Paul Barnard

I think you'll be happy with the ability of the puncture belts on Hard Case tires to prevent a flat. I have run several different HC tires. Some old ones with gray sidewalls and some blue and black racier ones. I am still running a set of 32s on my Tandem. The gray ones grip good. The blue and black ones are obnoxiously slick when wet. They don't have any grooves at all. They are complete slicks. One day I picked over a dozen pieces of assorted glass, metal and rocks out of my gray set. The inner belt stopped it all dead. The blue and black ones have a nasty gash through the outer rubber and again the belt prevented a flat. I have never flatted on either even with how readily the outer rubber seems to cut. Nor has a friend who runs them. Both of my sets roll very well. They run a bit small for their width. Were it not for how poor wet weather traction is on the blue and black set, I'd highly recommend them. Maybe the ones you are considering grip better.