rekmeyata

I mentioned that bit of info about latex fragileness in my earlier post, also they didn't mention was that oil, ie from handling the tube with your hands, can shorten the life of the tube as well. All those reasons is why my latex tubes never lasted more than 6 months but I was living in S Calif and the heat may had played a roll in it, HOWEVER, as the article mentioned, if contained in a tubular they will last a very long time, but as soon as there is a flat and you unstitch it and handle the tube to fix it it begins to degrade at that spot mostly due to oil off your fingers, how long will that take? Maybe a year or two. With butyl you don't have that degradation going on, though a rubber tube will still degrade but it will take about 10 or more years. My wife's bike and my mtn bike have tubes that are 15 years old and still hold air just fine, I bought a 84 Fuji in 2012 that had the original tires and tubes and not only weren't the tires or tubes rotten or cracked but they held 110 psi with no problem.

SpeshulEd 

I'm going to have to agree with @rekmeyata below....

Learn to bunnyhop! Seriously though, you're talking about extreme circumstances. How often do we choose to ride on crap roads with such heavy traffic that we can't swerve out of road obstacles - I personally, try to avoid those situations.

To clarify my comment, in 25mm tires, I'd run 90/100 front and back with butyl or latex...I run lower when I'm running a tubeless setup because there's no risk of pinch flatting.

rekmeyata

Plus it doesn't help to avoid potholes if your tailgating a bus, something you shouldn't be doing anyways if you value your life. Don't start going off on how you live in a big city and blah blah blah, I use to live in Los Angeles before there were bike lanes and paths and I had to ride the city streets even during rush hour, and I didn't have to tailgate vehicles of any kind. And if someone else wanted the space I left behind a vehicle, well guess what I did? I took out my 45 and shot the crap out of them...no I didn't do that silly, I backed off and let them take it, after all I'm on a bike not in a car, I will lose in the contact arena with a car.

SpeshulEd 

Riding in heavy, stop and go traffic is the worse!

SHBR

Ride at night much? Now that it is getting colder I'm starting to ride during the day, the difference in visibility makes it quite easy to avoid road imperfections. I've had most of my pinch flats while riding at night. Even with 1000+ lumens of light, you still can't see as well as during the day, add heavy traffic to the mix, and it only is a matter of time and luck.

SpeshulEd 

I'd imagine Shanghai is a bit different than Phoenix, but yes, I ride at night quite often...my headlight is 1300 lumens and it lights up the whole street, add in street lights and it's not bad at all.

But yes, two completely different cities. I get it. That said, if pinch flats are that common for you due to the bad roads, I'd 100% invest in running tubeless. No more pinch flats, no more changing tubes, etc, etc...totally worth it!

rubiksoval

Had four flats on latex in races this year. Now I no longer use latex.

But I find it awesome how you think hitting a pothole means you're stupid. Tells me you have no real relevant experience and are simply talking.

rubiksoval

I choose to ride in groups all the time. It's pretty much unavoidable if you want to ride fast.

rekmeyata

I have no experience whatsoever, I've never hit a pothole because I really don't ride bikes at all, in fact I just set in a lazyboy chair for 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year writing BS on cycling forums and a slew of others; I weigh 1000 pounds, but I'm trying to keep it steady so I'm not eating 4 whole chickens a day because that gets expensive but they are just chickens, so I'm down to 3 3/4 chickens a day, I go through about 20 bags of chips a day and 2 gallons of coke a day and other food related products as well; boy and the eggs, you should see how many eggs I eat in a day, I eat so many that I can't cook that many so I just eat them raw.

Latex? what the hell is that?

rekmeyata

What's weird is when I first moved to LA I was bit scared of the heavy traffic and rush hour morons, but after about a month or so of riding I got hardened to it and nothing phased me. Just had to get rid of the fear because fear is more dangerous than the traffic, and learn a great deal of patience, as well as how to ride to avoid putting myself in a bad situation which that part took longer than a month because it was a learn curve with new things presenting itself changing what I thought was right to something that was a better way, etc, etc. Now that I live in Fort Wayne but am quite a bit older from those days I still feel nothing when riding in stop and go traffic because of the experiences I gained in LA years prior.

SHBR

I'm sure you don't have these electric trucks on the streets in Phoenix, they are a spawn of satan, they weigh as much as a car when loaded but brakes are optional I guess.

The whole story started about a year ago. I built up a new wheelset and got some 23mm tires that were halfway decent yet yet cheap. (mavic? about $20USD for the pair) Couldn't believe the difference in speed, compared to all of the tires I used before. Rode them for about 6 months, in the first month I had 3 pinch flats, granted I could have slowed down, and been more careful about route selection, but I was hooked on the speed. Checked online about pinch flats with road tires, cyclecross riders used latex tubes to reduce pinch flats, thought it was worth a try, and much to my surprise I no longer had issues along with a much smoother ride.

I now run schwalbe ones in 25MM at between 90-100PSI, no major difference, just a bit more cushy is all. I was able to transfer the front latex tube, but the rear didn't get seated properly,and 2km into my first ride it exploded, replaced it with a thin lightweight butyl tube, no issues so far.

I'm not so fond of the mess involved with sealant, (when there is a puncture) and the additional cost and maintenance that goes along with tubeless.

rubiksoval

So you don't know what you're talking about, and you try to deflect that fact with random bits of stream of consciousness diatribes.

Gotcha.

rekmeyata

That's right, I don't know schit.

rubiksoval

Yes, we've established that. Thanks for playing.

rekmeyata

...

bykemike 

Did the latex thing once, first ride I double flatted in the first 20 miles. May have been just one of those things but no more latex for me

rekmeyata

Latex was frustrating to me too, all those advertised promises of being more flat resistant and all I got was flats, maybe I was just unlucky but it got annoying. And I tried latex 3 different times and the result was the same, not to mention I got tube that must have set in one place to long and were exposed to heat, sunshine, whatever else, because I had some that were simply rotted.