used an old inner tube threaded with a piece of aluminum flashing as a tire liner?

Just installed this crazy idea into the rear tire of my TE. Looks and rides just fine. So far. Intended to stop shredded tire wires that cover the road shoulders where I live. Kevlar won't. Should also let me get ALL the mileage out of my tires.

We'll see.

Thoughts and comments welcomed.

If the shoulders are covered with 'Michelin wires,' then don't go there. You don't belong there in the first place; vehicles belong in the traffic lanes.

Whatever happened to Mr Tuffys and Spin Skins?

the edges of the flashing will probably cut through the tube. I guess we'll see.

You saying something like a Marathon Plus can't do the job?

Never ridden M. Plus. XR's won't stop wires.

Yeah, miles will tell. Edges of flashing covered with Gorilla tape. 22 uneventful miles today. The tire seems to have less rolling resistance, but that's probably my imagination. The wire problem is mainly on US 59 that has lots of truck traffic. Much less of a problem on more rural highways with no significant shoulder where I ride a lot in the traffic lane.

Not yet but we're probably going to have a fine crop of goatheads this year. Please keep us posted on your results.

For nails and goatheads, I just lined my front tire, 20", with a strip of galvanized flashing, much more puncture resistant than aluminum. No problem at all. As it will not conform to the shape of the tire like aluminum, has to be trimmed to a narrower width. This was overkill for me, but I wanted to make sure galvanized could be worked easily. It can.

I figure my tires are 10x more puncture resistant with the metal stripping and am 99% confident that this is a practical way to stop sharpies. Miles will tell.

Not for racing dudes, gram weenies, ppl who just like to fix flats, or those super sensitive to the ride characteristics of their tires. The metal liners seem to make my tires 'livelier'. I like that. They would likely make for a rougher ride, especially on an aluminum frame. My TE is steel.

We all know that kevlar tires/commercial inserts will not stop sharpies. Would never have resorted to this crazy project otherwise.

I can't begin to imagine the negative effect on rolling resistance you'd get with metal flashing inside your tires. I guess I should be glad I don't live in goathead country.

I've used just an old inner tube with the valve stem cut out.

I had something stuck in one of the tires on my commuter (probably a radial tire wire) that I could never find. The inner tube worked fine. Eventually I got the opportunity to pick up some pre-ridden Continental Town and Country's for cheap so I bought them and pitched the inner tube liner.

Actually, I find the rolling resistance to be less. Certainly not any more.

Installing the galvanized liner was no problem. Worked great 'til the tire blew out after 10 miles. Post mortem pending. Rear tire still rolling fine.

Havin' fun.

How come I'm not completely surprised? Good luck with your experiment.

The post mortem revealed, of course, that the flashing had cut the tire and was all wadded into a terrible mess. I guess from riding on the flat for 2 miles getting to WM and a rescue.

Redone now. Wrapped in Gorilla tape and enclosed in old inner tube like the liner in the rear tire. Miles to go. Or not.

Ok. 17 miles later, blown tire. Post reveals galvanized flashing will never work as the constant flexing causes it to break up. Rear, lined with aluminum, still fine. Wonder for how long?

The experiment is over and it was a total failure. The aluminum liner also broke into many pieces, but never pierced the inner tube enclosure. Wouldn't have been long though before it did.

Next attempt to stop the wires will involve trimming the side walls off an old kevlar tire and using that as a liner. Maybe two levels of kevlar will at least slow them down. The rear tire is still lined with an old inner tube, sans the flashing. Will try riding it to the cord.

Been an educational experience. Including learning about the limited availablity of 20 x 1 and 1/8, ISO 451 tires and tubes at the local bike shops. Or anywhere for that matter. If it don't say 451 on it, won't fit the front wheel of a TE. Why'd they put such an odd size wheel on that bike?

We just finished a 1300 mile Pacific Coast tour on our Rans (V-rex and Enduro Sport) and rode through goatheads, glass, wires, off-road gravel, etc. With the Marathon plus tire we had zero flats. Zero. We get all our tires and tubes through biketiresdirect.com.

Tubes are easy. Almost all 20" tubes wit presta valves are marketed to be dual-size 406 and 451. That means they're really a 451 and must be folded to fit inside a 406 tire. What's hard is to find a 406-only presta-valved tube.

451 isn't an odd size. It's the road 20" size, the size our ROAD recumbents should be using (IMNSHO.) The real question is, why did recumbents standardize on using bmx wheels a decade ago? Tire availability would have followed the 451 size just as easily as it's followed the 406.

Thanks BP.

The confusion is that in the world of cycling 20" don't necessarily mean 20". When tire choices are as limited as this, to me that means I got an odd sized wheel. My lbs sold me a tire labeled 20"(bmx?) but it was too small for my wheel. Gotta say 451 somewhere on it.

I did find a tire that fits at another shop and a 20" tube that really doesn't, but I stretched and squeezed 'til I got it all together and am able to ride. Will make another attempt next week to find the right tube, presta or schrader. I prefer schrader. As my lbs doesn't seem to appreciate the finer points of all this, will search the net.

Running a risk of beating a dead horse to death, the rear tire of my TE has now been lined with the inch wide treaded base of an old kevlar tire. Base enclosed in an inner tube just as was the flashing. I think the inner tube will help keep the liner in place and protect the air tube from its edges.

Might not totally stop sharpies, but will be double trouble for them. I expect this arrangement to be trouble free for thousands of miles and many tires. There is a 'green' element what with the old tire being recycled as a liner.

Try the Hostel Shoppe. They have tires and tubes in most of the weird sizes and in both presta and schrader. If you're real lucky you might find a source that has customer service that's as good as Hostel Shoppe but I doubt you'll find anybody whose better.