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Tell me about puncture proofing 700c tyres.
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MidlandTrailquestsGrahamFree Member
I worked out recently that it is over a year since I had a puncture on a ghetto tubeless mountain bike.
I’ve just bought a road bike and have searched the forum for advice and it seems tubeless is not recommended for higher pressure road tyres as it can affect the way the tyre seats against the rim and cause it to blow off.
I’ve never had much success with slime type tubes. Apart from the extra weight,they just didn’t seal punctures for me.
Are some brands better than others ?What about using latex in the tubes ?
I seem to remember hearing that Stan’s or Joe’s won’t work in tubes. Something to do with the tyre and tube constantly moving in relation to each other meaning the object that caused the puncture won’t allow the sealant to seal. Have I got that right ?
Is it still a problem on road tyres ? Isn’t there less relative movement at higher pressures ?
Is it worth buying a pair of tubes with removable valve cores and giving it a go ?aPFree MemberAt the risk of having a miserable commute home, I reckon I get maybe 1 puncture a year cycling in London every working day – until the tyres begin to wear out when punctures become a fairly common occurence and hence get changed.
MidlandTrailquestsGrahamFree MemberDo they do much hedge trimming in London ? 😛
Yeah, I guess it’s going to be less of a problem on a road bike. Pinch flats must be pretty rare. There’s always the odd sharp object lying about on the road though, so I was just looking at ways of being prepared.
What do CX riders do ?scaredypantsFull Memberget some armoured road tyres:
spesh rouaix armadillo – bombproof IME (flinty gravelly roads)
maxxis refuse – lighter, seem pretty good
didn’t get on too well with conti gatorskins, though plenty recommend themTooTallFree MemberLast time I bought tyres for my commuter, Conti were doing tyres with free tubes and a 1 year no puncture warranty. There are also some puncture-resistant commute tyres out there, but the Conti ones are the best I’ve had.
thomthumbFree Memberif it for commuting run heavy armoured tires.
if it is for road riding; take care of your tires. sharp objects (glass and stones) seem to be picked up by the tire but they will take a while to work through the tire before puncturing it. If you take the tyre off every so often (i do mine after a puncture) and remove these things you will have less of a problem. any bigger cuts can be repaired with super glue (never had a need though)
HTH
aPFree MemberIn London the roads are probably amongst the worst in the country and you get lovely people smashing bottles in them regularly every night. I think that its a pretty good test of the puncture proofing of a tyre to be honest.
scaredypantsFull MemberaP – you must be bloody lucky then
I ride recreationally only – country roads, maybe 25 miles per ride and I’d average AT LEAST one puncture every 2 rides with a “race” tyre, and it’d be cut through needing the superglue within about 100 miles
phatstanleyFree Member+1 for spesh armadillo tyres.
i run 28’s at about 80psi.
way less flats than when i rocked/palped/ran 23-25’s at 100 + psi….
fwiw.
MountainMutantFree MemberIt’s all luck.
I commute 22 miles through London everyday on Conti Gator Skins @ 120psi.
Hadn’t had a puncture in months and then had one Friday, Monday & Tuesday!
All different places on the tyre which are regularly inspected for glass. I was so pissed off I have invested in a Co2 pump and a box of 30 cannisters from these guys
http://www.tyreinflators.co.uk/co2-cartridges/cat_22.html
MM
druidhFree MemberAnother argument in favour of proper road positioning. Given the number of cyclists I see pedalling along in the gutter, it’s no wonder some suffer from regular punctures. To th OP – Schwalbe Marathon Plus.
coolhandlukeFree MemberAfter I punctured my commuter (hedge trimming incident) and realised I couldn’t remove the rear wheel as I needed a spanner – following an awkward puncture repair with wheel in frame I stuck some Stans no tubes sealant into my tubes.
Tyres haven’t gone down since but that could be because I’ve been lucky or sealant works. I don’t know.
superfliFree MemberI just finished a cycle from Inverness – Ports via Ireland. On one stage in Wiltshire, our team of 5 got 10 punctures! One guy got 5! Both him and another guy were using panaracer tyres. Wet conditions on flint country roads. Flint shards get washed into road and cause punctures.
KevevsFree MemberI rode Michelin Krylions for maybe 3000 miles before they ever started getting punctures (ok, maybe one), sometimes on really daft surfaces they wern’t intended for. Modern tyres like Marathon Plus are really puncture resistant, but the odd puncture here and there is just part of cycling I think. Always has been, always will be.
roadie_in_denialFree MemberDepends what width you’re running. At 700×23 mm you’re left with inflating the tyre to 100psi and then just getting on with it. A bit of awareness goes a long way to helping prevent punctures though…expect to puncture more in the wet, try and predict where you’re going to pick up punctures on the road (i.e. avoid patches of grit and gravel), I’ve also seen people occasionally brush detritus off the tyre as they cycle along by rubbing the padded palm of their track mitt lightly against the tyre. Seems to be a bit of an ‘old boy’ technique but those that do it swear by it.
