General Cycling Discussion - Rant=Glass

Ok, Ive been what I consider seriously cycling since mid feburary or so. Ive been getting up to 25+ milers and working on speed. Anyway, since that time Ive gone through 4 tubes at least and as of today 2 tires. The cause...d*mn glass in the bike lanes!! I dont mean every once in a while, this stuff is all over. Im sick of trying to dodge it. Its just huge areas of it. So, tomorrow Im going to my lbs to get a heavy duty tire like the one I have on my back wheel. I live in a pretty metro area, so that explains some of it, ie apparently more glass throwing idiots live in this area. Any one else having these problems?

Try using Armadillos from Specialized. I have had great service from the ones I put on my road bike. No flats in the last 4 months including lots of trips across a long bridge with a bike lane used by the 'gla$$holes' for their empty beer bottles. The first time I rode across on my MTB without Armadillos, I trashed the rear tire.

There is a lot of glass and trash in the roads where I ride.
My previous tires were Continental Ultra 2000. Averaged a flat every few weeks.
I put Vittoria Rubino Intrepid PRB Kevlar on my commuter and Continental Grand Prix 3000 on my road bike. I haven't had a flat in almost a year. :beer:


I guess all that bragging cursed my luck. :crash: :(

I get glass beer bottles thrown at me by rednecks but so far been lucky on the tires.

I think they've started making the roads out of broken glass around here! I've never seen so much of it as I have this year!

I try to limit my city cycling as much as possible and use my mountain bike in the city rather than my road bicycle.

I agree with Supcom. If you want as few flats as is possible from ANY tire on the market today and don't mind the extra weight than Armadillos are the only way to go. Armadillos are the only tire that put the flat protection belt in the sidewall as well! Makes the sidewall stiff, but your not going to puncture it very easily. Not a racing tire, but a very good commuting, touring and training tire.

Specialize folding Turbo Aramadillo in size 700x23 weighs about 350 grams, I use a 65 gram racing tube (total 415grms) in mine (I use a heavier 700x26 non folding) and since I started using them about 12,000 miles ago ( almost 3 years) I have had no flats. Previously I tried the Conti 3000's, Vitt Rubino, Mich Axial Pro carb, Verd Fortezza's and a few others I can't remember, and I averaged 2-5 flats a week and never got more than 750 miles before a tire was destroyed. My last attempt at flat prevention involved a Mich Axial (210grms) plus a crappy Slime Tube (115grms) plus a Mr Tuffy (90grms for a total of 415grms) and still got 2 flats a week (mostly sidewall punctures), and had to deal with a crappy tube that didn't work at sealing flats above 65psi and green crap in my rim and a poorly designed valve.

But please note: I live in an area that have very trashy streets from man made stuff to natural stuff fighting for the bragging rights of which can damage more tires. Your area may not be this bad.

There is a newer tire (by an old company) on the market that "may" be a good compromise: Avocet Fastgrip SLK Carbon12 has what Avocet calls a protective shield that in my understanding extends into the sidewall, but no one in my area sells these so I am unable to look at them. The Continental Co. makes a tire called the Gatorskin that is suppose to have armored tread but the sidewalls are paper thin.

Specialized tires are the way to go, Bullet proof.