Commuting - New found love for commuter tires!

I have always ridden on "whatever tires where laying around", and had pretty good luck with them in the past. Well though a series of parts/bike swaps I ended up with a set of 26x1.5" Specialized Nimbus Armadillos for my drop-bar mountain bike conversion.

On the way to get some groceries earlier, I ran over this chunk of metal:
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o290/dhampton82/IMG_20120718_165117.jpg

The entire portion of the skinny part was stuck in my tire, as you can see it was about the length of my thumbnail:
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o290/dhampton82/IMG_20120718_165153.jpg

I heard the thumping on the ground so I stopped to see what I ran over and noticed that the tire was still holding air in it. I first thought about leaving it in there and limping home, thinking that it sealed into the tube just enough to get me back home. I finally decided to just rip it out (took a bit of tugging) and replace the tube so I could finish my grocery run.

Surprisingly, when I finally got it out, I didn't hear any hissing from the tire going flat!! I don't think I will be risking crap "free" tires again...unless I get another set of these free again, haha:lol:

Even if it's a short story, it's nice when it has a happy ending.

That's certainly not like my tire stories. Go ahead, be different :)

First rule of flat club is don't talk about flat club. :lol:

I've got a pair of Continental City Rides that have punctured exactly once in 4 years, and I've ridden over many a broken bottle that I didn't see until it was too late, plus a few I did see but decided to be ballsy about, or couldn't avoid due to traffic - a particularly oddly shaped and placed shard of a beer bottle pierced straight in, the one time it punctured. Still took 12 hours to actually flat the tire, I found it the next day not while I was riding.

Good tires make a world of difference.

One area where tires have greatly improved in recent years is in puncture resistance. This is a nice example of that.

One area where tires have greatly improved in recent years is in puncture resistance. This is a nice example of that.

I have tried just about everything and I'm still guaranteed for a flat each month. We have goat heads here that are made of titanium alloy.

I have tried just about everything and I'm still guaranteed for a flat each month. We have goat heads here that are made of titanium alloy.

We have those too. :cry: I finally broke down and ponied up for some Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires last week. We'll see whether that makes any difference. Here's hoping.

I'm on my third set of Armadillos. I'm getting about 5500 miles out of each tire and I'm lucky to get one flat per tire.

I rode on Armadillos for years. No complaints about flat resistance. Never did get a puncture. But... yeow, the ride quality was very rough. Switched to ordinary Hemispheres to get better ride with reasonable flat resistance.

thanks for sharing. your bike sounds good got a picture?

one time i felt a thumping on my rear wheel. it was a nail embedded in the tire. i pulled it out-no air leak
i use the panasela tour guide tires with the kevlar lining.

We have those too. :cry: I finally broke down and ponied up for some Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires last week. We'll see whether that makes any difference. Here's hoping.

Got a set of SMPs for my main commuter in May of '08. Also, a set for my ss which has since been converted to fg. Between the 2 sets of tires I've had 2 slow leaks and one flat. One of the slow leaks was on my ss front and I believe was a co-worker's joke as I never found the hole, re-used the tube and it held just fine.

On my main commuter I've got over 23,000 commuter/utility miles on the front tire w/no flats. Still plenty of tread. Have just changed out my rear tire for the 3d time. Each of the previous 2 got 10,000+ each. When the 'blue' starts to show through it's time to change. :p One flat. One slow leak. Both on the rear. A 2" self-starting screw buried all the way in to the head for the flat. Had to remove it w/t phillips attachment on my multi-tool.

We don't have goatheads here in TN and my commutes have been all on asphalt roads. Still, I ride in the 'stone zone' and have picked plenty of glass and wire shards out of my tires during routine maintenence inspections.

I have tried just about everything and I'm still guaranteed for a flat each month. We have goat heads here that are made of titanium alloy.

Using the Conti Sport Contact 700x32c on my old road bike I had my first flat in quite a while. I small piece of wire got rammed through the protective belt. The wire was pretty thin and very stiff, perhaps from a disintegrating car or truck tire. I had to pull it out with pliers.

I just ordered a pair of freedom urban elite thickslicks. I'll let everyone know how well they work after I get them and put a few miles on them.