around ‘ghetto’ tubeless?

I meant tubeless in general, it’s supposed to stop flats unless there’s a rip and as some people have stated it doesn’t work.

What’s a puncture? Been running Stans NoTubes for years now and no punctures whatsoever. Even had a huge nail go in, seal instantly and then found it months later when I changed tyres because I heard something going round inside the wheel. I’ll never use tubes ever again.