A lot depends on where you live and the quality of roads where you ride. I rarely ever get flats, and I commute on 700 x 23 or 25 training/racing tires. I guess the roads must be relatively good in NC. The last flat I had was several days ago on my fast weekend bike. I pulled the tube out expecting to find a hole from some glass or a wire, and it turned out that it had failed at the valve. Probably at least half of the flats that I do get are from valve failures rather than road debris.

Another issue is how you ride. If you keep your tires pumped up to the correct pressure all the time, it greatly decreases your odds of getting pinch flats. You also can avoid a lot of flats by not riding in the crap that tends to collect along the sides of the road. Take some of the lane, where the pavement is usually better and cleaner.

I think you're confusing tire liners with rim tape.
Rim tape fits between the rim and the inner tube.
Tire liners fit between the inner tube and the tire.

No matter how smooth your nipples are, every spoked bike rim with an innertube should have a rim strip, regardless of pressure.

Man, I have been running with Gator Ultra's and have had very few flats until the last few months...and get this, I have had a flat three days in a row. So I don't know, I think I am going to try the Armadillo Elite's.

I had all sorts of flats on "Rusty Schwinn" until I put the thorn-resistant tubes and Mr Tuffys in. After that, no punctures for a long time. I've learned to never ride off-pavement here due to the goats head burrs that caused so many punctures. I actually wore one TIRE out and the thorn-resistant tube was exposed through the tire belting for about 12 miles and still didn't flat it (no liner in that tire).

The new bike "Ruby" I rode about a month on the same routes and got punctured. I replaced the tube with a pre-slimed tube and have gotten two more punctures within weeks, but it still holds air. It is hard to get the tire pumped full though and I wonder if the slime is ****ering up the floor pump.

The guys at the LBS kind of shamed me into not putting slow tubes/tires on my fast new bike Ruby, and encouraged me to just learn how to deal with flats on the road. They can change a tire in a couple of minutes; last time I tried, it took me over an hour in good conditions. That means - safe place to work, light so I can see what I'm doing, temperatures so I can work barehanded. I am just going to see how it goes.

Shoot you are right. In that case I never use tire liners, don't feel they are necessary.

Marathon Plus(summer) and Nokian Hakapillita winter) with Mr Tuffy liners here. My bike criterion is that, since it gets used for the same function, it should equal my car in flat protection.

Paul

Tubeless Rules All

my commute has no bike lanes and goes through a college area (lots of glass) and an industrial area (lots of scrap, tire wire, glass, dead animals).

Averaged 1 flat per week on good weeks

I tried liners, slime tubes, kevlar belted tires, etc etc.

Switched to tubeless about 7,000 miles ago and have not looked back. One flat due to a key (a friggin HOUSE KEY) that magically punctured the rear tire... otherwise, perfection.

I pick glass, tire wire, metal shards, etc out of my tires 1/wk and refill with sealant every 3 mo. I got 5k out of a set of Schwalbe Marathons and just passed 2k on the current Continental Sport Contact.

Tubeless Rules All

No tire liners, but I use puncture-resistant tires on all of my bikes. Last time I used regular tires I got 3 puncture flats in two days.

tire liners rule