Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

ldrcycles wrote:

ZepinAtor wrote:Probably not a great option, but have you thought of going tubeless with Stans sealant swirling around inside as Mtb riders like myself use ? I've had at least 20 possible punctures self repair on the the Mtb in the past 2 years with only a couple of failed side wall cuts resulting in latex gushing out & the need for a tube to get home. On my roadie I'm using Foss tubes which will hold air with a nail passing through the side walls. Apparently almost puncture proof ?? So far so good.

I have used the Foss tubes and thought they had promise but i pinched one when mounting the tire and it caused a slow leak. When i took that tube out and blew it up it had a huge bulge where i had pinched it. I will probably use them again, although the 'repairability' may be a bit exaggerated, the other tube i had split around the base of the valve when i mounted it on a rim drilled for schrader not presta, i tried to seal the hole with a lighter but it just melted. Maybe my technique needs improving lol.

As for the Foss tubes you're not supposed to use an open flame on them. They recommend a pair of hot pliers then pinching it together. Not that I've tried this & haven't punctured on the road bike for over 3 years or more (can't even remember actually). I'm a compulsive tyre sweeper & will brush the tops of my tyres after every glass or fine gravel patch I pass over. Seems to be working for both my wife & I.

The other product you could try is Pitstop puncture repair (Stans Latex) or slime tubes, which both use the same method to asist in on the fly repairs.

ldrcycles wrote:@drubie, if i had a lightweight frame that would take 27" wheels i'd be only too happy to race on it! But a 2.6 kilo bare frame on my steel Univega will never be competitive.

If you were racing for a living it would matter, but 1.3Kg shouldn't really matter to your race results if it is recreational racing. Getting 27" race style wheels and tyres might be difficult though.

Tyre liners can be good, but the relative movement between the liner and the tyre can also strip off the layer of rubber on the inside of the tyre leaving a real mess, and they are an absolute bitch install/inflate. Sealant in the tube (Tioga 48mm unthreaded presta tubes often have a removable valve) can work as long as the hole is small enough... otherwise you just end up with latex everywhere.

After much trial and error, I run Michaelin Krylion on the front and Conti 4 seasons on the rear. They are 'almost' puncture proof in the dry as long as you don't ride through patches of glass, but if it's raining or they have started to show signs of squaring off, the punctures are pretty frequent. The 4 Seasons is the most cut-resistant tyre I have used yet, but you have to buy them from the UK (~$45 - $50) as the Au. RRP was $129 last time I looked.

quote]If you were racing for a living it would matter, but 1.3Kg shouldn't really matter to your race results if it is recreational racing. Getting 27" race style wheels and tyres might be difficult though.[/quote]

Correction, with a 2.6 kilo bare frame I will never be competitive lol. Always strikes me as a little odd that people who are just starting out and have no fitness are on the steel bikes that weigh a ton and the guys with leg muscles the size of most people's whole body have carbon machines weighing nothing haha. I'm halfway, getting some decent fitness happening but i can't afford a good bike yet .

ldrcycles wrote:Correction, with a 2.6 kilo bare frame I will never be competitive lol. Always strikes me as a little odd that people who are just starting out and have no fitness are on the steel bikes that weigh a ton and the guys with leg muscles the size of most people's whole body have carbon machines weighing nothing haha. I'm halfway, getting some decent fitness happening but i can't afford a good bike yet .

Don't be in too much of a hurry to get a light bike. See for yourself how much it makes a difference first. Most of those guys follow each other like keeping up with the Jones'. I used to race. I can remember what it was like...
http://bikecalculator.com/veloMetric.html

Well i already moved from an early 90s steel frame to a near new aluminium Scott last year which made a big difference. By 'good bike' i mean carbon fibre, i noticed a HUGE difference when i replaced the stock wheels on the Scott with a set of Mavic Aksiums, and that bike still tips the scales at over 10kilos (partly due to a mountain bike rear derailleur and cassette i put on to make the 53/39 cranks more usable on hilly rides).

On the subject of tires, i went to Noosa Bike Shop after work today fully intending to get a Schwalbe Durano Plus but the owner convinced me to try a Maxxis Re-Fuse, says everyone he knows who has tried them has loved them. Also said the Specialized All-Conditions tire i had on the bike most recently was 'cheap !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !!'...

The Maxxis Fuse / Refuse are pretty good on punctures and cuts up here. Be interesting to hear how you go compared to the speccys.

Sounds like a big part of your problem is the road surfaces cutting your tyres up.

