Surely running your fingers round the inside of the tyre takes all of five seconds, combined with a quick visual inspection? Especially given that the vaaaast majority of punctures I’ve had, and that my mates have had, don’t leave anything stuck in the tyre – they’re pinch punctures, broken glass not picked up by the tyre etc. I’ve only ever had a thorn in my tyre once – maybe I’m lucky.

Like I said – I honestly don’t get it – am I missing the point?I’m guessing that I’ve seen a LOT more punctures than you have. It can often be extremely difficult to find the offending object by either sight or by touch. One wee tip is to run a paper tissue around the inside of the tyre, whereupon a little thread of it will catch on the sharp bit, highlighting the object. Of course, this doesn’t help find the sodding little bit of glass which retreats back into the safety of the tread until there’s a bit of pressure on it.

The “alignment for speedy puncture repairs” thing is genuine enough.

Oh – have you noticed that lots of wheels now come with one or two odd-coloured spokes to highlight where the valve is? That I don’t get – especially on a road bike.

Nowt wrong with heli tape/ frame protection – I’ve seen gear and brake cables rub through an aluminium frame.

I nearly asked the tyre place to align my car tyres last time I put some new ones on the car!

I decided I’d better not or they’d think I was insane

Of course I align.

Fix hole in tube, pop valve through rim, realign tyre logo, check tyre carcass above patch for spiky thing. The whole aesthetic / anal / STW peer group pressure aspect just adds to the overall pleasure of it.

PS Kudos for re-lacing a wheel to line up the hub logo with the rim. Class!

DT Swiss hubs have the logo the “wrong” way round…..

I pull the stickers off my rims, and frankly I wish tyres didn’t have logos at all…

Hello everyone. My name is Rick, and I align.

I’m one of the first people to give in to the urge to line everything up on my desk at right angles, but this has always struck me as a giant wind-up somebody started which has grown legs and run away.

1. If you can’t see the valve sticking out of the tire, should you really be out on any kind of vehicle in public ?

2. How do you ever leave the house for worrying about the bike getting dirty anyway ?

3. Life really is too short – and how many punctures do you get ?

All IMHO of course.

Rule 40

You are allowed to break Rule 40 when there is so much mud on the tyres you can’t see the logo

Of course I align the logo/valve. It’s just aesthetics and attention to detail.
The one exception is when fixing punctures in a race situation – ideally the whole tyre doesn’t need to come off but whatever, I just fix it, get the tyre back on and inflate