skiffrun

There was a recent thread on here about whether or not people carried a spare tyre with them. I did not contribute to that thread, although I maybe should have.

I carry a spare tyre on every ride, and have since July 2010 when failure to have a spare on my first 200+ km Permanent led to a DNF. Borrowed a tyre boot at the turn-around from an experienced rando, but after approx 47-miles, the boot was no longer holding the tyre together, so we did the smarter thing, DNF, rather than tempt a very pothole filled road with five climbs and descents on that sketchy tyre -- a flat profile, or with only climbing, might have tried -- but with potholed descents, let's not be stupid. (That particular flat was caused by nearly invisible glass fragments, one of which took about 30 miles to work its way through the tyre to poke a hole in the tube, and also created a serious cut exactly on the middle of the tyre-meets-the-road portion.)

(There was also the issue that the aforementioned experienced rando had NO lighting and I knew the above-referenced pothole covered road from many, many non-rando rides, but the experienced rando did not, and I enforced my opinion that he should not attempt the pothole road without sufficient lighting.)

I have ridden 200+ km rides with a spare tyre or even two, but occasionally without a spare tube. One memorable ride, a friend needed a spare tyre, and I gave him one of the two I had with me, so that he could complete his ride.

Saturday, my rear tyre gave out half-way across a flat road with WAY TOO MUCH pea gravel from a recent chip-seal operation. (Maybe not all that recent an operation because that is a very low traffic road.) My fault the tyre failed. About twelve inches of thread were exposed and it was obvious that a particular piece of pea gravel penetrated the threads. (Better on that flat road, I guess, than later on some fast descent.) Anyway, replaced with a lightly used spare tyre and rescued my ride.

I ALWAYS CARRY A SPARE TYRE.

And that reminds me, I need to pack a spare tyre for tomorrow (and a tube, too -- though I could probably get by with the patches already in the saddle bag in stead of carrying a tube).

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StephenH, you can let Pamela know that apparently Dan-the-pusher isn't the only one that rides his tyres until he's only got threads showing.

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Finally, I am northwest Illinois born and breed, but I prefer the Britspeak tyre to the Amerispeak tire when referring to those round "rubber" things on our motor vehicles and/or bicycles that make the actual contact with the road surfaces.

Carbonfiberboy 

Last Sunday, 2 of our cyclists started a major training ride, but had to abandon in the first few miles. One of them kept getting persistent flats but couldn't find the cause and ran out of tubes.They had driven to the start together, a 2.5 hr. drive each way, so both abandoned. Tire seemed fine, no foreign objects, clean on the inside. Back home, experimenting with pumping to very high pressures, a 5mm slit in the center of the tire allowed a tiny bit of tube to protrude and BANG. In use, the movement in the contact patch probably allowed the tire to protrude even though the slit was not visible in the pumped tire. If either one had a spare tire, problem solved immediately. I never even examine a flat tire, I just replace it and find the damage back home. Yes, carry a spare.

joewein

Plenty of people will have anecdotes where a spare tire saved somebody's day. To me that alone is not convincing evidence that one should always carry a spare tire on a long distance ride from a rational point of view.

Over the last 7 years I have cycled 56,000 km (about 35,000 mi) without a single complete tire failure. I've had to use my spare tubes a number of times (even both on some occasions), but no tire cut was ever as bad that I couldn't complete that ride. On the other hand, I have had rear shifter cables fail on me twice (before I improved my maintenance regime). Though I could still hobble home with only three working gears (triple crank), it would have been pretty difficult to complete a ride in the mountains like that. Based on this anecdotal evidence, I would have been better off carrying a spare shifter cable than a spare tire, which is much bulkier and less likely to save the day than the lighter cable...

Where do you draw the line? Spare spokes? Spare chain? Spare shifter? I mean, lots of things can go wrong, but are you going to carry all of the above on non-touring rides?

Regarding tires, it also depends on what tires you use, how much you wear them out and what kinds of roads you ride. I ride Compass 650Bx42 BSP EL tires at 3 bar (42 psi) that seem to get almost no punctures on the roads I ride (2 punctures in 17,000 km). The only ride where I ever carried a spare tire was on an abandoned mountain road closed to all vehicle traffic with no cell phone coverage where no rock slides have been cleared for years and the road is gradually getting buried under them.

On Saturday I was reminded again as how different our tolerance for risks is. I was riding with two friends who had managed to puncture three tubes before we even met up for the group ride. By then they had no spare tubes left, but the ride leader suggested that maybe we should only buy spares in the next town, 35 km into the 120 km ride and after the first of two mountain passes! I on the other hand always ride with two spare tubes on the bike, even when I just head to the supermarket to get a carton of milk: They're always in my front bag, on both of my bikes. I actually insisted we buy the spares before leaving town and just as well, as one of my friends punctured again on the first climb!

Everybody should ride with what makes them feel comfortable. That is different from person to person. If not carrying something makes you worry so much that you can't enjoy the ride, carry it :-)

MetinUz

I don't replace a flat tube until I know what caused the flat. It's simple; you find the puncture, look around the tire for a cut or an embedded debris, only then replace the tube. If the tire is cut, a boot will take care of that.

