Commuting - Have you ever changed your route because of road debris?

I've been commuting since last August and I've noticed that since spring arrived my usual route has been awful - broken glass everywhere!!! I've had about 7 flats in 2 weeks, despite my keeping a sharp eye out and swerving to avoid it. :(

I finally gave up and found a new route this morning. A little longer, but at least less glass. Just wondering if anyone else has had to do the same thing. Or are there better ways to prevent flats, given the circumstances.

You could get better tires.
I use Panaracer Pasela Tour Guards (http://www.panaracer.com/eng/products/index_ur.html#c). I average about 1500 miles between flats.

I've been commuting since last August and I've noticed that since spring arrived my usual route has been awful - broken glass everywhere!!! I've had about 7 flats in 2 weeks, despite my keeping a sharp eye out and swerving to avoid it. :(

I finally gave up and found a new route this morning. A little longer, but at least less glass. Just wondering if anyone else has had to do the same thing. Or are there better ways to prevent flats, given the circumstances.

Debris is a consideration when choosing a route in my book.

Better, more cut-resistant tires are also an option but I don't have much expereince there so I'll defer on that point.

I havn't considered using a different route to avoid glass and other road debris but I can recommend tires that can let you ignore the debris. Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires are nearly immune to glass. Also riding in the lane helps as traffic will move glass to the gutter.
Craig

Is the debris in the main roadway, or just on the shoulder/bike path?
If the latter (very likely; the cars usually blow the glass from the tire track area) I'd report the debris so the road commission was on notice that there were substandard conditions, then ride where it was clear.

Or Mr. Tuffy liners, those things normally do the trick.

Last year I had to modify my route by turning one block sooner than I normally would have because someone had smashed a bottle in the middle of the road and the glass remained there for over a month. More than once I thought about bringing a broom to sweep it up myself.

Or Mr. Tuffy liners, those things normally do the trick.

+1

I had those in my commuter MTB and never got a flat. Ever. I seriously went 2 or 3 years before I got a flat. When I finally did get one, it was just a slow (24 hour) leak. They make much difference on my trailer but I used to flat those tires nearly every ride. I put slime in them and that has done the trick so far.

I change my route due to road construction. Riding on the crushed stone they put down is for the birds. Glass? If I changed my route for glass, I wouldn't be able to ride anywhere.

On my commuter rig I run 32mm Armadillo Infinitys with Mr. Tuffys. No flats in 3,000 miles which seems about half the treadwear life. Only one piece of glass made it through an Armadillo so far, and Mr Tuffy stopped it. I don't even carry flat repair stuff on this bike.

On my road bike I run 25mm Ultra GatorSkins. Only 500 miles on these tires so far, but no flats and I've been picking glass out of them regularly. I like the lightness of the wheels and tires on this bike, so I haven't added Mr Tuffys to it. I do carry flat repair stuff on this bike because I range far and wide on it, away from my in-town SAG wagon--the bus.

I'd recommend Marathon Plus and Mr. Tuffy. No flats in 10,000 miles.

Paul

I just recently changed one of my routes from trails to roads because of goatheads (http://www.goatheads.com/). Glass has not been a problem for me. But those goatheads will chew you up, laugh at your face, rip your head off then spit down your neck.

I believe that in an event of a nuclear holocaust the only ones that will be left are cockroaches and goatheads.

Yep, although only in one specific case. Every summer it seems a residential neighbourhood near where I live and where I ride to get to my favourite patisserie has tons of broken glass all over the road. It seems some sort of tradition with the neighbourhood punks to go around every year and smash bottles or something. So a few times I've avoided going through the neighbourhood, taking an arterial road instead.

Now, potholes and general road condition is something that I take into consideration much more often when riding...

My problem isn't really debris, it's the crappy repair that was done after a contractor installed pipes in the bike lane of the major arterial that I ordinarily use to get home. After they filled in the miles-long ditch in the bike lane, they laid down asphalt in a rippled fashion, with open joints every 50 feet or so.

