That's just a part of it shok, partly depends on where you ride too. There's one trail I ride alot that has thorn trees in places, no matter hard I try to avoid them seems that I have at least one flat every time I go there. We used to ride that trail before race season a few times just to get fast at changing, got to where we could have a flat and fix it in about 1 1/2 minutes. Not fun though. I like carrying my pump in my pack too. You should look at thosed CO2 inflators, very fast and small in the pack.