Hi,

I live in a thorny place in the desert. Every kind of thistle and thorn you can just imagine, blowing in the wind onto the roads and pathways. I fix my flat and soon after another one hits. You can't see the little buggers, some of them are tiny and just waiting for some action - just like a thumb tack.

It's an old bike - something I found then fixed up but it's all I've got. Is there anything I can possibly do at this point to secure the tire from inside? Reinforcement? Sprays? Any advice and help much appreciated!!

Miss Bliss

Make sure you are using tires with kevlar (or similar) reinforcement.

The most effective thing might well be to replace the tyres with ones designed for puncture resistance. My main bike currently sports a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Pros, which are so designed. They have a belt made of either Kevlar or some similar fibre running under the tread, making them extremely resistant to sharp stuff, and they're available in lots of different rim diameters and in various different widths. I would strongly recommend them, they're not particularly expensive as tyres go.

Apart from that, you can get hold of tyre liners that go between the tube and the tread area of the tyre, to give an extra layer of protection, and extra-thick anti-thorn tubes are available.

Some people may recommend tyre sealant, which is basically some sort of goo which you put into your tubes through the valves and which comes out of any punctures, sets and seals them. My opinions on it are mixed, as it won't seal tubes under high pressures (70-80 psi seems to be the cutoff for the NoFlat stuff we sell at the co-op) and if you do get a puncture it can't seal, the slime gets all over the tube and makes it very difficult to patch the puncture conventionally. I've also seen it make the most godawful mess if it gets out of the tyre casing, and I've once had it make its way back up a pump hose and mess up a pump.

Yes - you can get 'puncture resistant' (*not* acually resistant, really - just tougher) tubes and tyres. As mentioned above, Kevlar-reinforced tyres offer more protection, and products like the tube-filling 'Slime' can also be used, although I'm not a fan of that messy stuff myself.

Always remember to pack at least 2 spare tubes with you when you ride - they don't weigh much and don't take up too much space, and also pack a repair kit. In this way, you can swap tubes out when needed, repair the punctured ones at your leisure then use them as your spares.

So what product am I looking for? Thanks!!

As already mentioned above - "....Schwalbe Marathon Pros, which are so designed. They have a belt made of either Kevlar or some similar fibre running under the tread." Look for a tire description that specifies that the tire is Kevlar belted or Kevlar reinforced. Kevlar bead just means the tire is foldable, so that is not what you want.

Awesome! Thank you so much everyone who was so kind to reply. To be honest, I haven't been biking for years now because of this issue - I was just so frustrated with the repeated punctures. So now I will try the liners and more heavy duty tires. Thank you so much again ))))


Miss Bliss

Good luck with your purchases - although we have some pretty gnarly bushes etc., that quite often like to shed their thorn-covered branches right into the cycle paths here in the UK, people in some areas of the US seem to have some real-bastardy-sounding "goats head" things that sound and look absolutely *lethal*.

Tire savers can help with thorns:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-Vintage-...a#ht_554wt_680

You can get the liners that look like these :

I wouldn't do liners *and* heavy duty tyres - that would be overkill. I suggest the Marathon Pros or Specialized Armadillo Elites. I haven't used Marathon Pros (although I note that the hire bikes in London do) - I have used Armadillos for years - almost no flats, but admittedly a terrible ride, very harsh.

I've had no success with slimed tubes, but tubeless tyres with sealant work really well. They are a bit of a pest to set up initially though.

Schwalbe Marathon plus puts the Tire liner in the tire as its made..

heavy duty 'thorn resistant' tubes are like regular tubes just molded thicker, and even more-so outside
than the part facing towards the rim.

Those will hold air much longer too. .. and those can be combined..

Schwalbe Marathon Pros already recommended. I will add my favs to that; The Schwalbe Marathon Plus. Nearly indestructable. If you use them, then regular tubes are ok. Adding slime to the tubes can help to prevent a leakdown after a thorn has succeeded. But you might be best to do the tires and just carry the slide bottle to use if needed. If you are sensitive to the issue, neither of these tires are inexpensive so to speak so shop around on the net to find best delivered price. If you post your required size, someone will likely point you to some bargin locations....

About 6-7 years ago, a small group I rode with regularly often got 4 to 6 or more thorn flats per ride among us. We all switched to Specialized Armadillos and the flat rate went down to one every few rides. They're kind of heavy and hard riding, but they did what we needed. That was a while ago and I don't know if they've changed or been improved since then.

For urban use, I've found that Panaracer Ribmos have been excellent in both their 'road feel' and for their puncture resistance. (touch wood )

Just to correct a slight inaccuracy above, Marathon Plus tyres are lined with up to about 5-6mm of plastic inside the tread of the tyre. They aren't indestructible but they are pretty close. On my mountain bike I had a pair of them and on group rides it was far from rare to stop because someone had a puncture and while they fixed their puncture I'd pull an inch long thorn out of the side of my tyre and throw it in the river. With M+ tyres I ride over whatever debris is in the road and don't worry about it.

