mjac

Thank You Morg33, you made me feel good...mjac

mjac

Almost exclusively on 9' wide concrete Bike Path.(see picture above) Once I got my tires and tubes sorted out not often. Want to avoid as many flats as possible foe safety reasons. Yeah, I have a nice pair of heavy irons. I ride at 120 psi (maximum recommended pressure) but in the past I have not been checking and when I did they have been as low as 40psi. Doing better lately.

JayKay3000

I use the schwalbe marathon tires. They seem to be OK. They've gone over unavoidable glass a bunch.

Not my favorite tire as they can be sketchy in the wet on certain surfaces and took a while to bed in compared to other tires i've owned in the past.

63rickert

There's more than one way to skin a cat. I am in Chicago, which many would say was world's capitol of broken glass and bad pavement. Friends with Marathons are happy to show me large numbers of embedded glass fragments in their tread. Trying hard to come up with last time I punctured on glass. The wife did have a glass puncture about a year and a half ago. About same time I hit a very short roofing nail - big broad nail head and the spike was maybe 3/4". Can recall puncturing three years back on a short piece of wire. Likely came from my own basement. Most flats are due to split defective inner tubes. I do all this on Rene Herse/Compass tires which are as light as you can get. The theory is they are supple and simply flex around the glass. Whatever, seems to work. When flats do occur the supple tires peel off easily w/o need for tools, pop back on easily w/o tools.

I can give you an instance where this strategy did not work at all. We used to do a winter vacation in S. Florida. The pavement there has a lot of texture and seems to hold broken glass in position, rain and traffic do not sweep it away. And held in position as you ride over it. For many vacationers the main leisure activity seems to be alcohol consumption, we witnessed tossed bottles, something not seen routinely in Chicago for decades. And we flatted. Tried again with Gatorskins, which feel like riding through wet concrete. And we flatted. LBS said bring three tubes and a patch kit on every ride. We used them.

Unless you have an unusual local situation with lots of flats guaranteed, you're faster in long run using lighter tires. Every minute on the bike is faster. Every minute on the bike is more fun. Tires that pop on and off save huge amounts of time when you do flat. If the goal is no flats ever the only way to do that is solid tires.

mjac

With the tires I have on hand right now which include one 700 X 23 Bontreger triple puncture protection and one 700 X 28 Bontreger Aramid Band that I am going to try first, I am going to use a Mr. Tuffy Tire liner and I am going to inject Flat Attack Sealent into the tubes. I do not know if this is right. I don't know if it will work.But I am thinking of trying it.

What tire has the highest rolling resistance?...A flat one.

Sy Reene

Interesting thread, but just in case you're not aware, there's a "Multi Quote" function that may help thread readability when you want to respond to multiple people but with just one post.

mjac

You are right. I felt awkward responding to each post individually, but I figured they took the time to respond to me with knowledge and experience I do not have, they deserved a response from me. But it looked kind of silly seeing 6 or 7 individual posts from "mjac" in a row. I guesse there are times when a multquote would be practical.

I am glad you found it interesting,none of my doing, I did too. I picked up a lot of tid bits of information. Some of which forced, and I mean forced me to get a little Zeifel under saddle bag and put together a small tire repair kit. I thought I would feel stupid. But I felt better on the next ride because I was better able to handle anything that happens. Funny. Looks pretty good too.

PaulH

I use Schwalbe Marathon Plus along with Mr. Tuffy. This combination gives me a flat every 10,000 - 20,000 miles. I drive and cycle about equal distances each year, and my flat rates on both vehicles are the same. While agreeing that any pneumatic tire will flat, it seems to me that matching the flat rate of a car tire is sufficient to consider the problem solved.

mjac

That is exactly my goal. Not to try and eliminate 100% of all flats all the time and not carry a repair kit. It was to reduce the flat rate as much as possible and still have a decently rolling and handling tire with no superficial flats. A few people have recommended the Mr. Tuffy so what I am going to do with the tires I have now before buying new tires is go with the Mr. Tuffy Liners and put Flat Attack Sealent in the tubes and try that. Mr. Tuffy said something about the Blue and the Grey. I have to find out what this is...Thanks,mjac

Archwhorides 

My Gator Hardshells are pretty good, but I still get flats every now and then, like this one. Probably averaging one every 4,000 miles or so. The ride is not supple, but my winter studs ride a lot harsher.

mjac

While not perfect by any stretch of the imagination would you say they are a good value for the money? They just can't ride as harshly as some people are saying. They may not be fast and smooth like road racers but they can not be absolutely terrible.

