chuckybb

Went for a ride on a rail to trail path today and had 2 puncture flats in less than 6 miles. The tires are 'Bell Flat Defense Hybrid Gravel Bike Tire' 700x38c. Seems like 'Flat Defense' is fiction. These are newer tires with less than 100 miles on them. I am looking for suggestions for replacement tires that would be used on gravel paths with some muddy spots.
addenda: These where 2 small punctures near the center of the tread located about opposite from each other.

Rolla

Schwalbe makes some pretty durable tires, but, any tire can get a flat if you run over something pointy or don't inflate it properly. What caused these punctures?

freeranger

An important part of fixing a flat is making sure whatever caused the first one isn't still lodged in the tire/tube, or that you don't have a rough spot in the rim and that the rim tape is still over the spokes and in good shape. If you don't take care of whatever caused the first flat, be prepared for it to happen again.

Ghazmh

Bell doesn’t have anything else?

Iride01 

Most say that flats come in close groups of threes. You are still due another flat no matter what you put on the bike.

79pmooney

More important than the rubber is to find some good karma. Flats happen. We can minimize them. There are now ways to keep air inside punctured tires and yes. more bulletproof tires can be had. But notice - I did not say the tires were bulletproof, just that they could be closer.

Tricks to minimize flats - don't run over glass, thorns, the near microscopic steel tire wires, etc. On roads, scan where the debris sits and ride to its left. The further, the fewer flats you will get. Sharp items, especially the tiny ones, usually don't cause a flat the first or second tire rotation. If you are quick enough, you can brush the tire clean with your hand or the palm of your glove before that hazard causes trouble. Don't anger (the) God(s). (That karma bit.) Stay at peace when they happen because they will. Ride with all you need to do repairs and ride home. At home (and sometimes mid-ride) examine your tires and pick stuff out of the tread. (If it clearly goes through to the innertube, leave it in as a marker. Pull the tube, patch, then go back and patch/boot the tire as needed.)

I'm a big fan of patching tubes on the road because it documents where the issue is. (And having found it, you know what the issue is almost always.) The tiny stuff can be invisible, completely inside the tire tread and casing. With the patch, you can put a little air in the tube, then look in exactly that spot on the tire (or the same distance from the valve on the other side). Knowing exactly where to look gives you a chance at finding the near invisible. Skipping that step means the piece of whatever will give you flat after flat until you get disgusted and toss that tire. 6 miles, flat to flat? Were the flats n the same location? Did you look? Trick - always mount your tires with the labels exactly at the valve or exactly at the rim seam opposite. Now the innertube and tire always correspond.)

Oh, if you live in goathead country, move. Construction sites - ride elsewhere. (I've violated both of those commandments. Still here to talk about them but my repair skills are good. (Oh, good repair skills helps a lot with that karma bit. Might want to look into bike coop tire repair classes.)

Yes, more bulletproof tires will help. But all tires that hold air are subject to what I wrote above. I'll let others talk tires.

CAT7RDR

I have been impressed with the Schwalbe Green Guards on my 29er in a 45mm.
Had my head down (major No No) and rode through a broken bottle glass field and thought for sure I would have flatted.
Remarkably I could hear the glass fragments either being crushed or being shot out onto the road.
Not even a shard embedded into the thread.

Now the negative is they are heavy so you might look into something gravel specific since the Green Guards are for touring.

alcjphil

The most important way to prevent flats is to figure out what caused the ones you have had. I spent close to a half century riding and doing detective work determining what caused various flat tires. The result is that today despite not using "puncture proof" tires I have only had a couple of flats in the last 5 years

willydstyle

First off: you can get punctures from user error. If you fixed the flat then reinstalled the tube and tire poorly you could easily have pinched the tube between the bead of the tire and rim. If you failed to inflate the tire properly you could easily have gotten a "snakebite" puncture from hitting a bump that compressed the tube against the rim. If you patched the tube without removing the offending sharp object from the tire it could easily puncture the tube again, and some types of sharp debris (such as wires shed from damaged truck tires) can be extremely difficult to find in your tire.

