Bicycle Mechanics - Estimated frequency of flat tires?

I know there is such a wide range of uses, speeds, road types ect that this question may be unanswerable, but...

Is there an average number of flat tires someone can expect per 100 miles or some such?
or
How frequently do flats generally occur? Should I expect flats every day, week, or month?

I haven't had one yet in the few miles I've biked... Can't wait to take that cycle maintenance class!

For my part, I have 700 x 27c(?) tires and ride on paved bike paths.

Thanks!

I haven't had a flat in over 3000 km, maybe 4000. However, I'm on fairly clean semi-rural roads (very little glass mostly rocks and pebbles on the shoulder). Tires were Specialized 700x20c and Continental Ultra 3000 700x23c

This depends on your terrain and bike. Riding in the city isn't too bad, though in some parts of Chicago the roads are so poorly kept: potholes galore. My mountain used to get flats every six to eight rides or so, about 60 miles.

Now I ride singlespeed road bikes and so far I've had only one flat in a year, averaging about 1000 miles a year. Tire pressure is a lot better and because it's a road bike, I tend to avoid potholes and stick to well-kept and paved streets.

I prefer the crisp-aired alleyways of Chicago over roads when possible. I put in 125miles commuting a week and have yet to get a flat (I do change tubes when needed - maybe 1-2 times/year). I too, like absntr, have shed my gears for simplicity and thinner tires. Chicago streets show no prejudice.

Depends also on the tire and the tube.

I.e., the Specialized ARmadillo is particularly adept at avoiding flats.

A good quality heavy duty tube will also help.

Where you ride makes a tremendous difference - do you have a lot of glass, goat heads?

Our cement bike paths seem, in certain areas, to be loaded with goat heads, which blow onto the path.

Using Specialized Armadillos, I haven't had a flat on my road bike in 2 years. Just prior to that, I got two flats in one day, and perhaps one about every 1,000 miles or less.

I get maybe one every 1-2000 miles. I have invested in reasonably good kevlar tyres and quality inner tubes.
Flats seem to occur in clusters, and then for no good reason, your are OK for another year.

As many as 3 in the same ride, :mad: to as few as none in over a month. This is in 3700 miles this year.
Your best bet is to be prepared with the proper equipment, pump, patch kit, at least one extra tube, tire levers, and a tire boot. Fix a flat in your back yard before having to do it on the road side. Patching the tube often times is the easy part, getting the tire off the rim is sometimes a PIA, so make sure you can do that at home. I have some tires on my commuter that every time I have take one off I think I will shurly break a tire lever! I am also experenced at finding leaks, but sometimes I swear I will get such a small hole I can't find it untill I get it back home and put it in a sink with water. Glass is the worst! It can cause flats from the smallest flecks that are almost impossible to find embeded in the tire. Good luck with the your class, I had to learn my skills from trial and error (the forums helped me lots also). :D

On a bright sunny day it's pretty easy to spot broken glass in the road and avoid it. A little harder to do at night. The last flat I got was from thorns. I now try to avoid any kind of debris on the side of the road, even if it means I have to go a little farther into the lane. At night I always ride on roads that I have ridden during the day so that I know if there are any hazards that I have to avoid.

my road-two in about 1500 miles, but one was glass through the tire after a tornado had gone through the area (about 500 yards away is where it touched down) the day before and the other was a finishing nail (they were removing houses for a shopping center)
my commuter-zero in the past two and a half years of commuting four-five days a week

I had 3 flats this year over the course of 2500 miles. One on my mountian bike (while on the road) and 2 on my road bike. So a little less than 1000 miles each. Quality of tires/tubes would not have helped in my situation, I ran over a nail, a staple and glass. The glass ruined my tire and I had to call for a ride. I tried to miss it, but didn't want to get run over or go into the ditch. The glass was all over the place. Could not see the nail or the staple.

Over 1000 on my conti 4-seasons and none yet.

I have 700 x 27c(?) tires and ride on paved bike paths.



