"Do you ever get flats?" Hahahahaha! Hahaha! Hahahahhahahahhahahahaha! Hahahahahhahaaha!

Dude, I commute through the Broken Glass Capital Of The World (Oakland, CA). Flats are a fact of life. Getting a flat in the wrong place at the wrong time could alter the course of your LIFE. No joke.

I do about 5-6k mi/year and have managed to get it down to about one flat per year, which if you ask around is pretty damned incredible. But, now that you've asked I'm sure I'll be dealing with one on the ride home today.

My secret(s)... Armadillos. Specialized Armadillo Infinity tires. 38's on the rear, 35's on the front, running low PSI for comfort and flat prevention. Specialized AirLock tubes inside. Imported B&M dynamo powered headlight to see - and avoid - running over as much debris as possible. And a great big dose of LUCK.

I'm always open to suggestions, but this setup has proven to be the best combo of cost/weight/performance/wear that I can find. IMO, pinchflats are inexcusable. I'll give a free pass to anyone on their first, but after that the shame is on you. Pinchflats = lazy/dumb rider.


-Kedosto

did a 9 month bike tour with out a flat tire.. :thumb:

Kedosto – interesting info. What PSI do you use? Sounds like you have a good solution that works for ya. I’ve never had a problem with flats, so it is interesting to see your perspective.

As for pinch flats, I don’t think anyone here gets them commuting. No forgiveness required. Commuters are not a lazy bunch.

What is an airlock tube?

I run 45fr/75rr. I run a larger size on the rear specifically for the lower psi I can run.

AirLock tubes are Specialized brand pre-filled with their sealant. The sealant they use is very long lasting and effective.


-Kedosto

Since 2014, I've had 7 flats.
2014 and 2015 were flat-free years.
2016, I had one due to operator error (hit railroad tracks, hard, with road tires.) I also blew 2 due to old tires.
2017: One due to giant nail (obscured by roadside sand in late winter), 3 on the same stretch of highway, on two different group rides, due to tire wires. It was fun pretending to run a "fix a flat" clinic :rolleyes:

That's still quite a pressure differential. Do you carry a big load on the rear? Just curious. :)

Maybe one flat per 2000 mi ridden? Estimate 2/3 due to wire (from steel belted car/truck tires?), 1/3 due to glass. Glass is usually easier to see, those wires are invisible.

There are a few things you can do to somewhat reduce the risk of a flat: keep an eye out for glass (looking down the road far enough so you can plan evasive maneuvers), avoid riding through the "debris triangles" in intersections; avoid riding through piled up sand/dirt (glass and those little pieces of wire get washed off the road and trapped there, waiting to pounce), absorb bumps with your legs/hands (though I've only had one pinch flat), once you've located the hole in the tube, look carefully for the cause in the tire and don't believe that it fell out - keep looking, be gentle with your tube valves, etc.

I get somewhat fewer flats now than I did as a newbie, but they still happen.

---------

I've been using a spreadsheet to keep track of my flats for about 8 years now. Before I started tracking my working theories were:

1) Most flats happen on the rear tire
2) Most flats happen when the roads are wet
3) Most flats happen on tires that I've used for over 2000 miles
4) Most flats happen when I've been riding on roads with bike lanes

The rear tire theory has proven true (36 of 42 flats have been in the rear, and three of the others were tube or tire failures, not puctures).

The bike lane theory also seems to be correct. About a third of my flats have been slow leaks that I found either in the morning or at the end of the day without having had any idea when the puncture occurred. Commuting typically accounts for about two-thirds of my mileage and there is no way to avoid bike lanes entirely on my commute. The vast of my flats that weren't slow leaks have happened on a road with a bike lane. I've only had a couple of flats on recreational rides, even though I use less puncture resistant tires for that purpose.

The wet road theory has me kind of puzzled. It's demonstrably true that objects will penetrate wet rubber easier than dry rubber, but only about a third of my flats have occurred on wet roads. Looking at the details of my log, I'm tempted to form theories to explain this away, but the data seems to be telling me that I'm just as likely to get a flat when the roads are dry.