Secondly: Bell makes very, very cheap bike parts that are not worth the money you spend on them. I would be very unsurprised if the Bell tires you purchased offer very little real puncture protection.

Thirdly: sometimes you just get unlucky.

Learning how to diagnose the causes of punctures will help you figure out what's at play here. An improperly installed tire and tube will puncture the tube on the side. A "snakebite" from an underinflated tire will be on the inside of the tube, in contact with the rim. If you always align the tire the same way when you reinstall it after a flat it can help you find offending sharp debris if the punctures are on the outside of the tube.

alcjphil

Excellent analysis. It took me almost 40 years to discover all this
I am a slow learner

Camilo

What caused the flats? Were they on the same tire?

If on the same tire, did you check carefully to make sure that whatever caused the first flat was removed?

If on the same tire, how did you repair it - did you patch or replace the tube?

Were either of them pinch flats caused by too-low inflation?

veganbikes

Bell is a helmet maker I wouldn't really want them for tires because I think any bike parts they are selling are at wally-mart and places like that so not the quality but certainly low initial cost.

In the end the tires don't matter so much in this equation but what caused the flats and what you did or didn't do to solve the issues. If say the flat happened on the same tire did you check the tire to see what caused the flat or just throw a new tube in it? Did you pinch the tube the second time or maybe the first time or both? If you don't check to see what caused the flat and don't install the new tube properly and don't pump your tires to the proper pressure as often as needed a tire will not matter in the end.

If did somehow get a double punctures in separate parts of the tire and it wasn't caused by the same thing and everything was properly inflated and all of that then yes tires would make a greater difference. On that front I would look at a higher quality tire with better rubber and from a well known tire manufacturer like Schwalbe or Continental or Maxxis... I would ideally want something with more puncture protection if I am getting a lot of flats.

mstateglfr 

Flats come in groups.
I hadn't had one on any road bikes since summer of '18 and got one at the end of May, then had another on Tuesday morning, and just got one tonight.
All on different wheels/tires.


Lame, But if this means I can then go another 4 years without one then I am OK with the few that have happened this season.

The Chemist

I swear by Schwalbe Marathons. I put over 8000km on my last set with just one flat in all that time (and that was near the end of their life when they were wearing out), and I've just replaced them last month with another set that now have over 1000km on them without a single flat.

base2 

Fact!
Flats are always the tires fault. Either that, or it's the bike, cause it's a pile, or the bike shop had nefarious intentions when they sold accessory "X".

Never will it ever be because you have a habit of riding through large debris pile or over sharp things with wild abandon. Everyone knows that you, the super skilled & most amazing eagle-eyed operator the world has ever seen could ever possibly miss seeing such an obvious piece of damaging detritus. I mean: "Look at it! It's right there. In the tire!"

You totally need new tires, new tubes, & the shop should comp everything as punishment for duping whom they though was a gullible mark.

---------------------------

Obviously, this is not not intended as a "serious" response. But you wouldn't believe how many times a customer comes in & truly believes this is the case.

The customer proclaims they need a new tube & are more than happy to pay the labor to fix it. So, $19.76 cents later, that's what happens...Or for an e-bike it's closer to $50 or an e-bike with the sale of tire liners it's closer to $130-$150 after tax...So, of course, because the customer is always right, I oblige.

Right next to the cash register, I have patch kits with 12 patches for sale for $4

CAT7RDR

^^^^ Mea Culpa. Color blindness, poor depth perception and generally poor vision has gotten me more flats that I would care to admit.
Thus, my reasoning for going with more robust flat protection at the sacrifice of speed.

KerryIrons

If you are describing the inner tube, your edit perfectly describes a pinch flat. Also called a "snake bite" for obvious reasons. Your tire didn't have enough pressure to prevent the tire from crushing against the rim when you hit a rock or other sharp object. It was not the tire's fault. You may need higher pressure, or if you are near the max pressure on the tire, then wider tires or more careful riding. If you are describing holes in the tire itself, then who knows what caused it.

ThermionicScott 

Or maybe the "Flat Defense" prevented you from getting 4 flats on your ride.