The rippled surface of the asphalt sets up such horrible vibration in my wheels that it has twice caused valve stems to rip where they come through the rims. For several months, I went about three miles out of my way to avoid that stretch, but I eventually decided I was just going to "take the lane" for the worst mile of it.

Up here in Minneapolis, I ride to a music practice space where I have to go through an industrialized type neighborhood, where there isn't ever NOT broken glass on the road. (2nd ave. North for any Minneapolitans in da house) Frankly, I'm not sure if all the broken glass is from the industry or because of car theft, as it's a pretty run-down neighborhood. The funny thing, (or not so funny thing) is that there is a bike path on this road, and there's another route I could take, but it has MUCH more traffic and no bike path (N. Washington). Luckily, I've been using Serfas Vidas with their FPS (flat protection system) and have never gotten a flat. They have been absolutely fantastic. I have the 700x38's.

I had 2 Panaracer Paselas (not the Tourguards) blow out through the sidewall. No, they were not overinflated. The second one didn't actually blow out, but the sidewall had worn to the point where the casing was seperating and you could actually see the tube. They were ~1 year old. The blowout was at ~22mph on the front wheel. Ah! Good times....

+1 to liners.

Back to the original topic. I haven't changed my route, not more than about 20 feet anyway, but I have seen more glass lately. If its on a path, I try to stop & get it out of the way. If it's in the road, I figure that cars will crush it to tiny pieces in no time.

My commute takes me on a couple of rural roads where the traffic is usually around 55-65 mph and not a real wide shoulder. It does, however, have a lot of debris. I have sent a couple of e-mails out to the city mayor requesting a street sweeper on a regular basis. I have not heard back as of yet. I know it is a pain but if you just add a little time to your commute a couple of days a month, you can have time to stop and remove some of it yourself. I don't do it a lot but I will carry an extra garbage bag and get the big stuff every once and a while. I caught myself gripping at the road trash, but yet I was not doing anything about it myself. Its hard to make yourself stop and move something especially when you have a good pace going. There are not a lot of commuters on my route, but there are some regular roadies. I am planning on talking to a couple of the clubs and see if they will help some too. We do have an "Adopt a Road" group on that stretch, but they only pick up 2/4 times a year. If enough people see you doing it, I bet it will catch on.

I had that problem this winter. After 3 flats within a week I finally just put my old knobby tires on my mountainbike -I was too lazy to ride another block to avoid the glass The entire street and sidewalk was pretty much strewn with broken bottles as I found out walking the bike home one night - I have a very short commute, easier to walk home and fix the flat than to do it on the side of the road.
The knobbies worked just fine on the glass.
Now that the steetsweepers are out, I've gone back to my road bike with slicks. So far, no problem.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and feedback. I actually joined a cycling advisory committee for my municipality and this will be an area that I plan to explore with the other members and the city councillors. I'm not sure when/if/how my route gets cleaned (because part of it is on a MUP).

I like the idea of actually doing some clean up myself, but I don't think I would do it during my commute because my problem is glass, so I'd need a broom, dustpan, etc. This is probably a bad attitude on my part, but I would find it extremely disheartening to go to all that effort, just to find new piles of broken bottles the next day.

I'm definitely going to try the Schwalbe tires and Tuffy liners. I need new tires anyway, so this will be interesting!

If it's in the city can't you just call or email the city to run a sweeper by there? Here in Colorado Springs I just hit the city website and post a request. Seems like whatever I ask for [sweeping, potholes, bridge overhaul, etc] gets done in the next day or so.

I once requested them to fix a 3" lip on the bridge sidewalk and they had a crew of 10 people, tractors, lane rerouting etc for 3 days redoing all the sidewalks in that arera. I felt like a man of action :-) And they did a really nice job. Makes me feel a bit guilty for riding in the street there now. lol