Punctures, front or rear

[Recycler]

I seem to get far more punctures on my front tyre than the rear. I know that, when braking, more weight shifts to the front, and I suppose that the front wheel will presumably be more likely to pick something up first. However, I would have thought that most of the time more weight will be carried on the rear wheel and that, if anything it would get more punctures.

Is it just the luck of the draw or do people generally have more punctures on the front tyre?
Just curious.

 

[ianrauk]

I've not really thought about it as I get very few punctures over the year on my commute or leisure rides. (Checking tyres after ever yride for embedded crap helps stop punctures)
Thinking about it I think it's spread between the 2 rather then on over the other.

 

[cyberknight]

I get 5-6 at least a year and its 95 % of the time the rear, i do commute will panniers so more weight is on the tyre so any road debris will have more chance of damaging the rear due to more weight on the rear .

 

[Blue]

I've not really thought about it as I get very few punctures over the year on my commute or leisure rides. (Checking tyres after ever ride for embedded crap helps stop punctures)
Thinking about it I think it's spread between the 2 rather then on over the other.

A big +1 for that.

 

[HLaB]

Its been a bad year for me an p'tures; I've had about 5 or 6 this year. For a while I had a 22mm front tire and I got about 3 in a row in a relatively short space of time, since I've replaced it with a 24mm touch wood I've had no more on the front, the rear is making up for it :-(

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I'd guess about 90% rear punctures for me. What I think is happening is that sharp stuff (flint, thorns, glass, etc) gets half way through the tyre cover but the added weight at the rear (and I'm not a particularly heavy rider) simply means that the next uneven bit of tarmac hammers that sharp stuff home.

I'm actually waiting for a front wheel puncture as a pretext for putting a better tyre on (current one is a liability in the wet) - the replacement is sitting on my living room table right now, and has been for months.

Afterthought: has my contingency plan frightened the Pfft-yer fairy away?

 

[fossyant]

Only one visit this year - the MTB had a thorn in the tyre which meant a very slow puncture (eventually found it). Nothing on any of the three road bikes, including the commuter - 23mm Lithion2 tyres have been great.

Ah - one puncture with the lithion's - the rear rim exploded taking the tube with it.

 

[BlackPanther]

Obviously the front tyre has the first crack at picking up sharp objects, but the rear has far more weight and so more chance of the debris sticking in and causing a puncture.

I've only ever had a rear puncture.....but not since.....blah......Marathon Plus.....blah blah.......why fit anything else?.........blah blah.........etc etc.

 

[cyberknight]

Obviously the front tyre has the first crack at picking up sharp objects, but the rear has far more weight and so more chance of the debris sticking in and causing a puncture.

I've only ever had a rear puncture.....but not since.....blah......Marathon Plus.....blah blah.......why fit anything else?.........blah blah.........etc etc.

clearance to fit them...........i can only just get 23 mm with cruds

 

[BlackPanther]

clearance to fit them...........i can only just get 23 mm with cruds

I run a Durano plus (23) front (to keep the weight down a bit ) and a Marathon plus (25) rear. I ride a Spesh Allez with the cruds (road racer 2) and the clearance on the rear is o.k. I'm coming up to my 10,000th puncture free mile soon.

The Durano is not quite as bulletproof, but seems more than up to the job of defending a front wheel from the puncture Gremlin.

 

[snailracer]

Most of my punctures are on the rear.
The theory I heard was that sharp objects, long enough to cause a puncture, typically lie flat against the ground - when the front tyre rolls over them, they're not pointing upwards so don't embed into the front tyre, but the front tyre will flick them so when the rear rolls over them, they might be standing up and be in a position to puncture the rear.

 

[upsidedown]

Always on the back. I think it might be to do with the fact that if you put a set of tyres on at the same time the rear will wear more quickly so is generally in worse shape than the front. Mine is anyway.

 

[palinurus]

I seem to get far more punctures on my front tyre than the rear.

If you had a large data set would I expect it would show rear tyre more likely to puncture, your bike is a pretty small sample so it could go either way.

 

[HLaB]

Recycler edit this title, don't spell out the P word Since reading this thread I've had two p'tures in two days, oh and it was 50/50 (on the rear yesterday, front today).

 

[John90]

Mostly on the rear tyre for the same reason that rear tyres wear out more quickly I guess - weight distribution.