PeteHski

The difference in Watts will be very marginal and she will be much faster if she doesn’t keep crashing!

terrymorse 

OK, I admit that not crashing is more significant than marginal gains.

But for those TT and Tri competitors who have figured out the "not crashing" part, running fat tires would be a marginal loss.

DangerousDanR

My experience over the last few years is that while the folks I ride with are split 50/50 for tubeless or clinchers with tubes, almost all the flats are tubes. And the time to get back on the road for tubes is greater.

Yes, it is going to cost money to go tubeless. For about $850 Jen can get a set of Light Bicycle carbon rims on DT Swiss 350 hubs setup without any through holes so there will be no tape to futz with. Add another $80 and get a pair of Vittoria inserts. Finally, add $120 that I just paid for a pair of Goodyear Eagle/R tires and you have a top of the line tire. So for just over $1,050 there will be no flats, and even if there is a puncture that doesn't seal she should not loose control.

Triathlon is not a cheap sport, but that is not very much money for a performance and safety improvement. Or run some garden hose tires with tubes and hope they don't puncture or get a sidewall cut.

VegasJen

I'm pretty good at doing the things I like. I would make a really great pro athlete. I go out and perform. When I'm done, I give my stuff to a team that does all the maintenance. My problem is I'm just not any good as an athlete either.
I would totally try that.
I'm looking at going up to 28, but I think that's about as wide as most of my bikes will accept. Doubt I could go to 32 on my current bikes even if I wanted.
Very true. But I also run older, budget-friendly bikes.

I am considering the tubeless option. Need to resolve some debt issues first. Nothing major, should be good by end of the year. Maybe start shopping then.

PeteHski

Yeah sure, 28 mm tubeless tyres on optimised wide aero rims would be the ideal. She would be able to run about 70-75 psi instead of 90-100 psi on narrower tyres/rims and running tubeless would prevent most flats.

Frame clearance will set a practical limit anyway. But 30 or 32 mm tyres offer a useful further drop in pressure, which makes sealant more effective and less pressure drop with a puncture. 28 mm might be fractionally faster on the smoothest roads, but it’s only going to be significant if you are winning or losing races by a handful of seconds. The focus for Jen appears to be more avoiding flats and potential crashes.

eduskator

I agree with you on that. 15 000km (9000+mi) so far without a single flat and I roll on all kinds of roads with all kinds of debris on it. 100% of the flats I've witnessed this year during group rides were with tubes.

It's a good investment whenever you're not riding on perfect / new pavement.

PeteHski

Same for me. Flats are a rarity on tubeless. I've had one in 3 years and it was a deep cut by a piece of sharp metal debris. It was on a fast descent and the sealant slowed down the air leak enough that I could brake safely before it went flat. It was actually the hissing noise that alerted me to the puncture.

blacknbluebikes 

Yikes, methinx. This has really gone hyperbolic. Get the Gatorskins or the Schwalbe's and get on with it. Don't overcomplicate it. And the "harshest ride ever" of the Gatorskins is a bit exaggerated. I have them GP5000 on the A-bike and Gators on the B-bike. The difference in the tires doesn't really change my day. Riding just under 70psi versus 90psi really does change my day - that's much more important to the ride quality than the compound (in my view). And I do have to "top up" the pressure in both bikes pretty much every other ride.

Biker2022

How many miles a week do you ride? (I myself experienced about 5-10 flats with my Kenda tires in 2022 and only 2 this year so far.)

Is "puncture resistant" an industry-wide term -- or is it defined acc. to the desires/whims of each particular brand?

Nachoman

I've had a high speed, down hill, front tire, blow out that resulted in a crash. So I can relate.
I ride gatorskins and check my tires often for cracks, frays, shards of glass, etc. Safety first!

Colorado Kid

I find that aging a tire works well for me. (6 mo. to a year or more.) I've zero flat in the past 3 years.

PeteHski

Do you hang them up like cured hams?

SoSmellyAir

Goes without saying that you have to hang them up. The more pertinent questions are what to season the tires with (Slime? Stan? Orange Seal? Dirt from Paris-Roubaix?), and whether to dry age (just hang) or wet age (wrap, then hang) them.

VegasJen

Not as much as most here, probably somewhere around 50 or 60. Cycling is just one of several things I do, including swimming, skating, running and weight training.

eduskator

Best - ultimate - super duper effective - puncture protection is to not ride. I confirm that you will NEVER get any. 100% guaranteed or you get your money back.