If you’re running ‘larger’ 700 tyres then there are various types of tyre liner available which just put an extra barrier between the outside world and the inner tube.
Finally…a respectable pair of ‘winter’ ‘commuting’ or ‘training’ tyres such as the ones mentioned above is a sound investment.
Hope this helps!
Sponging-MachineFree MemberWhat do CX riders do
Run tubulars and take about 40 sets of wheels to the race. Well, the pros do anyway.
xcstuFree MemberRide into to London everyday… used to have stock tyres that came with the bike.. averaged 3 punctures a week 🙁
Decided enough is enough and bought some Bontrager Race X lite Hard case…
In a year touch wood not had a puncture yet 🙂
MidlandTrailquestsGrahamFree MemberThanks for all the advice and recommendations.
I’ve got used to feeling round the inside of my ghetto tubeless MTB tyres whenever I take them off and thinking “Wow, all those thorns poking through. The sealant really works”.
Using road tyres where they rely in a strip of harder rubber under the tread to stop the thorns coming through feels like a backwards step to me.If coolhandluke is the only one to try Stan’s in tubes, and then, with no proof that it works, I guess I’ll just go along with the majority until there is an established ghetto or UST tubeless equivalent for road tyres.
The bike’s fitted with Vittoria Diamante Pro, which, as always, get mixed reviews. A few bad, but mostly good.
I’m reluctant to ditch them and spend another £50 or so on armoured tyres when the bike hasn’t even been delivered yet.
I’ll give the Vittoria’s a go and see how I get on with them.Are there any good puncture proof or slime tubes that actually work I could use as a compromise ?
Chris-MFree MemberWith new tyres they should be reasonable puncture resistant for a while.
I’ve also looked long and hard at tubeless options for the roadie, like you, after being so impressed at MTB tubeless but it does seem as if it’s not quite sorted for road tyres yet.Since I’ve been running the Schwalbe Marathon plus, I’ve pretty much forgotten about punctures, they’re so tough it’s unreal. Personally I find them a little slower rolling than a “normal” tyre but, once up to speed, they’re really good.
I did try the Conti Gatorskins but gave them away after just 400 miles afer seemingly as many punctures! others seem to love them though.
MidlandTrailquestsGrahamFree MemberBump before I go ahead and buy some spare tubes.
Any recommendations for puncture resistant tubes, or is it all in the tyre ?
soobaliasFree Membergiven the weather out there today im not using the P word till after i commute home.
a11yFull MemberSchwalbe tyres with the “Puncture Protection” work for me. There’s more than just the Marathon Plus as already mentioned (although that’s what my wife uses for a glass-affected commute in Glasgow – 18 months, zero punctures). I use the Schwalbe CX Comp’s (although only fitted them for the past 2 weeks) – before that were Schwalbe Land Cruisers, 18 months commuting no punctures, although the bead just ripped when inflating on new rims recently.
Chris-MFree Member@MTG It’s all in the tyre IMO
Saying that, I do like the Mitchelin butyl rubber tubes, never had any problems with those.
chriswilkFree MemberMTQG,
the commuting tyres don’t rely on a strip of harder rubber, but a strip of kevlar. you know, the thing stab vests are made of.
I used a cont gatorskin for about 2k miles commuting without a flat, then looked at the tyre and there were many slits (from glass) down to the kevlar, on average about 1 every inch. I decided to go for a new tyre, new one has only had one flat in the past 1k miles or so.
MidlandTrailquestsGrahamFree MemberThanks again for the advice. Yeah, I said hard rubber, but I guessed it would be something a bit more technically advanced than that.
numplumzFree MemberI’m running the new Stans Alpha 700C rims with some non tubeless tyres. Maxxis raze for cross at the moment, one thing you notice is that at the higher pressures than mtb for the road you tend to get a fountain of goo for a few seconds before it seals. Makes a nice mess of your legs and shorts but has always sealed, tends to drop to about 30psi.
Will be getting some Hutchinson tubeless tyres soon for full on road blasts.
scaredypantsFull MemberI’ve had road tyres with slime tubes in the past – total failure, down to fully flat within 20yrds or so on 2 occasions. Then binned em.
(course, they may have lived through oads of minor stabbings first, for all I know)
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