BobbyG

Tuesday on the ride in to work with my Charge Plug I got a flat on the rear tire a half mile from the office. 700x32Kenda Kwests with Mr. Tuffy tire liners. Haven't had a flat in a 10 months and about 1400 miles with these tires on this bike. The small puncture was consistent with goat-head thorns. Checked the tire outside and felt all around inside, but nothing found. Patched the tube, remounted and got the first pinch flat in years. The inner tube was two years old, from when I first bought the bike and had three patches. Two from the first month riding with the original Kenda Small-Block Eight tires and no liners, and one from the machine screw that did those tires in 10 months ago.

So I put on a new tube. On the way home, about a mile from the office I had another flat on the rear. It was getting dark. I had already changed the innertube twice that day, so I decided to call my wife who came to pick up me and the bike (happy valentine's, hon!).

Wednesday I drove but took my rear wheel with me. At lunch I found another pinhole puncture consistent with a thorn, and in roughly the same place as the last puncture so I inspected the tire again with extra vigilance. On the inside I saw and felt nothing, on the outside in one of the sipes near where the punctures occured I found evidence of a thorn and removed it.

I made a mental note to buy another set of the Kwests. I liked them, except for the stone and thorn-holding sipes. I had bought them on sale at Performance for $20 each, and I realized I had about 1200-1500 miles on them, which is what I usually get from a pair of tires, even with rotating them front to back after six months. I brought the tire home.

Thursday I rode to work on a different route than Tuesday. Halfway in I realized I had a slow leak in the rear. With 4.5 miles to go I pumped up the tire and got within a couple miles of the office and stopped to pump again. I got to the office and after taking care of some business, I decided to rotate the tires and order new ones. So I unmounted the two tires and inner tubes. I remounted the old front tire and tube on the rear, and inspected the old rear tire....nothing. I pumped it up and was rewarded with hissing.

I took the tire off and found a small hair-thin wire clinging to the tube via static electricity. Then I saw another piercing the tube in two places like a hair-pin. Then another sticking out and maybe five more. THis made no sense as previous inspections of the tire, tube and tire liner revealed none of these. I wanted to ride home, so put in a new tube and pumped it up. It held. And as I rotated the tire I saw a half-inch gash in the tire that didn't reveal itself until inflated. I could clearly see the tire liner.

So I asked a co-worker to drive me to a local bike shop in exchange for lunch. My #1 LBS is closed Thursdays, so I called around to see if anybody had KWESTS...no. So I went to another shop I like. They had Continental Touring IIs with reflective sidewalls. I knew they had a reputation for riding harshly and were known to be "tight" and difficult to mount. But I liked the reflective stripe.

After lunch when I had a break I mounted the first tire. They were tight and stiff and I got a pinch flat. I patched it and mounted it successfully. I then worked on the rear wheel. Very difficult and another pinch flat. I patched it and was able to pump it up.

I went outside to test the bike and noticed the speedometer sensor had lost its zip-tie and was out of position so no speedo, and it had somehow reset to defaut so I'd have to recalibrate it which I'd have to do for the new tires anyway, and set the clock. But first of all I noticed the ride was a little harsh on the new tires, and even though they were marked as 700x32 like the Kenda Kwests, the Conti Touring IIs were about 4mm narrower and 4mm smaller in overall height than the Kwests. Not a bad thing, but perhaps I could have gone with 34s if they had 'em.

I took off a little early and about a mile from the office I noticed the ride had softened quite a bit. And then the back got twitchy and I saw I had another flat. There was still enough light so I dismounted the rear tire and saw that the last patch had come off.Then I remembered that I absent-mindedly peeled the patch off the foil immediately after applying the epoxy to the inner-tube, instead of waiting five minutes like it says in the instructions. I stuck the patch back to the foil and re-applied it after five minutes. I re-patched with a fresh patch and took off just as it got dark-dark. I have a full compliments of lights which halfway home began to run out of batteries, except for my main headlight which is USB-rechargeable, and the blinkie on the rear of my helmet.

So today, Sunday, I changed the batteries, oiled the chain, and checked the tires which held. I went for a test ride around the block and the front tire seemed very harsh complete with a rattle. It's then I noticed the quick release had come unlatched, possibly when I backed it out of the shed today. I re-latched it and the bike rides fine. Perhaps a little firmer that the worn-in Kenda Kwests, but the Kwests were stiff when new also.