Archwhorides 

I've been commuting with 32mm Gator HS for 8 years now and I think they are a great value. I wouldn't put them on my 25mm road bike wheels (I want more suppleness and grip), but for my urban riding they are great (except when they have a roofing nail through them).

mjac

Exactly. You have been riding them for 8 years I would have to say they must be at least tolerable if not serviceable if a man has ridden them for eight years. To hear some of these people talk you would need spinal fusion after one ride. Nobody said they were time trial tires but in an urban setting they are better then time trial tires and time trial tires would be better then them in a time trial. Avoiding flats on an urban commute is a valuable asset and can save you a lot of trouble, a lot. That seems worth it to me. They have their place. Maybe these guys are just purists.

mjac

Whose finger is that?

alcjphil

There is a huge difference in ride quality between a 32mm wide tire and a 23 or 25mm wide tire. The wider tires can be ridden at much lower pressure. In addition, tire liners will further degrade ride quality, especially with a tire designed for maximum puncture protection.
I thought I might also add that flat tires are not always caused by punctures from road debris. In fact, of my last 6 flat tires only one was a puncture. The first was a tire bead failure, a brand new tire(first ride) 80 km into a 100 km ride and the tire bead separated from the tire sidewall causing a blowout. The next was a pinch flat caused by me trying to hop over a curb going too fast. The next was another bead failure that actually happened in my living room, it let go while I was sitting watching TV. The next 2 were inner tube valve failures, one a valve separating at the base and the other caused by the valve nut breaking off. In both cases the inner tubes had been in service for years, they were both on their 3rd set of tires. The last was the only puncture. Near the end of a ride, I ran over an industrial staple that could easily have punctured almost any tire. In this case it was my bike with tubeless tires. I finished the ride with only one issue: I had to pump the tire up with 2 km to go. If I had been using sealant with my tubeless tire, I wouldn't have had to do even that. 6 flats, but only 3 of them happened on the road, in 6 years or so of riding. The only bike that had puncture resistant tires was the one that had the pinch flat. For me, one puncture in 6 years is acceptable, especially since that one puncture didn't keep me from finishing my ride

mjac

I assume your puncture resistant tire is the 32mm Tubeless Gator Skin that had one flat in 6 years. In your honest opinion do you think that Gator Skin (hard casing?) prevented some flats in those 6 years. I don't know if 32s will fit on my bike I will have to see. But you do suggest putting the largest tire you can on the bike for urban riding.

You our have a point. I was getting a rash of flats from the casing breaking down in some tires I bought fro a guy used and from Presti Vaves splitting from the tube right at the base, new tubes too.

alcjphil

Had you been paying attention to my previous answers you would know that my puncture protection tire on my touring bike is a Panaracer Pasela TG 700 x 32 not tubeless otherwise I would not have suffered a pinch flat This is not my only bike. My other road bikes have tires chosen for performance, supple ride and lighter weight. None of your posts indicate anything about what sort of bike you have other than that you need a 15mm wrench to remove the wheels. Lacking that sort of information most tire suggestions are going to be guesses. There is no such thing as a tubeless Gatorskin tire and I have had only one puncture flat over 6 years on 5 different bikes. Please reread my previous answer. I was attempting to explain that puncture resistance cannot prevent flat tires. Only one flat out of 6 I have had over 6 years was a puncture

mjac

My mistake, I got your post mixed up with " ArchWhoRides". We were talking about Gator Skins. Sorry.

Archwhorides 

I think that's the sucker who comes around to fix my annual flat.

mjac

You lie. That's your clean finger. I don't see any tire smudges or anything.

pattrick

I have been running Gatorskins for the last three years and have nothing bad to say about them. I ride them through glass and god knows what on the berms and they allow me to just ride, I can not say any thing more. They do exactly what I need and they do it well .Most supple ? Most....... Whatever? For me they flat out work and work very well. I run them at 32 mm with 90 psi and they have been flawless for my needs.

Fredo_Adagio

Thinking back on the punctures I've had, most of them have been either pinch flats or problems with the rim strip that allowed the tube to bear against the edge of a spoke recess. I have Continental Gatorskins on most of my bikes. Perhaps I've just been lucky. Bull thorns are very rare here.

mjac

Those are my feelings. I do not need racing tires in an urban setting. It is too dangerous to get flats in urban areas. Flat protection has to come first. The best flat protection that has the best ride. People's put downs about how Gators ride is over the top. There job is to get you there, especially in a commute where you have to be on time. You know what tire has the highest rolling resistance and worst handling?...A Flat one.

biketube guy

There's a new foam insert on the market called Air Fom. No flats, ever. Worth a look: https://air-fom.com

WinterCommuter

i’ve had very good luck with conti gator skins. I’ve also had good luck with spec armadillos. Of course, the watching the road diligently is the most important thing.