I can get the gatorskin tire for a fairly reasonable price. The question is how tough it really is. Over the course of 3 weeks, I've had two leaks due to a damn nail penetrating the tire, on separate occasions. They happened in completely different parts of town, so either it's just my luck, or this town just sucks

Either way, how good is gatorskin with nails on the ground? And would it be worthwhile to get it on my commuter, as well as my good/touring/racing bike? It's just the idea of suddenly pouring $80 into two sets of bike tires...

Nails, really? I don't think any pneumatic tire is going to offer much protection against nails. There are some airless tires on the market, but the ones I've seen are not intended for street use.

well.... sharp things. I woke up this morning to a rear flat. It turns out, there were two piece of metal wire like things stuck on the tire. One of them was bigger, and went clean through the tire. The other one was smaller (like a piece of a staple) stuck on the outside. It was pretty much the same situation a couple of weeks ago. I've never had something go through my tire like that before.

You can try adding liners but nails, Staples and wire are hard to stop. The worst for me is what we call Michelin Thorns. Small pieces of steel belted radials that break off when someone lets the tire wear through the casing. Makes a hypodermic needle seem dull. But beyond that Specialized Armadillos and a bit stronger than Gatorskins. They are hard and don't roll as well in my opinion but they are tuff little puppies. I had some Kevlar, or so they said, tire liners but they are best installed at home because they are a bear to put back on if you do get a flat.

I live next to a scrap yard, so metal shavings in my tire are pretty common and used to cause lots of flats for me, though I agree that most nails with get through any protection you have. What i did was just get some kevlar tires from wal-mart/amazon(like 20 ea.) and thorn resistant tubes from amazon(like 10-12 ea.). now anything that actually manages to puncture the tire, still can't get through the tube and the cost is a little less than just the gatorskin. While this might not stop a nail going straight through, it helps a lot. I used to get a flat at least once a week, with these I haven't had a flat in 8/9 months.

in my experience, any bike part/accessory purchased from walmart is a piece of sh*t. and from the looks of it, walmart sells the tire individually, not in pairs. For a pair of walmart of kevlar tires for 40 bucks, I might as well get me some continental gatorskin.

And I did have the thorn proof tubes at one point. They're good, but heavy. I actually did have one of them give out on me, because it was cut open at the base of the stem. Damn rim tape didn't do its job. But yea, if I get another flat within a couple of weeks, I'm getting those thorn proof tubes.

if i may add my two cents
i was always getting flats in my neighborhood and i went to sheldon brown's bike store online to see what they sell.
i bought panaracer tourguide tires with kevlar lining. its true they are hard to put on the wheel but with the aid of carefully using tire irons and some patience they go on.
one time i felt a bump and i checked my rear tire and there was a thumb-tack size nail sticking out!!! the nail did not pucture my tire to my amazement.
to add-i keep my bike outdoors all year and the sidewalls get weathered so i have to replace the tires every spring. but i think they are worth the price.

The thing about nails is all about how you hit them. You can actually run straight over them while they stay flat and see no issues. But the smaller the sharp object, the more likely it's going to flip and penetrate the tire. When that happens, especially on a rear tire considering the weight it's bearing, relatively few things will stop it.

As far as Gatorskins, I run them on my roadie and have never flatted and a lot of the shoulders on roads near me have debris that penetrated tires like Michelin Pro 3s, etc. And as far as wear, nothing beats them. I have about 2,500 miles on my set now and they're nowhere near worn out. That was the limit on several other tires I tried, including "hard case" tires from Bontrager and the Maxxis Refuse.

oops... I was under the impression that conti gator skins were 40 bucks for a pair (why did I think that?). NOPE, they're 40 each... 80 for a pair. damn...

Trust me, though, you'll get more than enough wear out of them to make up the difference. I'm not the lightest guy on the planet and I've got 3,000 on my Gatorskins and even the rear is holding up like a champ.

you know, I first got into cycling because I wanted to save gas and money. Ironically enough, I'm now spending more money on my damn bikes than I do with anything else in my daily routine, except maybe rent, but that's different.

Bike stuff is expensive either because of the materials used, the fact they make fewer of the high-priced items, or both. In the case of tires, the runs are so small relative to car tires that they raise the prices to hike the margins. Also, a relative few ride enough that they're regularly wearing them out, especially when you're talking a tire like a Gatorskin.

