beng1

Last fall I ended up with a new looking pair of Bell "Streetster" tires in 27" x 1 1/4". They looked like they were hardly used at all and I thought I was having some good luck, but I was wrong. This year I have gotten three flats with them in the last two months, two pieces of glass and a very small thorn, all of which went right through the tires into the tubes.

Last year I rode mostly on a pair of Kenda tires of the same size and the only flat I got was when I ran over a thumb-tack point-first and dead-center, stopped and pulled it out. I should have left the tack in and I could have got home fine I am sure.

Anyway, if you are looking at new or used tires on a budget, I would stay away from the Bell brand and go for Kenda or Cheng-Shin, both of which I have had good luck with as far as flat-resistance.

Koyote

Gee, who would've thought that a $15 tire sold at Walmart would suck? I'm shocked.

79pmooney

In defense of the Bell bike products - yes there are far better options but - Bell is very likely to be the only option you will find in a department store far from bike shops. And those Bell products are good enough to get you home. In a pinch, that's worth a lot.

I set out for a 100+ mile ride a few years back. By mile 16 I had replaced both my brand new innertubes with my two spares. (A tube issue that had nothing to do with me or my tire mounting, Same issue, both tubes.) Had poor luck later and used all but one patch. Still had the final 15-20 miles to ride. Longer option was over the hill with little traffic and little chance of a ride if I had more issues. Shorter was over a glass strewn state rt breakdown lane strewn with glass. I stopped at the Fred Meyers of the small city of Newberg south of Portland. They had Bell tubes. Patches. Bought both. Rode the glass home. Needed neither. Money well spent.

wheelreason

No, the worst tire ever is the Conti Ultra Sport. Get a Zaffiro and be done with it.

Lombard

I once had a Bell helmet. It whistled horribly at any speed greater than 20mph. I ditched it.

cyccommute 

Well, to be fair, the Bell “folding tire” I had to buy outside Lexington, KY was a lot better than the $90 Continental I bought in Cincinnati, OH. It lasted longer…230 miles vs 160 miles… and didn’t split wide open after a rock strike

IMG_0119 by Stuart Black, on Flickr

Trakhak

Three flats in a couple of months with one brand of (used) tires versus one flat with another in a year might be too small a sample to be statistically meaningful.

There's a good chance that the Bell tires are relabeled Kendas, by the way.

Wildwood 

The best money I spend is on good tires.
YMMV

jadmt

I had one flat last year in 3000 miles, I have had 2 flats this year in 1200 miles....same tires..this year is a bad year....

Trakhak

Would be weird if flats came at nicely spaced regular intervals, but that's what people seem to expect them to do. Clusters of random events being interpreted as meaningful: that's how religions start. Assigning data to "clusters" already means that interpretation is being skewed by expectations.

indyfabz

So the takeaway is that Bell tires are one of the biggest wastes of money in biking. Got it!

base2 

It's a poor operator that blames his equipment. If you want to stop getting flats, stop riding over stuff that causes flats.

I know I got a lot less flats when I started running sensible pressures.

I combined those sensible pressures with tubeless & have only had 3 punctures in 3 years.

I still haven't got any flats that required roadside repair since I quit running over stuff that punctures tubes or eliminated tubes entirely.

I'm not sure how any of this is related to the brand of tire...It's the tube or the sealant that holds the air.

Perhaps the evil Bell Corp hires minions to thumbtack & glass the road?

Lombard

Possibly. And to be fair, Kenda does makes some decent low priced tires that are durable albeit somewhat harsh riding.

Also to be fair, many brands have a budget line of tire that's not very durable.

Iride01 

Flat tires generally come in a quick succession for three times. Usually you do something wrong when you fix them or change the tire and it takes a couple tries to get it right. Even when my flats are from road hazards as I think you said yours were, they still tend to come in quick succession in a group of three.

delbiker1 

I once bought 2 Serfas tires from a bike shop in a location I was visiting. They were horrendous tires with a lousy ride and flat prone. I cannot comment on durability as I trashed them when I got back home. The shop charged me $43 per tire. Out of curiosity, I found them at on line sites from the low $20's. They might be the worst I have ever had.

Lombard

I can't tell you how many times I was on a club ride when someone got a flat and swore up and down it was a pinch flat, so didn't check the tire carefully. Less than a half mile down the road, another flat.

RH Clark

I bought a bunch of Bell bike tires on closeout at $2 each. They suck but for $2 I figured I might need a set during the zombie apocalypse.

XxHaimBondxX

Kevlar may stop a bullet, but not a glass chip I guess.

shelbyfv

Conti Gatorskins have decent puncture protection though the cost of a pair would exceed the value of OP's stable.

indyfabz

Some boobs in my local club were on a ride when one rider got a flat. Each new tube they put in kept going flat. Lather, rinse, repeat until the group had used up all their tubes. Turned out there was a big slit in the tire that no one had checked for. They had to get “rescued” by a LBS. When I read the story on our club’s email list, I contacted the ride leader and explained how handle such situations in the future.

Gyro

What are your sensible pressures?

base2 

https://silca.cc/pages/sppc-form

Lombard

Yup. It seems like riders in groups concentrate more on getting the tube changed as quickly as possible than finding out why the flat happened in the first place. I see people just take one tire bead off and do a very quick superficial finger wipe inside the tire to feel for any objects...........if even that.

Quick and dirty usually ends dirty.

Cdubs

Before I had much experience I would quickly change a tube and forget to check if the object was in the tire loose or stuck I'm a lot more careful now and get way less flats. But regardless of the cost of the bike I would be looking at some good tires either way.

seypat

The main knock I've heard on Bells is the clapper.