Originally Posted by
FBinNY
They do make "thornproof" which are double to triple thickness on the tread side. These supposedly reduce the number of punctures caused by thorns and goatheads, and maybe thin wires. But the reality is that unless you have a problem, flats are caused by stuff you ride over. And there's not much you can do about that.
Besides thornproof tubes you can use liquid sealants like Slime, or devices like Mr. Tuffy (which I hate), or buy tires with kevlar belts.
OTOH- I suspect that active urban cyclists get flats on average once every 1,000 miles or so (figure from thin air, but probably not a mile off) so getting a flat or slow leak after 400 miles isn't cause for panic.
I ride on fat low pressure tires, with a rubber breaker layer or kevlar liner. I get a flat about once per the life a tire, say one every 1500 miles (3K per tire, I have two...). You can improve your odds by using good tires, and not doing things like riding down alleys full of broken beer bottles in the rain. (Memo to myself: go look for flats...)
I'm a big fan of the Michelin airstop tubes, they repair well, and the valves do not seperate from the tubes.
worth the effort to track down.