How much do you weigh? I am 235 pounds and ride the same size tire you do (700x27) and have MAYBE one flat a year. The lighter you are and the more air you put in your tires the fewer flats you will have.

I had one...I looked back to see if a car was approaching and when I turned back there was an unavoidable pothole dead ahead. I hopped the front tire but not the rear. I had to walk/hitch home about 4 miles because I was stupid and didn't have a tube with me.

PJ

In the last 3-4 years I've experienced 2 flats in approximately 8,400 miles.
My riding is on paved roadways with either 700cx23 or 700cx25 tyres.

Thank you all for this information! From all my reading on tire repairs and such, I'd gotten skewed sense of how often these things happen. It seemed like everyone had them ALL THE TIME. :)

Good Heavens, DnvrFox! Goat heads? What kind of place do you live? Are the heads ever attached to the rest of the goat? :o

Is that a polite question to ask a lady, Cycletourist? ;P I weigh 145. Hopefully that will lower my risks. N'est pas?

Fact: it is impossible to predict how many flats you will have or when you will have them except:

Fact: You almost certainly will have a flat the one time you ride without everything you need to fix a flat.

I just have a couple things to add:

- Learn to weight, unweight, and even out the weight on the front and rear wheels. For potholes getting the front over it is step one, step two is unweighting the rear immediately after the front is over. Once you get good at that, you can just bunnyhop over the pothole. Evening the weight on both wheels can usually get you over most debris without incident.

- Get kevlar palmed gloves. Then if you see anything stuck to the surface of the tire, reach down and use your armored palm to brush the debris off the tire (while you're still rolling) before it digs into the tube. It's easy to do on the front tire, the rear is tricky because you have to reach around back and hang your palm down with your thumb on the brake stay bridge. Try it without the bike rolling to get the idea.

For me it has been all about tubes and slime. When I first started riding I remember having 2 flats in one week.(actually two days) I put in thorn proof tubes after this. Soon after, I got a low tire after one of my rides.

I decided to go ahead and add slime to the tube even though most said it would make it to heavy. Well that was 3+ months and approx. 1000 miles ago and haven't had a flat yet.

I have had punctures no doubt since then but the slime has filled the hole and allowed me to go home. I didn't even notice. The only way i know this is that i always do at least a squeeze test on my tires before i ride. A couple times they have been as much as 30 lbs low after I checked them. Obviously the tube punctured and sealed itself totally unknown to me.

I will keep this setup (thorn tubes + slime) forever. I don't care about weight. I ride for exercise and for fun. I don't want to spend my time off on the side of the trail patching or replacing a stinking tube. I know several people that just run plain ol tubes and when it goes flat they bail off and dismantle, patch and repair it.

I used to fix tires when I was younger for a living. I certainly don't want to do it for a hobby. :D

Haven't had one flat in nearly 1500 miles. Put on a pair of Bontrager Hard cases and haven't had a worry since.

It seems like there is a group of mind-numbed morons who think it is quite fun to break bottles, usually beer and liquor bottles, against the curb. I have inadvertently hit some pretty bit chunks in those 1500 miles and nary a problem.

Before that, I averaged about one flat per month.

Thank you all for this information! From all my reading on tire repairs and such, I'd gotten skewed sense of how often these things happen. It seemed like everyone had them ALL THE TIME. :)

Good Heavens, DnvrFox! Goat heads? What kind of place do you live? Are the heads ever attached to the rest of the goat? :o

Is that a polite question to ask a lady, Cycletourist? ;P I weigh 145. Hopefully that will lower my risks. N'est pas?

I'll speak for DnvrFox, since I have lived in the Southwest part of the USA. A "goathead" is a very small (size of pencil eraser) bud from what every calls a "tumbleweed". They are ubiquitous in that part of the country. The goat head is exceptionally painful to step on because it has a quasi pyramid shape with short (maybe 1/8 to 3/16 inch) granite hard thorns on all sides. It is a bicycle inner tubes worst enemy.

