General Cycling Discussion - FPTM (Flats per Thousand Miles)

Folks, I'm relatively new here and haven't seen statistics on a problem that plagues me but doesn't seem to occur too often with my biking buds: flats.

I thought it'd be useful to poll you all and assess the overall experience of this NG with respect to: flats.

Please chime in with your stories regarding: flats.

Me? For years I've been plagued with flats on various bikes, through various tires/tubes/rims, have almost without exception used "tuffies" or the like. Without exception, however, my tires are at the PSI limit. And I suffer the occasional "mystery flat", where the tire flattens but somehow magically holds a "charge" after the original flat.

I weigh 220 lbs. Might this have something to do with it?

I consider myself to be a 4 FPTM kind of guy.

:cry:

Ohhh, Bad Karma. Never talk about how many rides it has been since your last flat. That's just begging for double snake bites....

It's been 8000 miles since I had a flat. I credit it all to my superior bike-handling ability and supernatural visual acuity.
:D
RichC

Its funny i went over 8,000 miles and no flat then got one. went another 4,000 miles and got another flat. Just recently i got a new road bike and got 2 flats withen 500 miles go figure
catfish

Here's a stat for ya then...I've logged something like 25,000+ miles on three different bikes over a period of 6 years, and all three were MTBs. In that time frame I've only had 5 flats, and of those five only ONE was on the road. The other four were the kind where you stroll out to the garage and your trusty steed for a spin and discover it has developed a gimpy hoof overnight. Those seem like pretty incredible odds to me, but then I have always used thorn-resist tubes so maybe that's payed off...

Over 2000 miles, no flats so far, but I do use puncture resistant (not kevlar) tyres and slime tubes...

Richard

I usually go for quite a while without a flat but I've had a couple of flats in the last couple of days.

They are annoying flats that cause a slow leak. In each case - one very small hole. Seems to come from the tyre, not the rim, but I can't find any tiny piece of glass or anything. (Believe me - I've tried.)

Oh well. I'll see if it all stays together tomorrow.

Last summer on 5 bikes (so therefore ten tyres) we clocked up about 700 miles per bike, or 700 miles per tyre, so in a total of about 7,000 tyre miles - 1 puncture.

All were 26" road tyres with tread, nothing special or expensive

Wheres the polll option of....."I dont ride no 1,000 miles"

for me it depends on the bike, the tires and the type of riding...

on my commuter which is a MTB with wide semi-slicks with about 50psi and tuffys i get about 1 flat per year or 1 flat for every 3000+ miles or <.3flats/thousand miles

for off-road i get a lot more with 2"+ tires between 35 and 45psi, probably about one every month or so roughly 1 flat every 250 miles = 4 flats/thousand miles. some of these are snake-bites if i don't run enough pressure, but most are just the usual thorns, glass or sharp things. but i find the frequency acceptable.

on my racing road-bike, i get way more flats than what i feel like i should... probably somethine like 1 flat every 400 miles or 2.5 flats/thousand. i run about 100-110psi... i guess some of it could be that i spend more time on my mountain bikes and i don't avoid some obstacles that maybe i should with the skinny high-pressure tires on the road bike.

I had flats, five in two hundred miles, because the inner tubes I was buying kept losing the top of the presta valves. I have started using Specialized brand inner tubes and so far so good for over two hundred miles.

Pesky Arizona thorns have gotten me twice in 750 miles.

Carl

on a ride If I have a flat, that would end up having multiple flats, I really don't know but they would usually comes in quadrupple flats

So far this year: One flat in 3500k.
Last year: Two flats in 5400k.

So, is 0.5FPTM "basically, none" or "way too many"? :)

/Csson