Carbonfiberboy 

You misunderstand me. I replace the TIRE with my spare, right along with the new tube. Saves a lot of time fooling around trying to find the leak, especially if it's a slow leak, and guarantees no repeat flats for the same cause, unless it's on the inside. Haven't had an inside puncture since I went back to using Velox rim strips maybe 15 years ago.

MetinUz

I did not misunderstand; I was responding to your friend's situation you described. Surely you realize that one can get more than one flat on a ride. On a long ride like a 1200K, I carry 3 tubes and a patch kit, then replenish from my drop bag as needed. A spare tire may speed up the first flat (and could be very handy on a rainy night, for instance), but then you need to fall back to not having an extra tire for the rest of the ride.

Carbonfiberboy 

I guess I still don't get it. Please explain. It sounds like you think carrying no spare is better than carrying one spare? Of course if you ruin a tire, you'll toss it at the next control. If the flatted tire is not ruined, you can examine it for issues at the overnight or back home. OTOH, if the flat was just a puncture, then next flat you'll have to find the problem, just like everyone else. My experience is that I flat uncommonly, and not more than 1 flat per brevet. In general, besides speeding up flat changes, the idea of a spare is avoiding a DNF, a ride to the next bike shop being the same thing.

On brevets, I carry 4 tubes, a patch kit, a boot kit, a spare tire, and a Road Morph G.

CliffordK

I'm not doing competitive long distance events, but tend to get in quite a few miles including a few rides around 180 miles in a day. And, very much self-supporting. No SAG wagon waiting.

In the last 20,000 miles or so, I've had one trailer blowout (hard to count, old abused tires which I over-inflated), and one blowout on my road bike.

For the trailer blowout, I was actually able to purchase a thick thornproof tube that gave enough support to ride another 20 miles or so to finish my ride and head home (odd size to replace the tire).

For the bike blowout, I was about halfway into a 150 mile ride. Booted the tire the best I could, then high tailed it to the nearest bike shop, about 20 miles away. Could I have made it another 60 miles or so limping had I not sourced a replacement? I can't say for sure, but I think so. My biggest issue wasn't the sidewall boot as much as the very narrow chainstay clearance which was tough to keep it from rubbing. If it had been a half inch wider, I'd have been fine.

Anyway, I tend not to carry a spare with me for regular riding and short tours. I might consider it if I did a longer tour or rougher terrain.

In a race, > 500 miles... maybe consider the lightest most compact tire I could find that would fit. It wouldn't have to be bomb-proof, but just enough to get me to the finish, or a local shop.

MetinUz

No need to be defensive; I was simply responding to the example you gave in your original post, where your friends abandoned a ride after running out of tubes. They did not fail because of the lack of a spare tire; they failed because they did not fix the flat properly.

Carbonfiberboy 

Yeah, we're just talking past each other. Happens. It wasn't because they didn't fix it properly. It's because they couldn't find the problem with the equipment they had with them. They are both very experienced LD riders, have probably fixed hundreds of flats between them. If I had been with them instead of up the road, I could have handed them my spare, as I've done several times with other riders, and they could have done the ride just fine. There's nothing weird or un-rando about a spare tire . . . in my world, fixing a flat properly is being able to finish the ride, however you do it.

pdlamb

I'm confused now. So on your brevet, the first flat you get you replace tire + tube. What do you do with the second flat?

unterhausen

if you put a new tire on, the chance of a second flat is much less. I have known people that got multiple flats because of not being able to find the cause. And the chance of not being able to find the cause goes way up when tired. I recently started using a set of wheels that I had set aside for a while. Last ride I did on them, I got a slow leak and couldn't find the cause so I checked again in the comfort of my living room. I found the problem in about 15 seconds, it was obvious.

I carry a spare derailleur cable, spare quick link, and a fiberfix spoke. Then again, I broke a spoke on my recent 600k and decided not to use the fiberfix. I should probably practice using it at home, I had so little time left at the end of that ride I probably would have dnf'd if I had used it. The broken spoke didn't slow me down at all.

Only the spare tire and spare tubes weigh any appreciable amount. I have seen people need all of those things and either DNF or have to make the call of shame because of them, and the law of maximum inconvenience would suggest that it would happen when you are 125 miles from the end of a 400k segment.

Carbonfiberboy 

. . . if I have one. But if I do, I'm back to being just like those unfortunate brevet riders who don't bring spare tires. Remove wheel, finish deflation, pop the tire off but leaving the part at the valve on the rim, reinflate tube, find leak, match to tire, remove debris, new tube, reinflate, replace wheel. It's not all that bad. And I still have the first flatted tire (if it wasn't destroyed and thus already avoided the DNF) to replace tire #2 if it gets destroyed. And I still have 2 more tubes and a patch kit. One of my buddies once got 8 flats, all from different causes, on one pass climb in the dark. Luckily for him (I guess), it wasn't raining. But that's what that helmet light is for.

The only trouble I've had fixing flats is when it's a tiny hole that you can't hear and can't even feel with your mouth and there's no water nearby and you don't have a new spare tire. That gets tedious quickly. I do wish the dratted tire manufacturers hadn't started putting labels on both sides of their tires.