Waves77

I live in Albuquerque, NM and the amount of goatheads around here is insane. My commuter/mtb tires are pretty much bombproof, but at a pretty hefty weight penalty.

I'm getting a road bike and would like some ideas on a good compromise between weight and performance. I'm planning on getting Conti GP4000s - any input on tubes? Liner yes/no?

Trogon

I live in Corrales ---

I use either Specialized Airlock tubes or I buy Continental Race tubes (removeable valve core) and fill them with the bottled Specialized sealant. All this stuff is available at Sports Systems (formerly Sportz Outdoors) on Montgomery. I have the best luck with Continental GP4000 tires and the worst with anything Michelin.

Nothing will prevent goathead flats, but this combination works pretty well. When I finally do get a flat, the tube usually shows 5-10 sealed punctures.

I have a friend who uses Specialized Armadillos, but I'm not sure they even exist as a product any more. Plus they're red and they ride like crap (at least in my assessment.)

mrvrsick

You know, I don't think we have those where I am from, but we have a mess of broken beer bottles. I'm not sure how serious these little buggers are, but if it get to the aggravation point, maybe some Conti gators+"thorn-proof" tubes+tube sealant+liner would be more than enough.
I would try the gators, or like you said the GP 4000s first as I heard they are good

dark13star

We have lots of them in the Denver area too and that is just one reason I would rather ride in the mountains...

The only thing I have found that will stop them is a Toughy Strip, and I just won't do that to a road bike. They are brutal...

idcruiserman

We don't have goatheads on the roads so much, but there are tons of them on the trails. I've had good luck with Ultra Gatorskins. I don't bother with liners or slime.

yogi13

I used to ride in an area that had something akin to super-goatheads (I think they were eucalyptus seedpods), and even the toughy strips didn't work to stop the flats, but did ruin the ride.

I'd probably opt for the gatorskins and the innertube gunk during goathead season.

dark13star

I just learned to change a tube quickly. Seems like the best approach. On my fixed-gear, I use glueless patches so I don't have to wrench the wheel off. Just pull the tube out enough to patch it and replace when I get home.

They get through so much, that it just isn't worth ruining the ride quality for them.

Hida Yanra

I lived in ABQ until recently-

I rode Armadillos w/ specialized air-locks for a while, then I rode just the armadillos (for 2K miles) with regular tubes before getting a flat. That said- they ride like 14lbs of junk in a 5lb bag. Control and Feel are terrible with them on.

Snip out the beads from old tires and use them as fast&cheap liners. most everyone on my team did this with just as good of results as I got from kevlar tires. I would have, but my tires didn't die before I moved.

jonestr

Thats what you do

also Stan's is the best for sealing punctures

Waves77

Thanks for all the advice so far guys! Sounds like I might try the GP4000s with a tube+sealant at first and see how that works, sounds like the lighter option.

jonestr

Light makes wrong in the ABQ

Waves77

Just giving it a try. We'll see how it goes.

destikon

I just got done changing out my specialized airlocks out. They are absolutely TERRIBLE. I made the mistake of buying them for the front and back and am now regretting it. For one they do a lousy job at sealing (from someone that walked their bike home yesterday about a mile). The sealant did come out of the hole and got all over my new sweater but didn't seal worth a damn. I lost 20lbs of air just last night with the "seal" job of the triple thread airlock 2's. Don't even try sticking a patch on them. The "slime" stuff doesn't let the patch stick. Overall rating 0 out of 10. I wish I had my 26 dollars back. I'd throw them towards some gatorskins or marathons.

Waves77

Update:
I used the GP4000s + regular Kenda tubes + Stan's sealant and got my first flat last weekend, after little over 500 miles. Since I don't use if for commuting (I have a bombproof set for that) it's not bad at all, beats riding a brick.

brian416

did you find any sealed punctures in the tube? Just curious whether or not the Stan's Sealant worked or not.

DannoXYZ 

I found dealing with goatheads require increasing the depth of penetration needed to reach the tube. That means:

1. heavy-duty commuter tyre with kevlar belt
2. Tuffy liners
3. thorn-resistant tubes with 3mm thick tube on outside

Combined, these give about 5-6mm of penetration resistance. The other thing is that goatheads never puncture immediately. They get spun around and around with your weight pushing on them to force them into the tyre. There are ways to scrape off the goatheads before they've penetrated deep enough to cause flats. Back when I commuted 25miles a day to work at the shop, I used to get 1-2 flats a week. After figuring out all the tricks, I get less than 1-2 a year.

Waves77

I did indeed look for that but I'm not sure if there were any other. The puncture was there, and after inflating the tire some of the sealant came out through it and indeed closed it off - not an immediate thing, but took maybe about a minute before it solidified. You could hardly tell it was there after closing the hole, so I'm not sure if there were others (although I assume there were).

Right now I'm running a regular tube without sealnt with the Conti's - I'll do some miles on it that way to see how fast it punctures.

DwayneS

If I understand he wants to avoid all that weight that that setup brings. My suggestion would be to try to tough it out and make do with some liners or thicker tires and just fix the flat when needed. There are also some people that swear by Stans and Slime.

logdrum

I live in Corrales too and mostly ride in the west side which is goathead heaven. Use Stans sealant and pretty much you can get away with anything. The guy at the LBS in Rio Rancho has those thin slicks which are like continental supersonic. Very light tires and he commutes from old town to Rio Rancho everyday and still has to get a puncture

Until lately I had been riding tubulars and so far no problem. Just use Stan's, Shake it , be generous and never leave the bottle outside to freeze or overheat as it will become useless. The Stan's dry out so refill ever 3 months.Also keep the tire on high pressure everyday.

It would really be suicide to ride on the west side with no sealant. Slime is crap though. Use Stan's. And it does not really add any wealth penalty. This morning with with new dose of Stan's I was able to motorpace for a minute or two a Toyota SUV

If you are really concerned with weight, supersonics, luna tubes and an ounce or so of Stan's will be the lightest clincher setup there is that can survive the west side roads. Just ask the red haired mechanic at High Desert cycles.

Yeah get the Continental 4000 with Vectran. They are tougher than gatorskins

Waves77

Logdrum - got a link for those luna tubes? Can't find anything through google... Thanks for the tips!

Got the flat in Placitas btw...

logdrum

Performance sells them. Continental has a similar version and so has Michelin. Latex tubes are the lightest but I do not think you can use Stan's but I could be wrong. When Richard Halet (Vinatge Bike guy) had a store he sold latex tubes. I think the BikeCoop would sell those.

I think the Vrederstein (sp??) are becoming popular too because you can pump them up to like 150 psi and I heard pretty thorn resistant and lighter than the Continental 4000's. The 4000's are just bomb proof though in my experience. One thing you can try short of going tubular are those tubular clinchers from Tufo, those are tough because the cross guys use them. The Tufo tubular clinchers are light and tough and I think the Bike Cave sells them. I got a tubular Rolf wheelset last fall and the owner rode them for 1000+ miles and I put 2600 until a couple weeks ago and I just stopped using them because I got a PT wheel. I couple times I had a slow leak but I just put stans and pumped them up. They go up to 160. This is the s33 and I think I could ride them for another 1500 or so.


And maybe that's why the mechanic is lucky too because the Continental supersonic's go up to 140, but man they are thin and light