Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Hi all
As I said in a previous topic I'm travelling from Perth to Adelaide but would like some tyre advise. I will be using a road bike with a bobby trailer, (I have limited time hence the road bike))I have been told the thornes in WA are legendary and can expect multiple punchtures. Whats the best punchture resistant tyres people have found, and are their any other measures I can take to reduce this problem?
Cheers Mark

Schwalbe Marathon Plus, although I have absolutely no experience with the thorns in WA. The 28s just fit my OCR2 with about 1-2mm either side - take a spoke key .

Might be a bit hard to get momentum, but can pretty much garauntee no punctures

simonn wrote:Schwalbe Marathon Plus, although I have absolutely no experience with the thorns in WA. The 28s just fit my OCR2 with about 1-2mm either side - take a spoke key .

Even better are the Vittoria Randonneur. Very tough puncture resistant layer. On my Randonneur Cross tyres I've rolled through a patch of bindiis and had 11 thorns stuck into the tyre - some quite deep. No punctures, in fact, zero punctures in 10,000kms and still running

Slime sealant. Worked for me on my MTB in Kalgoorlie, where I was riding over dozens of these things every day.

Cheers,
Graeme

thanksfor the feed back,,, even you Pro may have trouble with clearance but I'm willing to try anything

I remove the valve & cut around the inside of another tube & slip it over the other tube.

Never had a problem with thorns

As I said in a previous topic I'm travelling from Perth to Adelaide but would like some tyre advise. I will be using a road bike with a bobby trailer, (I have limited time hence the road bike))I have been told the thornes in WA are legendary and can expect multiple punchtures. Whats the best punchture resistant tyres people have found, and are their any other measures I can take to reduce this problem?
Cheers Mark

I have cycled 40.000 + km in Australia, including the Nullarbor 3 times, and have never had a puncture by a thorn yet. The Nullarbor is all sealed and mostly of good quality too, and there is no reason you should have more punctures there than anywhere else in Australia. (or have I been lucky )

I always run Continental touring tyres in 700 X 37C config with thorn resistant tubes. I've had the big thorns go in and they don't puncture. I've used them in Tasmania as well and had no problems. I've also found that they are useful if having to bail off of the road into the gravel in a hurry. They seem a good all round tyre for bitumen and the junk on the side of the main highways.

I've had Schwalbe Marathon plus on my Surly, only had one puncture on it, and that was on the sidewall, somehow! (double gee thorn)


http://www.schwalbetires.com/marathon_plus


I went with the 40mm version, can either run them low at about 35psi, for a cushier ride, or up at 85psi for better rolling resistance.... All depends on how heavily loaded you are i guess.



edit: oh, i also should note - I have run over the base of a broken beer stubby with BOTH front and rear tyres while commuting on these tyres - didn't even scratch the thread, i was even preparing for the worst, walking 8km home... Didn't worry them at all.

Detail wrote:I've given up on Slime on the big ride I am on currently.

I used Slime in my tyres for maybe 5000km but found that when I finally did get a puncture that needed a patch it was not possible to fix the patch successfully. Maybe I didn't scrape all the Slime off before getting the patch on but the slime meant that the patch wouldn't bond correctly.

Not sure if anyone else has had this issue of patching a Slimed tyre.

Familiar story. Friends of mine have had a similar problem while they were doing the RFDS Broken Hill Outback Tour. Much better to ensure that you have tyres/tubes that will repel thorns.Thornprooftubes if you like that, or tyres like my Vittoria Randonneur Cross. Quite good at thorn repulsion