The mileage theory is harder to evaluate. I've gotten 18 flats on tires with fewer than 1000 miles, 14 flats on tires between 1000 and 2000 miles, and 11 flats on tires with over 2000 miles. On the other hand, the flats clearly start to group together when the mileage gets high. I have more total accumulated mileage at the lower numbers (I have a lot of bikes, so a lot of tires that haven't hit 1000 miles). Once flats start to seem frequent (about three flats within 500 miles) I tend to give up on a tire.

I had three flats in one day in 2014. That was when I stopped using GP4000 tires and stopped riding my road bike until I got some Gatorskins. It has not had a single flat since. That frame will only fit 23s or narrower.

I had one flat on a rear tire on my touring bike in 2015. The tire is a Marathon Supreme 26x1.6. I believe a piece of glass cut the rear tire and punctured the tube. Tire was repaired with Shoe Goo and has gone another 1000+ miles.

I don't ride as much as many here, perhaps 2,000 miles since 2015 but I might be underestimating.

Exactomundo :-)

2 flats in less than a week this year (made me change to SCHWALBE Marathon Plus).

Well actually my front is usually closer to 50psi and I do roll quite heavy. I typically start my week with a pressure check and inflation on Sunday night or Monday morning. I over inflate and leak down to hit my sweet spot about Wed/Thurs then run under inflated Thurs/Fri.

Actual rolling psi is probably more like 48-ish front and 70-ish rear on 35fr/38rr tires. I'm about 235lbs (ride ready) and can easily reach 290-300lbs total rolling weight (me, bike, panniers, cargo) with most of the weight on the rear. I've never checked, but I wouldn't be surprised of it was a 35/65% weight split.


-Kedosto

For those who get flats from goathead thorns, glass shards, and other small, sharp objects, I wonder how effective it is to check for "intrusions" on the inside of of the the tire, by running one's fingers around.

Even if you don't see a protrusion on the outside, a piece of glass that has worked its way into a sipe, or a thorn that has been worn smooth on the outside, may still cause a puncture from constant rubbing on the innertube. Since I started using tire liners a few years ago I still feel around the inside of the tire out of habit.

And since I've been using Mr. Tuffy's Tire Liners I went from one or two flats a month to one or two a year, mostly nails and metal shards.

Always check the inside of the tire before replacing the tube! Be careful about it, as running your fingers around in an effort to detect sharp objects might prove to be successful in a painful way.

AirLock tubes won't save you if you don't remove the foreign object from the tire.


-Kedosto

Last year, no flats with Marathon Plus on my 1991 mountain bike in about 4 000 km. This year got two flats in less than a month (including a side cut that killed that tire) in the Spring with Grand Prix 4000S II tires on my 2012 Giant TCX bike. I then added Mr. Tuffy liners and no flat in the following 3 000 km. Now that we're in the Fall season, I replaced the GP with Marathon Plus on my TCX hoping to reduce my chances of having a flat in cold weather.

No flats on my commuting bike(s) for two years. Now on a run of four in three weeks. :(

EDIT: Now 5! Realised that the tyres are full of tiny (2-3mm) chunks of glass, and the tyre tread is sufficiently worn that the small chunks are getting worked through the inside of the carcass. Ordered up some Continental puncture resistant tyres - hopefully that will put an end to it.

Strictly commuting I have not had any flats in the past three years. My commute is only 5 miles roundtrip and I make sure tires are at proper psi once a week. If I do get a flat it is usually a pretty severe pinch flat.

Poll results for those wondering about flats...

What kind of riding do you use your Tannus tires for? I've found them quite worthy of commuting and some training, but the rolling resistance makes them tough for climbing and faster speed group rides.

:foo:

It looks like I wrote that almost 2 years ago. had a pair of 23mm Tannus tires on a winter commuter. I never was happy with wet traction, although I've wondered about Gator Hardshell wet traction too.

The tires have worn down quite a bit, and picked up some big cuts, but still seem to work.

Like you, they did seem somewhat slower than other tires, so in Spring I had set the bike they are on aside, and continued with other tires, especially for longer rides.

Nonetheless, they are an option for commuting in miserable weather, or perhaps commuting on a schedule where a little slower or harsher would be a trade-off for not getting a flat.

I've meant to get some hard 20" Tannus tires for my trailer. Trailer flats are such a hassle.

