Originally Posted by
BengeBoy
I had some Bontrager's on a Trek 520 that were fantastic - 2,500 miles, zero flats. Why not just buy one spare (folding) tire and take off on tour. If you run into problems you can swap out tires on the road.
If your tires are newish I agree. We did the TA starting with Kenda Euro Treks on our three bikes. I don't think they were even belted. 3 of the 6 tires made the whole 4200+ mile trip and the lightest rider used them for a long time after. We didn't even bother with a spare tire, but carried several tubes.
We had some flats, but fixing a flat every once in a while is not a huge deal.