I run tyre liners in my road race/training bike and have only had 1 flat in 18months which was a piece of tyre wire penetrating the liner. Given that I've ridden through lots of glass and ridden the highway with all it's lovely debris a few times a week, I think they're great. As mikesbytes said, just get an old piece of tube to cover where the liner joins up and round the ends off. When I fixed the flat about 2mths ago, I found the liner had rubbed the piece of tube at the join about half through, so I replaced it.

The benefit of the liners over a specific tyre is you can transfer them from tyre to tyre and you can virtually choose any tyre you want to combat the wear problems you seem to have. They really aren't that hard to fit once you work out how.

Tyre liners for me for sure, forever. I just don't know what to do with this crater that I received yesterday. The tyre liner is easy to fit with the use of talc, put the tube in, pour in some talc, spin it around and just slip the tape in. These were brand new Michelin Pro 3 race tyres and I had received a flat only the day before fitting the tyre liner. I didn't use a piece of old tube to cover the overlap, I think I might go do that right now.

The following shot was taken after the Pedal for Prostate ride yesterday.



As I was riding on rough bitumen I didn't notice the chunk of whatever caused this prior to it dislodging itself. Can the wound be healed?

Deflate it. Squeeze it open, put supa-glue or shoo-goo into it, leave it for 24 hours. It *might* stay together.

Thanks heaps for the advice Drubie, I might stick a patch under there too as suggested by another. I was wondering what I was going to use as a replacement for my non-existant shoo-goo. Off to the garage I go.

Anyone looked at the relationship between pressure and punctures?

My recent run of being puncture free seems to coincide with my floor pump being in the shed. While I was topping up tyres with the frame pump it seems I settled on ~ 90 psi as feeling 'hard enough' instead of the 120psi I run if I use the floor pump. I got a weeks without a puncture at 90psi, but as soon as I started using the floor pump again I got two punctures!

It's pinch flat city up here twizzle under 100psi in a 23mm tyre.

Divinal - the patch on the inside of the tyre hasn't worked for me, they tend to fret/worry the tubes and you get flats that way.

twizzle wrote:Anyone looked at the relationship between pressure and punctures?

My recent run of being puncture free seems to coincide with my floor pump being in the shed. While I was topping up tyres with the frame pump it seems I settled on ~ 90 psi as feeling 'hard enough' instead of the 120psi I run if I use the floor pump. I got a weeks without a puncture at 90psi, but as soon as I started using the floor pump again I got two punctures!

Interesting since most reports on here equate high pressure with a lower puncture rate.

I think the last puncture I got on the road was in 2009 due to a piece of building refuse. I run on the lower side at about 90psi. Drubie may not be happy to hear they are on Gators. I'm also trying Big Apple 2.35" tyres on the MTB but riding on the road/paths with 33 psi front and 38 psi. No flats with those either.

You would think the higher pressure and therefore higher force per square inch on the road would make it easier for shards to penetrate, but there are plenty here that say the opposite is true. I don't know.

ZepinAtor wrote: I haven't punctured on the road bike for over 3 years or more (can't even remember actually). I'm a compulsive tyre sweeper & will brush the tops of my tyres after every glass or fine gravel patch I pass over.

Well thanks vey much puncture heads.

No flats for years then on Sunday morning I felt a hard thump while descending Mt Glorious which is currently a total mess due to rock falls & road repairs. Soon after the thump sure enough I had a squishy tyre & what I would have thought to be a pinch flat actually looked like a fault on a seam in the magic foss tube. I'll try the "hot" pliers on this tiny little pin prick of a hole & see how it goes.

You mentioned in your initial post you tried Continental ultra sports. My bike came with those tyres and i couldnt wait for them to wear out to replace them, I didnt have to wait too long, the rear lasted only 500km's, the front lasted about 800km's.

I only had to look at them and they got a puncture, I since tried the Schwalbe Durano plus, all I will say (to ward off murphy's law) is that im very happy with the Schwalbe's

From what you said it seems to me that the roads you are on and your tyre pressures are your biggest problems.

drubie wrote:The Maxxis Fuse / Refuse are pretty good on punctures and cuts up here. Be interesting to hear how you go compared to the speccys.

LBS recommended these, I'am on my second back this year, no punctures but the first one cut up bad with glass, possible to use if the slits were filled with shoogoo I guess.

drubie wrote:It's pinch flat city up here twizzle under 100psi in a 23mm tyre.

Divinal - the patch on the inside of the tyre hasn't worked for me, they tend to fret/worry the tubes and you get flats that way.