You might try a Vittoria Zaffirro. They actually are $20 a piece and though cheap have pretty good puncture protection. They come as OEM on some bike brands, due to cost, not cheaply made. I've run a couple of pairs on both 27" and 700 c and have not had a flat in a couple of years.

If you go with the Specialized All Condition Armadillos, get the elites, which are a folding bead and about 100g less each than the wire bead versions. I've heard that some people don't think they roll well, but I think they roll just as well as any of the other puncture resistant tires I've tried and are definitely about as tough as they come. I wouldn't want to race with them, but if you want a bulletproof training, commuting, touring tire, I highly recommend them.

my commuter currently have the zaffirros. They've been good to me, until recently. two puncture flats, and one pinch flat.

I once had a flat from a Russian Olive thorn while running tire liners - brand long forgotten. The thorn hit the liner, and kind of slithered off sideways and worked it's way into the tube. Nothing's foolproof.

Oddly enough... the tyres that have flatted on me the most over the past 5 years have been my Marathons which should not be considered as a bad thing.

In each case (2) I hit massive pieces of debris (glass and steel) and this caused slow leaks which would have obliterated lesser tyres.

I have only had a few flats other than these and both times it was on high performance, lightweight road tyres and the culprit in each case was radial tyre wire.

I have some Schwalbe tyres (Hurricanes) that have gone over 12,000 km without a flat (lots of urban riding) and they are still going, experienced the same flat resistance with their CX Compe.

very true. i too have had flats that way. but tire liners still have given me much better protection on the roads.

I've heard jack brown tires are great even in **** conditions, my personal preference is the the specialized nimbus with flak jacket I've been using for almost a year now and haven't gotten a single flat and I live in Chicago so those are really worth it. But if really need something cheap performance has these forte tires on sale for 12 bucks a pop they're pretty good alone but if happen to stumble apon a patch of nails you could always get those tire strips that are puncture proof.

I think tire liners are a good idea for commuting. That way, I can stick with the zaffiros. But I think I should get better tires for my good road bike. The stock tires on it are michelin sport, which are $14 bucks on Amazon. I'm guessing they're not the hallmark of quality tires. And if I were to do that 100 mile race in June, I should get a good pair of tires.

FYI, tire liners do significantly increase rolling resistance by nearly double in some cases. There's no free lunch when it comes to puncture resistance. Another tire you might want to consider is the Schwalbe Durano Plus (basically the roadie version of the Marathon Plus.) Many of the brand name tires can be purchased for less from Pro Bike Kit or Wiggle in the UK.

Judging from the last ~100+ years of tire manufacture, the best way to make a tire puncture-resistant is just to make the tread and sidewalls really thick. That leads to a heavy & high-rolling-resistance tire though. Bicyclists want something paper-thin and weightless that stops everything, and that material doesn't exist.

The matter of using kevlar as a puncture-preventative layer is somewhat suspect IMO. Kevlar has very high tensile strength, but is also highly susceptible to internal abrasion from repeated flexing. The effect is highly unpredictable, and the only way to test is using destructive methods. Kevlar tires are probably VERY tough when new, but would seem to get less and less so as the miles wore on. How many miles does it take for a given tire to lose half its kevlar strength? Nobody seems to know. -Or at least, , , , , -if they do, they aren't saying.
,,,,,,
Some types of climbing/mountaineering ropes used to be made of kevlar when it fist came out, but none of the major brands use it now--they have switched to other newer fiber types. That could be a matter of marketing (as the patent on Kevlar has expired) or it could have been for other observed reasons relating to the (lack of) kevlar's long-term durability.

so I ordered a pair of schwalbe durano's off of probikekit... about 10 days ago. I've made my payment, and sent them two messages about my order, but received no response from them... not even an email confirmation on the order. I've started a paypal dispute to get my money back. Judging from some of the online reviews of pbk, they really suck at customer service.

Also, kevlar is very stiff. It's not something that's easily stretched. And I have no idea why kevlar would lose strength over time. To my knowledge, that hasn't happened with bullet proof vests or tennis rackets. The reason why kevlar might be discontinued in ropes might be because of its stiffness. It won't be easy to store something like kevlar, because it's not flexible. And I can't imagine it to be very comfortable either.

Marathons for me, I haven't flatted since putting them on a few thousand miles ago

well I want the duranos because I do plan to race with my good road bike. must keep that wheel weight down