Tyres! – Off road puncture protection tyres, what's out there?

Mmm, a tyre thread … but with a difference ❓ er, maybe …

So, a quick look for puncture protected off road tyres and all I can find are some Continentals, who or what else do these??

No, I can't go tubeless as these will be for a hire bike abroad.

Or, what about those slime tubes, any good? can these be repaired with a patch if you have to or is it a problem with the slime all over them??

Cheers.

Ah a tyre thread 😀

Trailraker PR, it helps but doesnt stop a solid bit of hawthorn.
I had four hawthorn punctures on one ride during hedge cutting season (with non PR tyres) the missus had non though, she was riding on OE racing ralphs. LBS reckons all the higher end Schwalbes have a PR band in them.

I use the slime or halfords liquid in my tubes now due to the size of the hawthorn around here. It hasn't effected the bikes handling as much as I expected, though it has added a slight feeling of weight onto the wheel, no punctures yet though!

I use kevlar weave tyres & slime tubes here in good old hawthorn covered Northants.

They work well (and you can repair slime tubes OK), but the combination is heavy & the tyres now spin too easily offroad in the wet.

As a cheaper option to slime, I bought a big bottle of Australian gunk that does the same job off ebay. A lot cheaper & came with a metal valve key.

slime tubes are great, until the slime cant cope with a paticular hole, then youve got slime everywhere.
and cant patch the bugger.

you can buy PR strips to fit in between the tyre and the tube?

no idea how good they are though…

use 2 ply tyres, and keep them pumped up to 40psi – say Maxxis High Rollers?

What are these puncture things you speak of? 😉

I used to use those Slime tube protection strips before going tubeless. They work very well IME. I only ever had 1 hawthorn thorn go through one of them but it was HUGE. The only issue I found with them is that they are not all that wide so it is possible to get thorns in the tyre that miss the strips but that only happened once to me.

Oh, and they add a fair bit of rotational weight so not for racers.

I tried the slime strips and they caused the rear to puncture where they overlapped. A distinct line could be seen pushed into the inner tube, it tended to go on the corner of the strip, I tried trimming it so it wasn't square but it still punctured the tube. This only happened on the rear (on a hardtail) front was ok, seemed to always happen after drops or jumps. Removed them as they were causing as much trouble as the thorns.

"I tried the slime strips and they caused the rear to puncture where they overlapped. A distinct line could be seen pushed into the inner tube, it tended to go on the corner of the strip, I tried trimming it so it wasn't square but it still punctured the tube. This only happened on the rear (on a hardtail) front was ok, seemed to always happen after drops or jumps. Removed them as they were causing as much trouble as the thorns."

I had this problem – talcum powder in the tyres sorted that particular issue.

J.

cheers j might try that. 😉

incidently.

Ive got some strips of seatbelt that once in tyres, although they add thier own weight, they eliminate all punctures.

nice and wide, protect against most thorns and for some reason, you cant pinch flat with them in.

had them in my street bike when i was into the old trialsy game (Abubaka!
)

they do however move around in the tyre and wear it from the inside, but i reckon talc would stop that pretty much completly in retrospect

Looks like Trailraker PR's, Continental or Schwalbes then, want something not too heavy so 2 ply tyres might be heavy or big as I'll be going up hills as well, I know some puncture protection will add a bit of weight. MTBing somewhere that looks like lots of accacia type trees/bushes. Might give the slime tubes/liquid stuff in the tube a go though as a cheaper option? Anyways, thanks for the input.

😀

Just checked – the cheaper stuff I found on ebay was Tyre Shield.

Thanks for the name Roddy, found some on ebay, but how do you get that into your innertubes – I have presta valves and to be honest wouldn't have a clue if they come apart as I've never needed to, or can that only be done with schreader type valves?

I had the same problem as haddock with the Slime liners – a puncture with an indent where the end of the liner had been.

When i went to Spain this year, I was determined to minimise punctures (while still not going tubeless). I had Specialized Enduro tyres with Flak Jacket protection, coupled with those slime liners…..and……I think I had more punctures than last yr when I used my Panarace Fire XCs.
I think I only had one pinch flat, but the rest were thorns – I assumed they were puncturing around the slime liner, rather than going through it. Then finding a puncture that matched the end of the slime liner was the last straw and they came out of the wheels straight away.

Friend of mine used Larsen TTs and had no punctures all week. It's what Marco @ Ciclo Montana recommends, although he runs the tubeless whereas my mate wasn't.

With Tyre Shield, you get a metal valve key.

This allow you to open a schrader valve & then you pour the recommended amount in & re tighten the valve.

It's dead easy – even I can do it!

I don't know if this is possible with presta valves I'm afraid.

I've used the liners on my MTB, and had one puncture in 1200 miles. On my roadbike, I used them but got a puncture every 40 – 50 miles, that I eventually worked out was caused by the liners making the tyre split, and not just on the overlap. I think the much higher psi may have had an effect, but I didn't know using talc may help. But I can really recommend them for mtb tyres.

I've been using the Panaracer Flatwaway Kevlar liners for the past year or so. A lot of my Pals have too. On one ride over the remains of a trimmed Hawthorn Hedge, one Guy had 11 punctures whilst I had none……or so I thought until the next day! One had got through, but when they do it is normally a very slow puncture that won't spoil your ride. I'd suggest they are 90% effective.

Not cheap though!