Chandne

I'd recommend tubeless for various reasons but flat protection is a big one. I only have one bike that has tubes. I rarely use it outside but I did the other day. I would have been fine normally and even with tubes but the county had closed that long bike path on the way back home. So it detoured me and I had to ride by some construction areas where the tractors/backhoes had churned up the dirt onto the other path and I eventually ran over some goatheads...instant flats on both tires. Good lesson. That weekend I converted that last bike to tubeless since it also has tubeless-ready alloy rims. I have been tubeless on the road for a few years but gravel for many years and MTB since 2004! Once you pick up the nuances of tubeless, it is foolproof.

One caveat- I only use water tires that lend themselves better to tubeless. I use nothing on the road below a stated 30 and usually 32 is it....the 32s measure 34. I run lower PSI on my primary road bike (55-60) and that is good for tubeless. A 25 at 90 PSI will not work as well. I have had it work but the pressure will drop significantly and you may have to spin the hole to the bottomed bounce the wheel on the ground if you hear the hiss of escaping air. It is the only time I actually heard my road tubeless losing air. It dropped from around 80 PSI to around 50 PSI and sealed up. It was a fragile (Schwalbe) tire around 200 grams. Still, it was fine form then on.

VegasJen

As long as this thread is still alive, can someone please explain to me where these mysterious "airless" tires are? Manufacturers (at least auto tire manufacturers, e.g. Goodyear, Bridgestone, Yokahama, etc.) have been teasing people with flat proof "airless" tires for at least 30+ years. Seems like bicycles would be a very easy and cheap market to do some real-world testing.

terrymorse 

When I read:

"I recommend tubeless tires for their flat protection",

my mind hears:

"I recommend liquid sealant in tires for its flat protection".

seypat

If one rides at night/in the darkness, a cross and a garlic necklace are good defenses against certain types of punctures.

DangerousDanR

I did run with sealant in tubes for a couple of years before switching over to tubeless, and while it was an improvement in puncture resistance it did not have the full range of benefits that running tubeless bestows.

Case in point: last Sunday morning I was riding along at about 25 MPH riding on a sweeping curve minding my own business when I heard the distinct sound of air and sealant rushing out of my tire. I knew that this had to be a large cut. Much more than just a staple or a screw in the tire. The issue at hand now is to decelerate from 25 to 0 in a controlled and non-destructive manner...

It did turn out that I had a slice that was too large to plug with a single bacon strip. My experience with tubes (even with sealant) is that a large slice at speed while turning is not a good situation. While it is not the best way to end a ride with tubeless, my tire did not unseat from the rim and I didn't wind up hitting the deck. I am aware that tubular tires also offer this benefit, and I suppose that tubeless tubulars might be the best solution, but I find the gluing process to be more of a phaff than tubeless clincher tires.

VegasJen

So it happened again today. Another *%$^@$ goathead thorn got me. Realized about 20 miles into my ride, which also happened to be exactly half way between my house and where I parked my vehicle.

Then I had to do something I've never done before. I accepted help from a passer by. A lady stopped and asked if I needed help. Since the patch on my spare tube failed, I really had no other option so we loaded my bike in the back of her SUV and she drove me back to my truck. When I got home I checked both tubes and found the holes. I just bought some new rubber cement because I was concerned my old can had started to deteriorate. We shall see if my new repairs take.

PeteHski

Slime tubes might be a simple option for the OP, but they are not as effective as tubeless.

choddo

I just looked up goathead thorns. Man I don’t envy you. Tubeless might help but I wouldn’t put money on it.

Jughed

They may be a bit slower - but Armadillo Elite tires are fairly bomb proof. The rubber compounds they use have improved over the years, so they are not as "rubber hose" as they were before - but these tires just resist punctures.

I've had two flats this year with my GP5000's, had multiple flats over the years with my Turbo Pro's - zero flats with the Armadillos. They are slower - but for training purposes, speed doesn't really matter.

Edit:
I've been reading up on riding Mt Lemmon in Tucson - the local bike rental shop mentions goat heads, talks about not using race type tires, and equips all of their rental bikes with Armadillos.

SoSmellyAir

I just looked this up too. Damn, they look like the aliens in Season 1 of Invasion: