The non-TG version of Paselas have wire beads, so they are much heavier. I only buy tires with folding beads because it is very hilly around here, plus the folders can be easily carried when touring. The BQ article was curiously quiet about the effects of tire weight on climbing. Note that their testing was either on flat ground and/or downhill, not uphill. Some of those tires with low rolling resistance would not have fared so well for climbing because there were so heavy.

The mass of the tire, or any rotating part of the bicycle, has only a linear effect on the effort required for climbing grades, at a constant speed. That is the same as any non-rotating part of the bicycle, as well as the payload. Rotating components do have a non-linear effect on the effort required for acceleration, as well as braking.

You got those tires used, why did the other guy sell them? Maybe he knew he did something to the tire accidentally and sold it to some unexpected buyer?

I have a set of Pasela TG's that are now two season old and the sidewalls have no signs of cracks even trying to start. I've rolled over glass all the time, not to mention other debris and have not had one flat; and their wearing like iron. Those tires are doing far better then Continental Gatorskins, after just two seasons with those I had 10 flats and one of the tires got a gash in the sidewall destroying it within just 800 miles of being new. But no tire is flat proof, if you hit something just right you could destroy a tire; I heard of guy on another forum who destroyed a Schwalbe Marathon, probably the most flat resistant tire on the market! Schit happens.

The Pasela tires are a lighter tire then most other highly touted flat resistant tires, the Schwalbe Marathon weighs 3 times more then the Pasela, if you want that kind of protection then you have to pay for it in weight.

There are hundreds of reviews of the Pasela tires all over the internet with a huge percentage of favorable comments, so all those people must not be wrong about them, and none have complained about "starbursting".

You can beef up the flat protection if you want by adding a Panaracer Flat Away liner, this liner is the best flat protection liner on the market in terms of flat protection, total weight (lightest on the market), and ease of installation.

By the way, Paselas come in folding versions in both their standard AND the TG models.

Ha, I got a flat within 24 hours of putting on the new Paselas! One of those tiny pieces of wire, went through the thickest part of the tread. I hope I don't regret getting the non-TG version . . .

The TG does have better flat protection. Keep in mind these tires have the same carcass as the Rivendell versions that have the checkered board pattern on the tread. The Roly Poly is the Pasela, and the Ruffy Tuffy is the Pasela TG. If you want to improve the flat protection of your current tires get a set of Panaracer Flat Away liners, their 3 to 4 times lighter then Mr Tuffy and they protect better then Mr Tuffy. I use those liners but only on the rear tire because I don't want to hassle with removing the panniers and dealing with the fender and gears if I get a flat touring. If you get the liners you will need a pair of really sharp scissors because that liner is tough.

Add me to the crowd that has had a side wall failure. I slipped off the side of a blacktop road in the dark on a winter night and the side wall rubbed the rough road edge and the sidewall tore. Of course it was a nearly new tire. I now have over 1500 miles on the other original and a replacement with no other issues. (27x1 TG). I currently have two other bikes with paselas - 27X1/8 and 27X1/4. I really like them for my older road/commuter bikes.

When you get a flat has little to do with a tire's puncture resistance. It could happen after six months, or it could happen an hour after you install it. Sure, it's bad luck to have it early on, but it could happen any time, and getting one early doesn't mean it's a crappy tire.

Don't buy the Pasela if you want great flat protection. Get it if you like the ride it gives. I like the ride it gives. I see flats as a fact of life. If you don't, get a heavy, lousy-riding tire. We have to make trade offs.

I had a pair of 700x32 TGs on my SSCX bike. I took a nail through one, up the sidewall, at just a few weeks old and continued to ride it for months until the rip spread and it finally started to bulge. The UrbanMax I had replaced it with had already spent a few thousand miles on my other CX bike and was worn too thin to protect from anything. After a few weeks of that, I slapped my last spare Nashbar Gridlock on in its place. Not the highest-quality tire on earth, but it will do the job for now.

That's it in a nutshell. Note that there is theoretically a continuum between flat-susceptibility/good ride quality, and a flat-proof/poor ride quality. Luck is your best ally, but you can't count on it, so if you choose good ride quality/(low rolling friction), just be prepared to deal with flats accordingly.

Thinking about it, most of the flats I've had while riding, the tire didn't really have a chance of protecting the tube. It's either been pinch flats, due to unseen hazards, or believe it or not, staples or nails that were perfectly oriented to puncture the tire. Can't recall in recent memory getting a puncture from glass or a sharp stone. There have been a few internal & self-inflicted issues that I won't go into, no fault of the tire. So I can't say that I've been badly served by tires in the utility performance segment of the market, e.g. Pasela/TG, Zafiro, Marathon, Ribmo. My best experience so far has been with standard Zafiro. I recently retired a pair after wearing down the tread over 3+ years of use. Structurally they're still going strong, but I didn't want to push my luck on my current 15 mile 1-way commute.

Absolutely. A light, nice-riding, fast-rolling tire makes every ride more pleasurable. For me, anyway, even if I flat slightly more often, it's well worth the trade. Improving every ride at the cost of being inconvenienced one or two additional times a year - that's a good trade in my book.

The Pasela is probably my favorite tire over 25c. It might be the best bargain out there. I can't think of anything to beat it in price to performance. The trade-off is that the sidewalls are a bit delicate, but that's what makes it ride so sweetly. Even then, I rarely get flats with them, and I've definitely never had one fail like the OP did.

I used Paselas for about three years because of rep/price and how they look - I finally wised up. I think the above posts are actually pretty silly...yes, tires do have different levels of puncture resistance and it isn't all luck. After you've ridden a tire for a while the law of averages comes into play and you see how the tire does for protection. I've found, in general, that gum walls have more problems in the sidewall. I know I have had sidewall issues with Paselas on a few ocassions. I've ridden Veloflex tires enough to know that they're flat prone...I've ridden Paselas and Ribmos enough to know I get fewer issues with Ribmos.


The majority of flats I get are tiny pieces of debris that work through the tread over time or small pieces of wire...Conti tires are far more resistant to that than other tires I've used at similar weights. Some treads resist that debris better than others and it's not just the total amount of rubber; that marketing gumbo Conti uses (chili compound) seems to make a difference. I rarely pinch flat because I properly inflate my tires. The tire I use DOES seem to even impact my succectibility to staples ( that and I've gotten good at avoiding them). I know I've consistently gotten the wire and small glass flats with Paselas and I've never gotten them with Ribmos or a Conti clincher. At some point it's not luck.


Beyond their crappy puncture resistance, I don't think they roll that well. The only real benefits they have are aesthetic and price...if you want a nice rolling tire that has decent puncture resistance, buy GP 4000s and GP 4 Seasons. If you want a pretty really fast tire and don't care about flats, get Veloflex. For a decent price utility tire, Ribmos are great. If you want a tire for a vintage wall hanger - Paselas all the way.

i just switched from 23c armadillos to 32c pasela tgs, and aside from the obvious comfort difference, my speed has gone up a 1-2 mph on my usual commutes

time will tell how they are on the durability front, but ive gotten plenty of flats on armadillos and durano plus' which have been the most puncture resistant tires ive used so far

There's no place like 127.0.0.1

This. The best flat protection comes from tank-tread-like tires. Panaracer produces the RiBMo, and it's my favorite so far. Biggest problem is its rolling resistance, but among three bikes I've ridden thousands of miles over the last few years with no flats. For an ultimate workout, try thorn-resistant tubes with a puncture-resistant tire. On a single speed. Uphill. You will hate life, but hey, no flats!*


*Just my humble experience, friends. I live in a more rural area, so broken glass/nails/wire are fewer and farther between. And no goatheads (shout out to the Western US on that one).

Panaracer Ribmo may indeed be a better tire then the Pasela, but I use the Pasela TG because it's the only line of tires made by Panaracer that offers a 27" size tire, so I'm kind of stuck. The only other company that makes a quality 27" tire is Continental in the Gatorskin tire, but my experience with those have been worse then with the Pasela which so far have been problem free. So in my book the best tire for a 27" rim is the Pasela and the TG in particular.

I like them.

Nearly all of the flats I've gotten on various Pasela TG tires (700c x 28mm, 27 x 1-1/4") have been either goathead thorns or sharp rocks that get stuck in the "valleys" of the crosshatch pattern. I'd like to see a tire that doesn't have those valleys.

It's called the Continental ;) I've yet to get one of those flats with a conti.

those valleys may have just saved me from a flat

on my ride home a long steel wire got stuck in a raised tread and went through the other side, but didnt go into the tube

had it been the armadillos it wouldve just went right to the tube

My second last flat on the road was a pinch flat incurred with proper inflation on a 25mm Pasela, when I crossed an intersection at full speed where sharp stones had been kicked toward the curb. I would have ridden in the lane except for the motor vehicle traffic; and I did not appreciate the full hazard that the stones presented in time to slow down or avoid them.

Shoot!... I need your vision! :eek:

I agree, a tougher protection layer has a greater chance of deflecting a staple or similar sharp object, but does not guarantee protection against such an object; I think we're on the same page there. :beer:

Aaron those conti tires sound like 23 or 25 mm tires. Do you have any preferences for 28 and 32 mm tires? I hear the Vittoria Hyper something is fantastic.

I hear what you are saying, but not really, no. Not unless you try to get flat resistance through simple brute force - by making the carcass thicker. Which was only possibility when the penny farthing ruled the road and some people still hadn't worked out that Armstrong's blood was injected with uranium before every race, but things have moved on quite a lot.

These days you can buy tyres with thin, extremely flexible carcasses that have excellent ride quality and tremendous puncture resistance - because they use a very high thread count rubber reinforced with a material like kevlar. The main example is probably the Marathon Supreme, but it isn't the only one.

Schwalbe Kojaks - smooth as Telly Savalas's head. And Conti have similar tyres. Or Vitoria Rubinos. And I can't see Marathon Supremes picking up much.

Ditto, just had it happen last Friday, and this one was fairly new, maybe 400 miles on it. I like the Pasela TG, had a previous one that lasted 2500 miles, had to retire it because the tread was worn out. All told I'm pretty happy with them, I'll probably buy more in the future.


http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=322819

GP 4 Seasons are available 28c and they're fantastic. I replaced my wife's Paselas (they came on the bike) with them and her flatting issue stopped. For 32c I've used Ribmos.

I have the Hyper Randonneurs on the new tandem and really like them. We have flatted with them once so far and we have about 150 miles on them. It was a a tiny glass shard.

Your not riding enough on those tires yet. I got at least a dozen flats on the Gatoskins in 2,800 miles and that was only one manage to make it that far, the other tire sidewall got ripped after just 800 miles and never even saw what ripped it. But I had lots of sidewall problems using various tire models (GP4000's, GP 4 Seasons, one other model I can't recall) with the notorious paper thin sidewalls Conti uses; funny, it's the only brand of tire I've ever bought that had sidewall issues. But their MTB tires are fantastic. I guess my road bikes just don't like Conti's, and if they don't like them I don't buy them because my bikes get mad at me when I do and take it out on the Conti tires.