Touring - flats on vittoria randonneur

hi all, i ve had these tyres since september 2011 and i have covered approx. 3000kms on them, with no flats whatsoever, than all of a sudden i got 2 in 1 week! my bike is a steel Giant touring bike, its a bit heavy, an i use it for work , so its loaded almost every day with food rain kit tools etc, i have noticed that the rear tyre is more consumed than the front one. is it a good idea to swap the front with the rear one? at the moment i fitted a marathon plus at the rear, but although its the same size as the vittoria , 700 x 28 , the schwalbe its bigger. i m thinking also that maybe something is still enbedded in the tyre from the first puncture, but i looked really close and coudn't find nothing.... any help and advices are greatly appreciated

thanks

david :)

Hi David! Its pretty normal for the rear tire to show more wear than the front since most people load the rear axle more than the front one. Milage varies between tires but that Marathon has a higher milage rating than what you replaced.

Flats can be hard to trace - the usual procedure is to remove the tire and run your fingers around the inside of the tire while rotating it to check for any sharp objects still stuck in the rubber. Fingers can pick things out better than eyes and wire strands are becoming an increasingly common source of flats.

If everything there checks out OK, you might want to inflate the tube and look for the leak. A snake bite indicates low tire pressure, a puncture on the inside of the tube usually indicates a rim tape issue and sometimes - there's just a puncture.

Personally I've started using self healing tubes or sealants in my tires on the commuting bikes - on top of tires with puncture protection. My best guess is over 20,000 flat free kms. :thumb:

I get to change enough flats at the shop - when I'm not there - I'd rather not see one - particularly on my own bike

thanks, sealant is a greta idea, i considered it once, i think i give it a try, i hate changing punctures especially while i m going to work

thanks again

I've read some convincing arguments against swapping front and back. I've done it in the past, but I'm now following the advice to not put an overworn tire on the front. The issue, if I remember it correctly, was that traction is more critical on the front, and a blowout on the front is potentially more dangerous. I feel like this is probably true given that a little skidding of my rear tire is something I can recover from, but if the front tire starts to slide, I tend to go down.

The advice was that rather than swap front and rear, if you're really determined to get every possible mile of use, run the rear tire to the point where it's ready to retire, move the front to the rear, and replace the front.

Of course the rear is where flats usually happen, so there's that to consider. Currently I'm running Vittoria Randonneur on the front and a Randonneur Hyper on the rear. Since the rear is likely to wear first, and I like the Hyper on the rear, I expect I'll be running this combo for a while, replacing the rear tire as needed and leaving the front in place.

As to whether your tire needs to be replaced or not, it really helps to determine why you got the flat which, like Burton says, can be tricky. If it's seriously worn, then flats will probably be more common and it's likely time for a new tire. But often two flats in succession simply mean that you didn't find the culprit the first time, and it came back to get you again. If you can determine that your tire is being punctured from the outside in multiple locations, it's probably time for a new one.

I ran Marathon Plusses for a while. And then when I was waiting for my last Plus to wear out, I put the Plus on the back and they Randonneur on the front, which also worked fine. I have yet to wear out my last plus, but I've found that I like the ride of the Randonneur/Randonneur Hyper better, and, as you mentioned, they still go for a long time between flats. Maybe not as long as the Marathon Plusses, but I think they make up for it in ride quality.

Also don't discount the fact that it could just be random. I've gotten flats on brand new high quality tires (Panaracer T-Servs, Vittoria Rando Pros, Schwalbe Marathons) and then not had flats on them again for a year. It could well just be bad luck that the OP got two flats in a row. It may have nothing to do with wear, especially if what caused the flats was something like a tiny wire. Just the right sized and shaped piece of glass will do the trick sometimes as well.

If it were me, I'd just keep riding it. If you get another flat almost immediately then there is likely something in the tire that you didn't get out from the first or second flat. You'll probably have to risk getting a nick in your finger and run it all along the inside of the tire. If this doesn't happen you'll likely get many more miles out of the tire to find the culprit. My mechanic who turned me onto Vittoria Rando Pros was getting about 5,000 miles out of his.

Good advice above. Also a good trick to locate cause of a puncture is to always mount the tire with the label or pressure imprint right where the valve stem comes out of the rim. This way when you find the hole in the tube eye ball how far it is from the valve stem and measure that distance from the marker on the tire, whether the name lable whice I use or the pressure limit imprint, and you have the area that has the cause of puncture. Although you may or may not find the culpit as sometimes glass and thorns do and in and out punch.

thanks all for the great advices, especially the one of putting the tyre label above the valve... i found a peice of glass that was still enbedded deep in the tyre, i switched tyres though, it has plenty of material left, but its more consumed than the front one, still safe to ride it, today i went to work and its still ok, maybe that was the problem, i really love these tyres, the shwalbes maybe are better, but i find them a bit heavier, my opinion.

New tires tend to be more prone to flats than older tires. In the old days, racers would mount new tires on old rims and let them “age” for a while before using them, typically a year. They felt it improved the toughness of the tire as the solvents used in the manufacturing process evaporated.

I have had very good luck with my Conti Sport Contact and Vittoria Randonneur Hypers. I don’t think I have had a flat with either. As a point of comparison, the tires I formerly toured on, Conti Top Touring 2000 were nice on the road, but they were a bit delicate when attacked by road trash. I got more flats than I really appreciated. What a difference 20 yrs. makes.