I've had one pinch flat in five year, and I'm 105kg. And I've been getting around 30 punctures a year.

I'm going to drop the pressure to 90psi and see what happens.

Re. - patch on the inside of the tyre, I use the instant tube repair patches (although, I can tell you from experience at -5C they lose all of their stickyness!), and I can see some light marks on the tubes where the patches are but no damage.

twizzle wrote:I've had one pinch flat in five year, and I'm 105kg. And I've been getting around 30 punctures a year.

I'm going to drop the pressure to 90psi and see what happens.

Although I'm a fan of less pressure, unless you're on something bigger like 32mm tyres, there might be trouble, or at least a fair bit of drag.

105Kg + 10Kg for bike = 115Kg with a 40:60 ratio would be 46Kg front and 69Kg rear.

I'm running Vittoria Zaffiro's on my road bike and haven't had a single puncture for the 6500kms I've done on them so far. I've put it through all kinds of hell, but yet none. I'm just waiting for them to get worn out so I can try out the GP4000s

markusm wrote:You mentioned in your initial post you tried Continental ultra sports. My bike came with those tyres and i couldnt wait for them to wear out to replace them, I didnt have to wait too long, the rear lasted only 500km's, the front lasted about 800km's.

I only had to look at them and they got a puncture, I since tried the Schwalbe Durano plus, all I will say (to ward off murphy's law) is that im very happy with the Schwalbe's

From what you said it seems to me that the roads you are on and your tyre pressures are your biggest problems.

The roads i can't do anything about unfortunately , and i've found heading out with any less than 110psi guarantees a puncture. I'm a big lad, 6'2 and 88kg which might be why. As i've said before though, 27' wheels don't care what the road surface is like, or what pressure is in them, they never flat.

Update on the Refuse, i did the Ride the Range without a puncture, in spite of several gravel sections (the flood rebuilding is taking a while down there).
Pity i made the mistake of not checking my bike properly before the ride, if i had i would have seen the chain was absolutely cactus, it snapped 25k from the finish but luckily i had my chain breaker and was able to rejoin it well enough to complete the ride.

Running on 90psi this week, noticeably less harsh over rough roads but no notable difference in speed vs. average power.

30.4kph/269W/1031kJ at 90psi yesterday vs. 30.6kph/282W/1006kJ at 120psi a couple of weeks ago.

And I was wrong about my pinch flat count - I've had two in five years, the second one was last year when I hit a bolt in the dark... also tore the sidewall out of the tyre and bent the rim, but it still counts as a pinch flat . The only other one was when I clipped a lump of gravel/concrete which was stuck to the road (spill from a truck) while talking to someone.

twizzle wrote:Running on 90psi this week, noticeably less harsh over rough roads but no notable difference in speed vs. average power.

30.4kph/269W/1031kJ at 90psi yesterday vs. 30.6kph/282W/1006kJ at 120psi a couple of weeks ago.

Good to see you got a good result then. What tyres are they?

Below a link which supports that lower pressure isn't that much slower with race style tyres. It is mainly about wheel weight, but I found the part about lower pressure interesting. The comments are worth a read too.
http://www.training4cyclists.com/how-mu ... lpe-dhuez/

Changed recently from a Gator to a Rubino Pro on the front and so far I'm impressed. Slightly smaller than the Gator (although both marked 23) at a measured 23.8mm on a 17mm rim, where the Gator was 24.5mm. I'm running 90psi with my 80Kg as the min on the sidewall says 100psi. I used to run 80psi in the Gator, but find the Rubino Pro at 90psi feels more comfortable.

Nobody wrote:Good to see you got a good result then. What tyres are they?

As above, Michelin Krylion on the front and Continental 4Seasons on the rear.

But I'll have to dig out my digital pressure gauge and see if the pressure on the floor pump is accurate. Should be interesting...

Mustang wrote:

drubie wrote:The Maxxis Fuse / Refuse are pretty good on punctures and cuts up here. Be interesting to hear how you go compared to the speccys.

LBS recommended these, I'am on my second back this year, no punctures but the first one cut up bad with glass, possible to use if the slits were filled with shoogoo I guess.

Try the Maxxis Refuse. I am on my 3rd set on the commuter bike and have only had 1 puncture with previous 2 sets. Ride quality, durability and handling is acceptable. Should be able to get them for around $50 a pair on ebay.

I use Rubino Pros on the good bike. Puncture protection is pretty good, but they cut up easy.