wider tires = less flats?
 

Wider tires = less flats?

This seems to be implied in a lot of the posts.
Is it really true, or is it more connected to tire quality? I poked around Sheldon Brown's site, and despite an extensive discussion of tires he didn't mention any correlation between tire width and getting flats.

If it's generally found to be true, does anybody know why?

I ride on 700x25 tires and though I like them fairly well, I get way more flats than I'd like (which has been 4 or 5 in the last 3 months). Would going up to a 32 or 35 help?

Thanks!

Seth

Fatter tyres are generally run at a lower pressure, a lower tyre pressure means a larger contact area with the ground, a larger contact area means a lower ground pressure, a lower ground pressure means you'll give the 'dart' less help to get through. ergo, fatter tyres get less flats.

All things being equal, if you run a fatter tyre at the same pressure as a skinny, you'll get more flats: the fatter tyre hits more road, i.e. the contact area is the same, but there is more 'rest of tyre' in proximity to debris on the ground.

Yet, a fatter tyre generally has more rubber too, so it is harder for a dart to get through.

wider tires are usually more forgiving for stuff like, curbs, potholes, rocks, etc. they are usually lower PSI, which means they have more "give" in them. mainly a wider tire means the weight is distributed over a bigger area, so if you hit something that could puncture your tire, more weight is on that given point with a thinner tire.

just going to 32 or 35 won't do much. get a puncture resistant tire, and (this is what i mainly do) just avoid potholes, gravel, anything that would puncture a tire. i do this (running 26x1.0 tires, 70-80psi) and i've been flat free for...a while now.

get these: http://www.conti-online.com/generato...orskin_en.html

I've been riding 23mm tires @100+psi on the streets of Chicago for two years with one flat (pretty aggressive nail).

When I first went to the thinner tires (from 32mm) I had a lot of flats, mostly pinch flats and stem-related stuff. Learning how to properly seat the thin tires took care of the pinch flats. When I got a new bike (with, of course, new rims) I no longer had any trouble with stem flats either.

Makes a certain amount of sense. I may be over-inflating the tires by the sound of it. Those gatorskins look nice - I'm still riding stock tires so an upgrade may be in order.

Thanks for the input.

Seth

I normally ride a gatorskin 700/28 .....no problems. On monday I decide to ride my Rob Roy with WBT 700/35's ...... one mile down the road I take a half inch piece glass in the sidewall....... no matter what I was riding not would have helped.

I went through 1350 miles flat free with my 700/25 Gatorskins. They did so well I got cocky and started ignoring the glass in the road that's a regular feature of my commute. For a while I even got away with that. Then last week I got my first, second and third flats with the Gatorskins -- the first from a piece of glass that managed to work its way through the tire and the next two from poor tube installation. Live and learn.

That makes sense, and I've generally had many more flats with the road bike (90 lbs pressure) and none so far with my MTB that I use to commute with, >200 mi's so far. I'm pretty sure that more miles than I've put on my road bike in 3 years.

Thicker tread = less flats. I'm running Specialized Flak Jacket Hemisphere in the front and a Crossroad in the rear for off pavement traction. Hard compound and thick. Not as fast as some tires but I'll trade fast for no flats. 400+ miles and no flats but plenty of things hit. Both models come in a 700 38c Might find skinnier.

Both get pretty good reviews about flats or lack there of.
http://www.ajssportinggoods.com/life...sphereBikeTire

I've concluded after more than a dozen years, Flats are mostly a function of luck.

Use good tires, properly inflate them. Avoid hazards when possible, cross your fingers.

As far as wide vs. thin, Ride what you like whether it's for speed or comfort. You will get flats no matter what eventually.

At my LBS, they do repairs while-u-wait. Lately it seems whenever I'm in there for anything, 1 or 2 people come in for a flat repair. Invariably they have skinny road tires.

Come to think of it, mountain bikes never seem to be in there for any kind of repair.

To be more scientific though, it's not necessarily a pure correlation between skinnyness and flats. Because skinny tires are generally optimized for speed, whereas wider mountain bike or hybrid tires are optimized for durability.

My main commuter is a nice little Rockhopper mtb that I finally took off the mtb OEM tires from it (after 4 flats - due to glass mainly) and put on a Specialized flak jacket tire (went from 2.1 to a 1.95 tire) - tire has more tread than a mtb tire and so far so good (I prefer a mtb for where I ride - even in inner city due to the sometimes MASSIVE sink holes/potholes I ride over). Only read one bad report on them that they draw stuff up into the tread but like I said - so far so good. I ride inner city with crap all over the road and for some reason this year I'm seeing glass all over the place. And have dug out some glass from the treads with no ill effects too.

Have Armedillo .23s on my roadbike and have to ride out of the city in order to go get some miles in the country. While I'm not crazy about the look of them - they really do seem nice for a touring kind of ride - as it is - I ride mainly solo and do long distance so the less problems I can avoid - I will.