Just_Nigel

With about 150 miles on brand new Schwalbe Lugano tires, I have what looks like a puncture. Luckily, it hasn't gotten to the tube yet. What I've never seen before is the way the tire is looking after what I assume the puncture did.

Both tires were good before the ride, I had to pump air into the tire in question but unless the gauge on the pump was wrong, I should have had 120psi in both tires. When I first noticed the wobble, I thought the rim had gone out of true but it's the tire not the rim..

Looks like I will be getting a new set of tires before my next ride... Any recommended next steps? I've already let the air out and tried to reset the tire on the rim. I guess next, I'll take out whatever is in the tire and take a closer look at the tire. If all that fails, I'll go back to my LBS where I bought the bike less than a month ago... All in all, it could have been worse... I could have had a blowout 30 miles from my truck!

Any tire recommendations would be welcome too

TrojanHorse

People seem to like Conti GP4000S tires... Michelin Pro 3 tires are good (what I use) but probably don't last as long. You can find them on closeout for about $30 since the Pro 4 tires came out.

ribble in the UK has great prices on tires or you can try amazon. Buying tires at your LBS is a recipe for paying full price.

1FatBikeRider

Myself, and the guys that i ride with swear by gator skins. They are a little on the heavy side, but have been very puncture resistant for us.

Wolfwerx

Why can't you just pull out whatever that is and patch the hole? Unless there is something I can't see in that photo, it is not that big of a deal, and I certainly wouldn't pitch that tire.

Anything short of a gash or dire old age just gets a patch, and I go on. If I replaced my tire for every bit of something-or-other that got stuck in it, then I'd be spending more on bike tires than I do on my car tires.

CliftonGK1

Take another look. That tire is bulging to the left side of the puncture, just asking to become a catastrophic blowout. I wouldn't ride that tire more than a couple blocks to a shop for a replacement. (and I'd ride slow and timidly)

Seattle Forrest

Like Cliff said, that tire doesn't look safe.

I love GP4000s, haven't found a tire I like better. I was disappointed with Gatorskins, and, the moment I rode GPs a great big smile came over my face. They've very expensive, though, and they cost half as much if you buy them online from a shop in the UK.

Wolfwerx

Hmm, I guess my monitor (at work, currently) is not really up to the task. I didn't notice the bulge, just saw the nail or thorn or whatever stuck in the tire.


Yes, I agree, if the tire is bulging, that is a sign of a problem.

mprelaw

Is it just me, or is that tire misaligned in the drop-outs? Looks like it's rubbing on the right side (as you face it) of the fork. Or did you move the wheel over so the bulge would clear the other side of the fork?

I'd replace the tire. Luganos are pretty cheap. I have 2000+ miles on mine, and not a single flat yet. Don't judge the whole line by one defective tire.

1FatBikeRider

Hey Seattle, what did you not like about the Gatorskins?

Seattle Forrest

I don't know, exactly. I felt like they had a rough ride, like if I had put a couple sheets of cardboard between the tire and the tube.

More than that, though, it was a general disappointment. When I upgraded my CX bike to new tires, and got pretty good ones for the purpose, they were noticeably better than the ones they replaced. When I wore the Gatorskins down, and got a set of GP4000s to replace them, the GPs were noticeably much better than the Gators. On the other hand, the Gators just weren't any better than the tires that came stock with the bike, and they were pretty expensive to not have any improvement at all.

I find that GPs don't cost much more if you know where to get them, are also very resistant to flats, but that they corner and stop better, hold their speed better, and give a more comfortable ride. There wasn't really anything positive like that that I could think of to say about the gators. (I'm not trying to be a jerk and bad mouth them, I'm just trying to answer the question as best I can.)

CliftonGK1

I used to ride them, but I noticed that during wet weather I was running into slow-leak problems. Small shards of glass would get into the rubber and not immediately past the belting. Over time, riding would work that sliver through the belting and cause a tiny puncture; the annoying kind that flats over the course of your day at work, so it's flat when you want to ride home.
Those bits of glass aren't sticking far enough out the inner casing to catch on a cotton ball to locate them, and the tread rubber closes back up around them on the outside, so they're nearly impossible to find and pick out.

I switched to Pasela TGs and/or Urban Maxes and won't go back. The Urban Max is like a heavier version of the TG.

1FatBikeRider

No problem. I completely understand. Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Clifton, thanks for your response, too.

Just_Nigel

Yeah, I think the camera angle was such that it made the tire look as though it was not centered. But except for the bulge, it is centered. I only noticed the bulge while taking the bike from the car to the garage. I thought the wheel was bent...

Two things I think need to happen next; 1) Get a new tire, some of the hills I was happily coasting down allowed me to reach approx 30mph and 2) I will be getting a helmet before my next ride. I can only imagine if the front had blown on one of those hills...

Whatever is in the tire, didn't get to the tube but I am going to check out some of the suggested tires... Thanks Everyone!

redvespablur

I ride Gatorskins on my clinchers and on 2-way tubeless the similarly hard Hutchinson Intensives in winter - but oh how I look forward to summer when I can Hutchinson Fusion 3's.

If I was running clinchers I would run Gatorskins all year round even though they are hard, heavy and uncomfortable - they are way faster than being stopped at side of road patching or swapping a tube