The frequency of the flat tire is directly proportional to the distance from home and inversly proportional to the goodness of the weather.

That't the scientific answer.

That't the scientific answer.

I just knew there would be a scientific answer for this question. :p

Then if you see anything stuck to the surface of the tire, reach down and use your armored palm to brush the debris off the tire (while you're still rolling) before it digs into the tube.

Using this technique is dangerous. And ineffective anyway.

Using this technique is dangerous. And ineffective anyway.
Dangerous yes. Ineffective? That just depends on what is stuck to the tire.
Xythen, sorry for recommending such a dangerous technique. Only you know what you're comfortable doing on your bike. Cheers.

The puncture-resistance of your tires is the single biggest factor in how frequently you flat.

On my commuter bike, I use 1.5" slicks. I had some terrible tires and would flat about every 2-300km. It was always glass slicing through the centerline of the tread.

On my road bike, I have 25mm tires and I've only flatted once in 1000+km, on the same roads.

YMMV

A "goathead" is a very small (size of pencil eraser) bud from what every calls a "tumbleweed".

Hehe... now I feel silly. Hadn't heard of goatheads before.. except in the mammalian sense.

And here I was imagining a place where the wind is so strong it was blowing bleached, goat skulls into the path of unwary cyclists. What level of hell IS that? :eek:

You only have to worry about goat heads over on the east side of the mountains over here it just glass and debris I use tire inserts on 2 of my bikes and specialized armidillo's on the other two. I have never had a flat with any of them.

There is also more to the scientific equation, it will happen when you
A. forget your pump
B. Don't have a spare tube.
C. Do not have your patch kit.
D any combinatyion of the above
E. All of the above

Goat head tip: Got this from Rivendell tie a leather boot strap to your frame so it hangs down to just above your tire it will knock those suckers off before they can do any damage.

Thats a loaded question! As others have already replied it depends on your local conditions. I use to use racing tires (because I raced) and averaged about 4-5 flats per month which I averaged 1500 miles during any one month. But I lived in Santa Barbara and later Los Angeles CA and would not run into to much junk. But then I moved to Bakersfield Ca, a city with very trashy (both natural and manmade) and rough roads, and my flats increase to 3-5 flats per week!!!AND my average miles were way down to 400 per month!! So after trying many tires and using flat protection liners and Slimy tubes finally found the answer with Specialize Armidillo turbos. I now have not had one flat in 3 years or over 15,000 miles!

So it depends on where you live or where you will be riding, and whether or not your commuting/touring or training for racing. If your commuting or touring you may want a tire that will be pretty much flat proof thus the Armidillos so you won't be late to work or school. But if your racing then you may want a lighter performance tire.

[QUOTE=Xythen]Thank you all for this information! From all my reading on tire repairs and such, I'd gotten skewed sense of how often these things happen. It seemed like everyone had them ALL THE TIME. :)

Good Heavens, DnvrFox! Goat heads? What kind of place do you live? Are the heads ever attached to the rest of the goat? :o

Is that a polite question to ask a lady, Cycletourist? ;P I weigh 145. Hopefully that will lower my risks. N'est pas?[/QUOTE

funny- I think the same question for a guy is 'how much does your bike weigh!'
when I pass my bike over for the lifto test I always pull out the full water bottle-as a lady you know- it's all water weight.
" oh it's 20 something pounds "..
If you are going for a long ride, a tube, a pump, a flathead screwdriver is what you want to bring with a nice lunch- ( had to walk about 10 miles back in the bush cause i'm impulsive and didn't pack.) j

That is hard to tell. Tubes can die from when you first put them on to 2 years in when they die.

In Southern California the most common cause of flats is puncture weed seeds. I have the lightest tubes and tires money can buy. During a good year I will get a flat once in over 2,000 miles. During a bad year like el Nino when there is lots of debre on the road I may go through periods of a flat every hundred miles or less. You should adjust your riding to avoid flats. On paved roads avoid running over leaves, gravel, glass or sand on the surface. Where it is safe, ride in the tracks of the automobiles. They have picked up or destroyed the sharp things. Avoid even little pebles on the road.

