Touring tyre backup

[Darkmarkster]

I carry pretty much everything I might need including a foldable kitchen sink - but I have never considered carrying a spare tire - I have had a tire go naughty on me in Northern Norway (my fault I was too lazy to put some new tire on before I left) but I was able to bodge it to get me to a shop that could provide another - similarly in Sweden I decided the tires were time expired and replaced them - If I start of with a half decent set of tires I normally expect them to get me home - what worries me more is the wheel failing - happened to me once - rode it 20k on the bare rim to a bike shop where I bought another - but there is only so far you can go carrying spares

Unless you get a trailer

 

[willem]

Much depends on what you want to do. If you want to tour on a road bike with light narrow tyres I think it is very smart to take a spare tyre. I have shredded enough tyres in my life to know. The first thing I would do for a tour, however, is to fit a pair of sturdier and wider tyres than usual. I would go for something like a Panaracer Pasela TG in 25 mm (or even 28 mm if they fit). As a spare, just take one of your existing ultralight folding racing tyres.
Willem

 

[samid]

On tour last year something (a pebble? I never found out for sure) got stuck to my rear tyre and wedged itself between the tyre and the mudguard, ripping a large hole in the tyre as the result:

I'm seriously considering taking a spare this year...

 

[rich p]

On tour last year something (a pebble? I never found out for sure) got stuck to my rear tyre and wedged itself between the tyre and the mudguard, ripping a large hole in the tyre as the result:

I'm seriously considering taking a spare this year...

Or get rid of the mudguard?

 

[samid]

Or get rid of the mudguard?

That is a thought that occurred to me too. But mudguards really help when it's raining.

 

[rich p]

That is a thought that occurred to me too. But mudguards really help when it's raining.

I ditched my rear one last year and let the rack take the splatter although, to be honest, I knew the forecast for 2 weeks ahead in Slovenia was pretty good.

 

[psmiffy]

Unless you get a trailer

I met a guy in France who was starting out on a very long tour through Istanbul and east who had made his own trailer - it had a front wheel on one side and a rear wheel on the other - the theory was he would wear out the wheels on the bike and replace them with the trailer wheels and ditch the trailer - The trailer was the nearest thing to a cycle touring wine shop that I have ever seen so I do not know how far he got - however, when I met him it was on the on the ascent of the Col Mt du Cenis - I left him in Italy so he was not doing that badly.

 

[mike1026]

Like most people I carry a spare tyre because of a past experience of a tyre shredding. This has happened to me twice in the past five years. The first time it was a manufacturing fault on a tyre that had done less than twenty miles. I was miles from anywhere standing looking at it looking lost when a chap came from a nearby house, when he realised my problem he offered to take me to a bike shop to get e new one. Luckily it was during business hours.
Last October I was doing NCR 4 between Cardiff and Swansea. Coming out of Port Talbot I ran over a piece of glass that shredded my front tyre. Because of my first experience I was able to fit the spare I now carry with me. On this occasion it was about 6p.m. dark and a storm was brewing without the spare I would have been in a right mess.
A spare tyre does not weigh that much and may save you a long walk pushing your bike loaded on a flat tyre.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Two reasons I carry a spare folding tyre on tours...

sundays on dartmoor
sundays on plynlimon
sundays in the quantocks.

ok that's three reasons.

If you want to be self sufficient and you have to make a certain mileage on a given day then surely it is a reasonable precaution?

 

[snorri]

I don't usually carry a spare tyre, but then I don't do lightweight touring either. I just think as long as I have my camping gear there shouldn't be too much of a problem. The only exception was touring Iceland where roads were rough and bike shops non existent..

 

[andrew_s]

A spare tyre wants to be as light and compact as possible, whilst still being capable of lasting at least a week, and fitting your rim (so no 700x23 for a 21mm rim that usually takes 37c).
I use 700x25 Paselas for spare. Schwalbe "Plus" tyres are overkill for a spare - quite a lot of extra weight for the possible saving of a puncture in the unlikely event that you use it.
If you are touring with other people, not everyone needs a spare.

How important it is to take a spare depends on how flexible your itinerary is, and how many there are in the party. If the accommodation is pre-booked, you might find there's no option but a long taxi ride to the nearest suitable town, and possibly back again.

Last time I used my spare tyre was when I went over a chunk of metal about half a mile short of Nice airport and put a 4" gash in the front tyre, and a 3" gash in the rear tyre (spare on front, cut an 8" section out of the dead front tyre to boot the back tyre with). Hardly the back of beyond, but being unable to get going again quickly would have been a pain. Finding a bike shop in Nice would have put us into missing the flight territory, and a 10:30pm Saturday arrival at Heathrow would have meant an unbooked "buy it now" single train ride home rather than the planned camp & ride.

 

[stephenjubb]

+1