RaleighComp

My opinion is that tires are much better these days. Thought it might be interesting to see our members Flat Tire Recent Histories.

~6500 miles/year, two years running for me:

Rain/Snow bike(26" tires): Tube, glueless patches, Blackburn Mammoth mountain mini pump. Same deal if I'm mountain biking. Also a CO2 cartridge. About 3 or 4 flats in the last two years. No problems getting going again. 80 psi Spring, Summer, Fall on Forte Gothams, 60 psi in winter with studded Nokian Mount & Ground tires.

Chance of Rain Bike (700c tires): Tube, glueless patches, Silca Impero pump with metal Campy Head. Also a CO2 cartridge. About 3 or 4 flats in the last two years. No problems getting going again. 105 psi with Michelin Orium 700c x 25 tires.

No chance of rain/ club ride bike: Latex Tube, glueless patches, TWO CO2 cartridges. NO PUMP. No flats in two years with this combo (Conti GP4000 tires, Michelin Latex tubes). 120 psi

Abneycat

Km / year? Unsure. Maybe 5,000?

Was using Ritchey Speedmax up until May 2008, worked fine but wasn't a proper asphalt tire. Switched to Bontrager Satellite Plus tires, had 1 flat in May, 3 in June, 3 in July. The rear satellite plus was uselessly shredded after I ended up having to roll my cargo bike on it for 5 km with the last flat. Bought my bike a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Plus, thought they were doing magic when all the flats stopped again.

Have since used Marathon standard, Marathon XR, and am now using a lightweight bike with Schwalbe Kojak.

No flats still. I believe that it was a combination of not only moving to good tires, but moving away from very bad ones as well. Definitely not a supporter of Bontrager tires, personally.

ItsJustMe

I have only one bike. About 4000 miles a year. About 2 flats a year. Just had my first for the year yesterday, didn't find the cause, but I patched the hole in the tube; pretty sure it was a puncture and not a pinch. I have a full record of every flat I've had for the last 5 years up on LiveJournal, but I doubt many people are bored enough to read that.

elvez

Anybody else find they seem to happen in cycles? I'll go a year and a half then get 3 in the next two weeks.

NYCJohn170

There's so much glass down here in the club district, I get them all the time on my roadie. My MTB has the armadillos so only about 6 a year.

ItsJustMe

Someone broke a bottle on my route a few weeks back. First glass I've seen in a couple of years. Very likely to be the source of my recent flat.

sseaman

I'm afraid to answer, I don't want a flat this afternoon

RaleighComp

+1000

Exactly the same experience. None for 9 months then 3 in a week. I wonder if it has something to do with the life cycle/temperature cycles of the rubber. Seems like those spates of flats seem to come in the early Spring.

UberIM

agreed!!!
Great thread. Thanks.
I wonder, at least for me, if it isn't related to when I need to replace the tire. I am often too lazy or too cheap to replace a worn tire. Also, far fewer flats here in Maine as compared to my Lexington to Cambridge and Boston commutes in years past. Maybe better tires. Maybe better road conditions.
Recently switched to Marathon Supremes-too early to tell but I love how they roll........

One question I have for RaleighComp-what is your technique with the glueless patches? I have commuted for over 20 years and consider myself fairly comfortable changing a tire/fixing flats but have never mastered the glueless patch.

Finally, I never cease to be amazed at how many cyclists ride and CANNOT fix a flat...........Nothing like being 20 miles from home and have to call someone to pick you up?!

c.miller64

Number of times I've flatted this year- 0

Flats repaired for A-holes who don't carry repair kits themselves- 5

JPprivate

Bitter, party of One - Bitter, party of One....

c.miller64

That be me.

bmt074

I rarely get flat tires but for some reason I went through a stretch of about 10 months last year where I had 5 blowouts on my back tire (over the course of about 1500 miles). Every time it was a nasty puncture - either a staple, nail or some other road hazard. At one point I got a heavier puncture resistant tire and it lasted for about a week before something cut through it like a hot knife through butter. Just a string of bad luck I guess.

Luckily it's been about 5 months since my last flat.

ItsJustMe

More likely, home construction going on somewhere and contractor trucks trailing nails and stuff on the way from the site.

Coolpick87

Well on my MTB it feels like flats per mile. The stock tires on my MTB are horrible.

Commodus

I work in an industrial area and get maybe one a month. I don't carry any kind of a flat repair kit, I just catch a bus the rest of the way in. When I burn off the last of my tire stock (Panaracer Crosstowns and Continental Contacts) I'm going to go to something else, with some better flat protection. I don't know if it'll make a difference though, the stuff I've found in my tires...I gotta think it would have went through anything, including the much vaunted Schwalbes.

tsl

Over the past four years, I've averaged one flat per bike per year, at about 5,000 miles per year.

This year I added another bike, so that will increase my flats right there.

I also changed library branches. There's apparently a nightly Festival of Broken Glass between home and work. I imagine my average will go up this year.

mc9000

I'm a newbie so I haven't got a flat yet. Does anyone use anything like the Continental Ultra Gatorskin City/Trekking Tire? I'm curious if it really helps in the battle against flat tires.

bhop

I've been commuting by bike for around 2 years now. (average 125 miles/wk) I've had only one flat related to road debris. The other two flats were due to me screwing up the tubes with the cheap pump I used to have.

dwilbur3

I have one bike and I have had one flat on it in about 1200 miles and 4.5 months on Marathon Supremes. (A nasty little steel shaving.)

As long as I can keep it to 2 a year I'll be happy.

CACycling

I put Gatorskins on my road bike in September and on my wife's road bike earlier this year. No flats on either yet. Put some cheap Forte GT2-K tires on my commuter a year and a half ago and haven't flatted on those either. Big improvement over the stock tires on these bikes.

corkscrew

No flats this year (so far *knocks on wood*).

Although its early in the year, so the goatheads haven't had a chance to grow and harden yet either. I've also swapped tires on both my commuters to Kevlar models, (Vittoria Rando Pro's and Pasela TG's) so I'm hoping that will reduce my flat to mile ratio. Last summer it wasn't uncommon to get one or two every other week, mostly due to goatheads.

EKW in DC

I've been commuting five days a week since last April. 90-95% of the miles I put on my bike so far are commuting miles - about 3,000 miles/5,000 km all told. I've had three or four flats during that time, only two of them made themselves apparent on the road - another one or two manifested themselves in "discovered" flat tires either at home or at work when I went to leave.

Not bad considering I've used recycled bike co-op Kenda tires and now some cheap $10/ea. city tires I ordered from Nashbar for almost all those miles.

RaleighComp

Glueless patch prep is no different than a regular patch: sand the bejezus out of the tube so that it's not shiny anymore. Then just blow any remaining butyl "dust" off the tube and stick the glueless patch on.

The last time I used them was when a nail-gun finishing nail came through my sidewall, head end first. The tire didn't even have a chance to deflate, I heard the protruding pointy end of the nail hitting my chain stay on each rotation. When I pulled the nail out, it deflated in an instant. As luck would have it, it went through both sides of my tube, leaving two punctures. I had no spare tube and exactly two glueless patches. Put one over each puncture and was back on the road. That was a close one.

phillyskyline

I got about 8 flats in a year on my stock Brompton tires. I upgraded to Schwalbe Marathons and immediately got another flat two days later. Since then, I've only had one *knocks on wood, crosses fingers, etc.*

I ride over SO MUCH GLASS, I can't even describe. It's absolutely everywhere; there is no escaping it. It's just a matter of time...