Well gee Robert that's great advice, accept for where I live that would mean I would have to stay off the bike if I had to use your tires and tubes!!! I guess I could use a indoor trainer-boring!

Avoid even little pebles on the road.

I think that is a little overkill. I think it is pretty hard to visually avoid a flat tire. Obviously you can see broken glass often as well as a few other things but I think that is the exception rather than the rule.

An ounce of prevention is always worth a pound of cure but like the common cold you can't prevent tube punctures. That is why you need at least a lb or cure or more accurately, 4 ounces of slime in each tire. If you ride, you are going to puncture tubes. Unless weight is a concern, why not just use some sealant and keep on riding?

That way you can keep your eyes on the traffic, scenery, etc. instead of scouring the road for a rogue pebble. :roflmao:

One bike 12,000 miles only 1 flat. The other bike 1600 miles no flats. Kids bikes 600 & 700 miles each, 1 flat. And that was the first time little guy rode his new bike, once he found out glass was bad, he has avoided it since! All of our bikes have a spare tube and patch kits, my 2 bikes have frame mounted pumps. Both times I/we had flats I was without either and learned!!

One bike 12,000 miles only 1 flat. The other bike 1600 miles no flats.

Do you have a bike that floats above the ground like a hovercraft?

12,000 miles!!

Just a guess...I would estimate I get a flat every second month. Distribute my rides over three bikes..Pretty much equally. Hope i get better than average distance between flats.. I change tires well before wear gets too advanced.'
That might mean a flat like every two thousand miles..I pretty much only buy kevlar lined tires.

..."An ounce of prevention is always worth a pound of cure but like the common cold you can't prevent tube punctures. That is why you need at least a lb or cure or more accurately, 4 ounces of slime in each tire. If you ride, you are going to puncture tubes. Unless weight is a concern, why not just use some sealant and keep on riding?"

Ranger; Slime tubes are worthless IF your pressuring above 65psi as you would with road tires in preventing flats. The higher pressures just blows the sealant out of any tiny hole until the pressure drops then it will seal, but as soon as you repressure back up then spifff-it leaks again; and while it's leaking it's causing a nice green mess inside your rim! I know this because I tried it. Plus at 113 grams (4ozs) of Slime weight plus the tube you would be better off just going with the Specialize Armidillo turbo with a ultralight (Specialize 65grm) tube and not have to worry about flats or green goo messin up your rims.

.

Ranger; Slime tubes are worthless IF your pressuring above 65psi as you would with road tires in preventing flats. The higher pressures just blows the sealant out of any tiny hole until the pressure drops then it will seal, but as soon as you repressure back up then spifff-it leaks again; and while it's leaking it's causing a nice green mess inside your rim! I know this because I tried it. Plus at 113 grams (4ozs) of Slime weight plus the tube you would be better off just going with the Specialize Armidillo turbo with a ultralight (Specialize 65grm) tube and not have to worry about flats or green goo messin up your rims.

Noted. I don't have a rode bike. My experiences are strictly with a MTB running around 60lbs.

I've had a total of 5 flats since June 2000 when I started commuting. Quick scan of bike computers: old roadbike,1044;main commuter, 5875; winter MTB, 1023; new roadbike, 145;former MTB given away at 600; old shopper bike used for 2.5 months commuting, estimated 600; for a total of 9287mi/14859km = 1857mi/2971km per flat. I have not had any flats in the winter. For me, flats are most closely associated to the density of mosquitos. My Nokian's have never had a flat, I've had one flat on my Panaracer 24x11/8 because of a rim tape failure, 2 on Kenda 24x1.75's because of walking bike over a roadway covered with broken glass (next time I'll carry it), one on my Vee Rubber 24x1 because of a safety pin in the roadway that I didn't see and another because of a tiny glass shard that I didn't see. Flats happen, and I'm overdue.