Update two years later. When I ride the commuter with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires, zero flats. I've been riding different bikes to make my commute more varied and interesting. For certain, I've had more flats on those other tires. I don't keep records, but I'd estimate one flat every 700 miles or so on those bikes. That would be four or five per year. Still, it's no big deal.

I know your post was older, but I figured that also meant you had more time to give meaningful insight after riding them. I've been on them since January (for a review). I love not getting flats, but I do swap out for another wheelset with regular tires when I don't want to feel so sluggish.

Totally see airless tires being great for a trailer, especially if the trailer isn't weighed down too much.

Is that your review?

I had posted more lengthy comments in this thread:

https://www.bikeforums.net/general-c...olid-tire.html

I did mount my own tires. 23mm, on older road rims. I did do the install myself, but they were a bear to install. One issue is that I think Tannus only supplied 2 pin sizes, and the narrow ones were still too wide for my rims, making it tough to get the pins punched down and to stick (plus the tires were wide for the rims and the bead had to be pressed down).

I was having some issues with traction climbing my driveway (spinning the rear), and in one case braking in a parking lot and sliding.

Definately not as good of traction as I've gotten with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires or Michelin Protek Max tires, but perhaps not too much worse than tires like Continental Gator Hardshells.

Still, as mentioned, the tires did well for winter commuting (with traction notes above) when flats are worse, and more miserable to repair. But not tires I'd choose for my next century ride, or double century ride.

I think I did feel some road buzz in the hands on at least one longer ride, but it could have been other issue too.

I don't think there were "Pressure" choices when I got my tires.

Yes, that's my review. Thanks for sharing your previous comments. It looks like we had similar experiences and came to a lot of the same conclusions.

Maybe the tire compound I'm on is a generation better than yours, which is when they introduced "pressure" options, too? Thankfully I haven't had grip/tractions problems, but most of my wet riding wasn't aggressively up or down.

I typically have 1-2 flats/year between two bikes, my roadie running 700 x 25 Vittoria Rubinos and my commuter which uses 700 x 32 Vittoria Randonneurs in the model with puncture resistant casing. This is in the Seattle area where roads aren't in great condition and glass is encountered pretty regularly.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned wiping their tires with a gloved hand for a couple of seconds while riding after seeing glass on the road anywhere near the tire's track. This removes small pieces of glass/thorns/sharp stones that can get stuck in the tread before they work themselves through. When changing a flat I always try to locate the offending shard inside the casing and this failure mode accounts for ~95% of my flats. They used to make tire sweeps that would mount on the brake bolt that would continuously do this for you. One thing that bothers me about my commuter bike setup is that I can't wipe the rear tire due to the fenders I use, and that's part of the reason I use more robust tires on that bike.

I literally can't count how many flats this has saved me, as that's an epistemological problem, so it may just be a superstition or OCD showing, but I FEEL like this saves me at least some flats.

Given that my commute is only 5 miles round trip a flat is a rare occurrence.

I don't recall the last time I had a flat. Running Schwalbe Marathon Plus on all my bikes. I am riding between 2K and 3K miles per year and my commute is on well maintained paved trails and really quite suburban neighborhood street. Meaning I don't really encounter any kind of debris on the roads.

after nearly two years of flat-free riding on gatorskins, as of this morning i've now had two flats this week. the tires are just old and spent.

the gatorskin is not my favorite tire, but they were given to me by my uncle who didn't want them, and i have a very hard time saying no to free stuff.

so now i get to order new tires, my favorite commuting tire of all time, the conti GP 4 season!

bike tires direct had 'em on sale for 41 bones apiece, not bad at all for such a high quality tire.

Ending up getting screwed yesterday, I'm sure this would of flattened most tires (tubeless & tubed). It happened 100 feet from the office, so I changed the tube at my leisure.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...00934ee545.jpg https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...75d3b469e2.jpg

Yeah, that sealed for me with flat attack. Well, at least for a few days (I didn't notice it was there at first on a knobby tire), then it worked its way through to the inner part of the innertube where sealant doesn't work and I went flat! :-O

No reason why that wouldn't seal with Tubless - unless you pull it out. I do have tire plugs though if I need to pull one out and then plug the hole.

I haven't hit a screw like this running tubeless, but at the rate it leaked air, I at least think I would of needed to add air.

I wouldn't ride with the screw like that as I'd be scared of damaging the rim or destroying the tire.