On my road bike I've been using them for the last 5000-odd miles and had one puncture, caused by a half-inch hawthorn spike that just went straight through. They're a devil to get on and off but once they're on you won't be needing to take them off very often. Some people say when it's time to take them off it's easier to just buy a new wheel...

I took mine off yesterday to experiment with a lighter weight tyre although the lightweight tyre flatted after 3/4 mile due to a tiny small stone. Taking those off and putting the M+ tyres back on took me about half an hour.

The downsides of using the Marathon Plus tyres are that they are heavy so if you're used to lighter tyres you'll probably find you lose some speed. You'll gain some of it back with each pointy thing that used to have you at the roadside fixing another flat and now just flicks off the tyre behind you.

The Pana Ribmos seem to manage to be quite light, considering their toughness, especially the folding aramid bead (as opposed to the normal, non-foldable steel) ones.

Some say that some manufacturers use better quality rubber etc. on the aramid-beaded tyres than on the steel ones and they are a lot more expensive, whereas Pana seem to use the same materials on both types. <shrug>

Using Schwalbe Marathon or marathon plus on all but a couple of bikes here. Can't remember my last puncture flat, although we don't have goatheads or other desert thorns here.

FIRST DO THIS:

Every single time that you get a puncture, check the inside of your tire to see if the thorn or whatever caused the puncture is still stuck in there. You won't find it every single time, but you will find something often enough to make it worth the effort. Also, if you leave the thorn or whatever hidden in your tire, you can bet it's going to puncture your new inner tube on your next ride. A good trick to help you search for the thorn is to get into the habit of always aligning your tire label with the valve stem. That way, after you find the hole in the inner tube, you will be know where on your tire to search for the thorn.

NEXT:

There is no puncture proof, there is only puncture resistance. I think that if a product is properly designed, it shouldn't require you to buy an accessory to make it work. Bicycle tires, even tires from the same manufacturer, come in a a variety of puncture resistance levels. The puncture resistance belts really do work, but at the expense of ride quality. The most puncture resistant tires feel to me like riding on a solid wheel. If you think you're getting too many punctures, look for tires with better puncture resistance. If you aren't getting very many punctures and are looking for a a little better performance or a smoother ride, you might want to take a chance on tires that aren't quite as stiff.

SLIME AND MR. TUFFYS:

Slime is a sealent that you squirt into your inner tubes. It works great so long as you don't use too high air pressures. Sooner or later, however, you are going to have to change your inner tube and it's messy.

Mr. Tuffy is a brand name for tire liners. They go between your tire and inner tube. To install them, lay your tire on the floor and put just enough air in your inner tube to give it shape. Stick the inner tube in your tire and stick the Mr. Tuffy between the tire and tube. The bad thing about Mr. Tuffy's is the end can wear on your inner tube and eventually cause it's own flat. It'll take awhile before it does that however so, if you're getting a lot of thorn flats, it might be worth it to you.

If you ride with a group regularly, my advice is to buy the exact same tire the majority of them use. That way, if you do puncture, you won't have to endure a lecture about what a stupid tire choice you made while everyone is waiting for you to fix your puncture.

That's quite sneaky psychologically, and quite clever!

I take it this is a voice of experience talking here?

most tire makers have three levels of flat resistance. none, medium, and heavy duty. specialized calls the medium 'Flak jacket' or something, and the heavy duty 'Armadillo'. Vitorria causes it shielded and double shielded.

You could also try tubeless with stans fluid.

After some good tires, I was also going to suggest these. I used them when I lived in New Mexico back when bike tires weren't as good as they are now.

those tuffy tire liners make tires ride like wooden wheels :-/

one thing the OP never mentioned was, what size wheels are we talking about? tire choices for a bike that has 700x23 are considerably different than those for a 26x1.95.

I'll add a rec for Mr Tuffy's (and there are other brands of liners as well, Tuffy is what I have experience with). Maybe some people feel a difference due to additional circumferential weight, but most probably don't (and besides, reinforced tires will have that weight as well). The plus of using liners is they're pretty cheap ($15/pr for Tuffy?), and you can put them into cheap tires and also put them into replacement tires. That way your long term cost is not higher-priced tires all the time. If you are a higher-end rider and are going to spend a lot for higher-end tires anyways, then perhaps you would be better off locating your flat protection in the tire, rather in the liner.

Didn't read the whole thread closely, but another concept is to go tubeless with Stans' or some other sealant. There's a pretty mindblowing video on the Stans webpage of running a mtb through a torture chamber consisting of a groove in a board with nails poking in at all angles. He rides the bike through that grove over and over and over, every nail fully puncturing ever time, and loses barely any air pressure throughout it.