So my next commute is tuesday, and not only do I like the reflective stripes, but I also think they look good.

And despite all the extra-trouble and aggravation of the last week's flats, I'm still excited and looking forward to my next commute. My bike commuting is usually trouble-free, and with new tires relatively new tubes I should be good to go.

stykthyn

Yikes. That's a lot of bad luck in a short period of time. Bike looks sharp. Good luck!

canklecat

I seem to go through flat tire, umm... cycles. Usually late fall/early winter, especially when it's been unusually dry. The smaller grass burrs and larger goat heads are hard as nails. And some areas I ride have lots of broken glass and construction debris.

I went a year without a single puncture flat after winter 2015/2016, then had about half a dozen in a couple of weeks in November-December this winter -- mostly in the same trouble zones where I often ride, all on my mountain bike with lighter weight tires. One was a tiny shard of razor thin glass, easy to spot in daylight during the mid-ride flat repair. The others were grass burrs. Dang things were impossible to see without high power reading glasses, a bright light and tweezers -- all trapped in the sipes between the tread.

(Tip: I've switched to Lezyne glueless patches, very handy temporary patches. When I can't feel a sharp pokey thing inside the tire but I'm not sure it's gone, I'll stick an extra Lezyne patch on the inside of the tire itself. Gotta be sure to align the tube puncture with the tire for this to help. The Lezyne glueless patches are so thin there's no risk of unbalancing the tire. At least once this may have prevented a repuncture while riding -- I found the grass burr later at home, right where I'd stuck a second Lezyne patch.)

I use lighter weight tires on my older rigid fork mountain bike because they're quicker. But on my comfort hybrid errand bike I prefer puncture resistant tires. The bike's already fairly heavy, around 30-35 lbs depending on what I'm carrying, so heavier tires don't matter much.

I've mentioned this before but Michelin doesn't get much love in the US, beyond their excellent road bike tires... but I highly recommend Michelin's Protek and Protek Max tires for folks who want to minimize flats and don't mind a heavier tire. They're often heavily discounted and less expensive than comparable Schwalbes.

Depending on size, tread and puncture shield configuration (regular Protek or Max version with 5mm puncture shield), they weigh around 700-1,100 gr. I use the Protek Cross Max with heavier all terrain tread because I like riding gravel and a little no-road riding without worrying about traction or punctures. If I rode mostly pavement and well groomed gravel/chat trails I'd go for the lighter weight Protek Max with the same 5mm shield but thinner tread.

They feel, subjectively, less stiff than some of Continental's puncture resistant tires. It may be because Michelin uses Aramide, a Kevlar-type fabric puncture shield, rather than thick rubber. It appears Continental basically molds a rubber tire liner into their heavy duty tires for puncture resistance (including my Continental Speed Rides, which are great all purpose tires but not particularly puncture resistant). I can flex my unmounted Michelin tires easily; not so with the unmounted Contis I've handled at REI and other shops -- the Contis feel more like heavy duty garden hose than like tires.

I've ridden a pair of Michelin Protek Cross Max 700x40 tires for more than 1,500 miles and over a year on the comfort hybrid without a puncture flat. When I swapped the tires front/rear after a year I inspected the tires closely for damage. I found places where glass and debris had slashed through the tread down to the yellow fabric shield, but nothing had cut or punctured the shield. I used Shoe Goo in the cuts and it's held for a couple of months.

rumrunn6

epic. you have my sympathy

Spoonrobot 

If you're pinching the tube during install get a tire jack and use that instead, they make both compact versions for travel and larger workshop versions.

https://www.amazon.com/Kool-Stop-Tir.../dp/B001AYML7K

https://www.retro-gression.com/produ...tire-bead-jack

BobbyG

Clever tip. However when I ride any imbalance is purely mental.

Did not know about these...thanks. A tire jack would have been very helpful years ago when I was running Continental 23s on my roadbike. If these new Continentals don't loosen up I may toss one in my backpack or saddle bag. When the current 32s wear out on my old Nishiki road bike, I'm going back down to a 28mm as the 32s ocasionally rub the fork crown and seat stay bridge.

Planemaker

Tubeless is your friend.

vol

Now that's flattering.

coominya

Epic indeed, you could make a mini-series out of it.

Milton Keynes

I have reflective tape strips around both front and rear wheels so a reflective sidewall doesn't matter much to me. It couldn't hurt but I don't have to have it.

BobbyG

I may give it a try next go round.