Robvolz 

I had them on my old Holdsworth. But they were on both wheels, so scientific method doesn't really apply here.

Then I recently saw some on one of the old Faema team bikes at a museum recently and it was raced with them.

Also saw on a website, some called "Tire Frog brand." They looked light and less obtrusive. Made in USA.

Speaking of which, other than Tire Frogs, nothing is made in USA anymore. I was walking through COSTCO and looked at all the flat screen TVs, most made in Korea or Taiwan.

One said "Built In Antennae" ....... I don't even know where that is!

Anyway, who uses them and who swears by them.

Also

Who thinks its a bunch of hooey.

79pmooney

They work. Don't do everything but do prevent a fair share of flats from glass picked up by the thread. I used them for decades when I was commuting on sewups and fenders since I could not access the rear tire with my hand. I'd install the rear at the chainstay bridge, pointing down so the defected grime pretty well stayed off the bike. Sometimes I'd just use my hand for the front, other times I'd bend the brake bolt eye the other way and run it under the fender.

Tread pattern is a big influence in how desirable they are. Ribbed treads are nice. File treads less so. Knobbies? Never tried, but no.

Now that I'm going back to sewups on my good bikes and the weather is changing, I'm going to have to consider going back to those glass catchers. Still have a few somewhere. And they aren't hard to make. Plastic tubing and spokes. Never made them from scratch but I "re-shod" the tire element many times with old spokes.

steelbikeguy

that's pretty funny, in a "Dad joke" sorta way. I still laughed.

I used to use them, back in the day.
Not sure how much it matters, but when tubulars were the standard tire for going fast, it may have been worthwhile.

Steve in Peoria

Aardwolf

My only flat in the last year:
I was rolling along on tubulars and thought I'd caught some crud in the brake blocks - slight sound once every wheel revolution.
Was about to stop and check when the front tyre went flat.
Found a 1.5mm glass shard 'hammered' into the tyre by me rolling on it. But I'll know that sound next time.

Now using Orange Seal, maybe I should consider tyre savers too.

smd4

Me, for 1980s and beyond racing bikes. Probably good for tourists and commuters. Same reason I don't have a kickstand on my bike.

SJX426 

Jury is out on effectiveness. No data to pull from.
I have them on the Colnago. Kindo difficult with hidden bolt brakes.
I flattened the loop to turn it into washer like feature then put it under the forward nut.
PA132333 on Flickr
PA132335 on Flickr

staehpj1

I haven't thought about those in years. I wonder how they'd be at knocking off goat head thorns?

pastorbobnlnh 

I've never flatted on the ones I use on my '71 Paramount, made by our own, rootboy, may he RIP.


Look closely, and you can even see that they work with loose debris that I picked up rolling the bike to its parking place.

smontanaro 

I have them on my Redcay. I used Problem Solvers Sheldon fender nuts:



That said, I've always found the sound annoying, so have mostly not used them. I recently reinstalled them on the Redcay when I let a friend use it on a ride so he could get the full tubular effect.

tiger1964 

I had used them briefly long ago. Any idea of how much additional drag they incur?

RB1-luvr

I had forgotten about these things. Any suggestions for how one might rig these up on a tour bike with fenders?

GhostRider62

I used to use them many years ago when I commuted to college and then to work early in my career. I got a lot of flats back then

I have not had a flat over 7,000 miles but typically have one every 3-4,000 miles on average. So, I see no need for them anymore

jdawginsc 

Those and flick stands...very useful.

smontanaro 

A buddy of mine has them on a fendered bike. Can't recall how he mounted one in back, but the front was just attached to a hole he drilled at the front of the (aluminum) fender.

Maohaus

There is no discernible drag with these, nor is there any discernible weight. Basically, no downside, and a great upside of fewer flats!

SJX426 

WRT to drag and the sound, you can adjust how far the wiper is from the tire by bending the mounting legs. I set mine so they just clear the highest point on the tire. Figure that is good enough.
you can bend to the curvature of the tire too for covering more than just the center of the tread.

WRT fenders, I have seen some cut the fender around the that area. Weather that works is determined by the distance between the fender and the tire, duh!

