Flat-proofing a bike

[Oldhippy]

Seeing sports bikes with skinny wheels and tyres on some country lanes is like taking a high end sports car off roading.

 

[fossyant]

Learn to fix them, takes no more than 10 minutes. TBH, It's rare I get a puncture and I commute to work most days. I wouldn't be putting heavy puncture resistant tyres on a carbon bike. It will be like riding in treacle.

 

[fossyant]

Seeing sports bikes with skinny wheels and tyres on some country lanes is like taking a high end sports car off roading.

Oi, you are old enough to remember 18mm tyres !

 

[C R]

Seeing sports bikes with skinny wheels and tyres on some country lanes is like taking a high end sports car off roading.

The problem is when riding country lanes you can't always tell in advance how bad it is going to be. Herefordshire is particularly bad for this, there are lanes in Herefordshire that change from new surface bliss to pothole nightmare every 200 metres.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Oi, you are old enough to remember 18mm tyres !

What were they thinking?

 

[Windle]

What were they thinking?

Well technically the narrower the tyre then the less chance of it hitting something puncture-ry .

 

[ianrauk]

Or a solid, no air tire, if they exist (probably not).

Check out Tannus Tyres

 

[Dag Hammar]

Here’s my take on punctures. Last year I got a puncture and was six miles from home. I locked up my bike, got a bus home and then my daughter took me back to the bike with a spare wheel with tyre already fitted.
That incident was the nudge I needed to go ahead with something I had long been considering.
I paid £24 for one years breakdown cover for bikes. If I am immobilised I can phone the rescue company and they should come out and take me and my bike to my home.
#### Note. ##. I have not had the need to find out how good this service is or is not because I haven’t had another puncture since.

 

[Oldhippy]

Is it a bit like older cars? Years ago many people did there own services and cars came with a jack to change wheels. These days everything is being deskilled I believe. On today's roads there is crap everywhere and many cyclists carry a spare tube or puncture kit and just fix on the road. If you choose to ride or drive something that isn't very suited to the modern environment where streets and cycling paths are just left to rot it will in all likelihood make a puncture more likely surely.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Well technically the narrower the tyre then the less chance of it hitting something puncture-ry .

Technically not riding in the gutter improves chances far more, rather than 14mm or so of tyre width.

 

[Sharky]

I really don't want any more flats.

What's the frequency of your punctures?
Some punctures are inevitable, but after each one, you need to determine the cause.

But always be prepared with spares and repair kit and having practiced in the comfort of your home.

 

[G-Zero]

I took my wife’s gravel bike in to our LBS for a service yesterday and seeing as her bike wheels were ‘tubeless ready’ I got them to take the tubes out and she’s now running tubeless. My gravel is also ‘tubeless ready’ and I’m thinking of changing it over too, but not before our imminent holiday. We’ll be riding together mostly so it will be a good comparison.

I haven’t been tempted to change the skinnier higher pressure tyres on my road bike over to tubeless though.

 

[fossyant]

Check out Tannus Tyres

Just no.

 

[fossyant]

What were they thinking?

Be back in fashion soon. I remember TT'ing on my Wolber Profil 18mm rims and 18mm tubs at 130 PSI. Fast. The wheels weighed next to nothing and no fancy carbon.

 

[Elybazza61]

Check out Tannus Tyres

Please no.

As mentioned practice changing a tyre and get a good pump and one of these;

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/group...rtable-electric-bike-pump-currently-available

Use the hand pump to get the tube inflated and tyre seated evenly and top up to pressure with the air pump

I run a mix of Conti 500's on the 700c road bikes with tpu or latex tubes and tubeless on 650b.