venomx

I'm new to road riding and want to know how to avoid punctures tyres and buckling wheels?

trailangel

You can avoid "tyre" punctures by not riding over nails, thorns, glass and little wires that you cannot see without a magnifying glass.
You can avoid buckling wheels by not riding over potholes and riding light when you do hit the potholes.

cyccommute 

Trailangel has flats covered with the caveat that flats are inevitable and not 100% preventable. As for buckling wheels, that is an extremely rare occurrence. Your wheels would have to be incredible lightweight and delicate. You might experience buckling wheels if they are poorly...very, very poorly...tensioned. Wheels are incredibly strong even when poorly built. They will take an incredible amount of punishment with only minor issues. They will go out of true but they won’t fold over.

bpcyclist

There are a number of tire options that place a premium on puncture-prevention. The caveat is that they almost always have much, much poorer rolling resistance performance and may be much heavier. If your priority is truly puncture-prevention, one of those tires might be a good choice. If you wish to optimize speed and don't mind stopping more often to repair a flat, those tires likely a poor option. Or you can always try to find a tire that seeks a bit of a compromise between those two goals--there are some of those as well.

alcjphil

Keep your head up looking far enough ahead so that you can avoid road debris and potholes. Keep enough distance between you and the side of the road so that the rubbish that collects there isn't in your path. and so that you have space if cars pass you too close

Miele Man

Watch out for longitudinal gaps in pavement, and also watch out for trolley tracks. Either can taco/buckle/potato-chip a wheel if the wheel gets caught in them.

Oh, a really worn brake track on a rim can cause a wheel to buckle too.

Cheers

FlMTNdude

There is no guarantee that you won't get a flat, just minimise them. Good quality tires, maybe a tire liner, mostly watch for debris (that darn invisible radial tire wire). I won't go out without a tube and a pump. If you check your spoke tension, air pressure, and don't hit curbs or the railroad track you will be ok on the road.

79pmooney

Good advice above. I always ride with 2 tubes and a patchkit. All my bikes have full frame pumps. Over the past 50 years I've had enough rides that near drained what I brought. (Maybe I need to take that karma thing more seriously.)

Do your best to always find the cause of any flat. If it is from either a rim/rim tape issue or a tiny piece of glass or tire wire you didn't remove, there's another flat coming. I patch tubes primarily so that the patch is a very convenient marker on where to look for the issue. It's either at the patch or that many spokes away on the other side of the valve. Knowing within an inch were to look makes finding the tiny stuff a LOT easier.

Ben

sweeks

"Tyre" is what they call a "tire" in the UK.

Andrew R Stewart 

Wheels can be very stiff and strong in the vertical plane but much weaker side to side. It's very rare to buckle a wheel with s straight on impact (pot hole) but fairly easy to bend a rim out of true sideways with little effort. So my starting advice, besides the good stuff already said, is to not load your wheels sideways any more then you can. Don't apply brakes while turning. Don't hit even small obstacles while turning. Practice going slow, really slow, so slow that you have to work your body side to side to balance. Now continue with trying to minimize the side to side swings/sways.

The cheapest but hardest way to go easy on your equipment is to ride light. Andy

alo

I am tall and fat challenged, and sometimes ride on rough tracks. I have broken spokes in the back wheels of some bikes. It seems fat bikes are the least likely to break spokes, as the tires spread the weight out more. I have not broken a spoke in a fat bike wheel.

I have also started using tubeless tire sealant in my tubes. Most punctures are very small and should seal. I think it will be very rare that I have a flat tire.

venomx

Thanks guys I could probably deal with a puncture but a buckle would be a right pain
If you buckle it you have to "true" the spokes or something?

I'm new to road riding and try my best to avoid pot holes but the terrain around here isn't great


When I see pot holes I try to swerve them if safe to do so. And when it's not possible I slow down and take weight off the front and then the back as I pass over it.
Sometimes it's unavoidable if I'm going fast

I keep my tyres about 100psi, the recommended max is 118psi

cyccommute 

You are talking two different things with regards to the wheels. Wheels can go out of true for many reasons but that is a minor problem and a relatively minor adjustment. It’s also somewhat common, especially on OEM wheels on a bike.

I would consider ”buckling” of a wheel to be a catastrophic failure of the wheel, i.e. the wheel folds or there is major damage to the rim and/or spokes. That is much more rare and to fix the problem usually requires a rebuild or a new wheel. Thankfully, it is also an event that happens only very rarely.

The good news is that you seem to understand how to ride properly to avoid damage. When you can’t avoid a hole, float your bike over possibly damaging holes by unweighting the saddle and letting you legs and arms absorb the hit. Try to avoid those holes but you cant always.

Clyde1820

@venomx -- Can you be specific about which make/model of tires and wheels you have? Might help folks make some recommendations that might be more suitable to your situation.

Some thoughts ...

My own bomb-proof build for a hybrid commuter rig included these components: Shimano Deore XT 36H hubs, Velocity Dyad 700c rims, DT Swiss 2mm spokes, quality brass nipples, Velox cloth rim tape, with Continental Tour Ride 700x47mm tires. These particular tires have a built-in 5mm puncture guard designed into the tire. The tire also allows for ~45psi and is large enough for a very comfortable ride. Plenty of potholes, nasty exposed seams, patches on patches on patches (of the roads), and tossed-out sharp stuff people have left on the roads. Yet, I haven't had a flat or peep from the wheelset in ~3yrs. Despite having struck numerous moderate potholes and road problems in that time.

Had the wheelset built up by a decent shop. Very strong build. At minimum, if you're having loose spokes or creaks coming from the wheels, it would be worthwhile to have the wheels trued and tightened up, correcting any issues found. As well, I'd consider a tire/tube/tape combination that provides increased guards against flats. Might cost some in terms of rotational weight, but it might well correct the problem with frequent flats.

alo

Have you had buckled wheels, or is it just a fear that may never happen?

It is extremely rare, unless you put a huge amount of weight on a bike.