79pmooney

That photo demonstrates why mounting them pointing down from the chainstay bridge is better. That road grit splatter on the seat tube. (A challenge on bikes without a bridge with bolthole. I may see if there is a neat way of doing it with a strap or clamp. Or perhaps I'll just use Orange Seal for my tubbies. (The Bontranger stuff put in by the Cycle Oregon mechanics last month has worked well on goatheads; one causing a pump-up every two miles flat and another that probably would have.)

I never ran my savers off the front of the brake bolt but I like, other than the looks. I used to use the rear nut but orient the saver running forward so the action was right at the front caliper and most of the road junk cleared the brake and missed all the headset. I also always squeezed the contact portion of the saver in to better fit the tread.

And those Sheldon nuts. Yeah! On all my recessed brake bikes.

scarlson 

I used the tire wipers for a couple years on my touring rig. It had the file-tread Compass "barlow pass" tires. Like Gravelkings and Pari-Motos, basically. I never got a flat, but the noise slowly drove me crazy, so I bent them away from the tires and eventually removed them altogether.

Well, the noise didn't exactly directly drive me crazy. I could ignore it well enough when I was alone, and secure in my belief that they really did something. I was first really made conscious of the noise when I was at French Fender Day and people kept asking me what was that sound my bike was making, to which I had to apologetically reply that they were tire wipers and then have a purely conjectural debate about their utility. Having the same conversation over and over again when there were much nicer things to talk about was what really drove me to remove them!

I commuted on the same set of tires for three years without tire wipers and only recently got my first flat in the back one. For what that's worth! We don't have goatheads in new england, and boston suburbs are crazy about street sweeping (which goes by some draconian schedule that I think is just a scheme to squeeze non-homeowners who are forced to park on the street for parking ticket money). No joke, I heard that somerville pays their entire parks & rec budget with parking ticket money. I guess the side effect is that I don't need tire wipers because they sweep up the glass on the even side of the road on Tuesdays but only when the first Tuesday of the month is an even number, and on the odd side otherwise but that happens on Wednesdays, except when there's a holiday and then it gets pushed to the third Thursday .. I think? I never park there, I just ride my bike through.

nomadmax 

I always used a quarter of a yogurt cup wedged in between my seat tube bottle and the cage. But, this thread also reminded me of the "flick stand".

Bianchigirll 

Someone here, maybe Rootboy? Was making and selling some nice looking ones.

I have some but they don’t seem to be on any of my bikes. Between the rounded wire and struggling to mount them on the short recessed mounting bolt and the tight clearance on the frames, and those lovely Monoplanor brakes I love so much, I just loose patience setting them up.

I wouldn’t have trouble putting them on my Volpe or Project with their canti brakes, but the fenders get in the way.

Oddly back in high school years I believe I had some on my old Royce Union.

kc0yef 

I do lots of flint in the OZARKS

Robvolz 

Can you show us a pic? a how to?

streetsurfer

Ive had them save my tires. With no sound. Nor should there be ANY drag. You adjust them so they don't rub. Just off the surface.

I’ve seen them remove glass and other things from tires before they had a chance to be embedded deeper the second time around. They truly are
tire savers.

I bought a 73 Nishiki that has them on it.

79pmooney

You now know the other reason ribbed tread tires rule. Almost silent with tire saver contact. The other - best tread for climbing out of paved ruts, cracks and edges - like when you leave the road for an oncoming passing car; did that not long ago. Back in that distant millennium when bicycle races still took place on sewup tires, the cheap cotton ones many of us used as training tires usually came with ribbed tread. (So did the mortgage-your-house Clement Del Mondos.) It was generally thought that those cheap cottons were made by Vittoria. 1980s, the world switched to better and better clinchers, the supply of those cheap tubulars dried up (at least in my circles on the west coast and ribbed tread disappeared. No service, no casket, no headstone. And now? Vittoria has brought it back! Only now, they aren't $15 cotton training tires. The Corsa G+/2.6 at 5X as much. And better rubber, better casing, better everything else. Thank you Vittoria! (And other tire manufacturers? Feel free to copy that ribbed tread. I'll get up in the witness stand and verify I was using that tread pattern in 1976 and the patent must have expired.)

pdfiddler

Pulled a '82 Trek 610 out of the dumpster last week and has them on it