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Are there truly any that do the job.
I've moved recently and the ride out is beset with Hawthorn hedging, I must have had twenty plus punctures, I'm on Minions and just found a Scchwalbe with a dodgy beading but new tread that i thought was OK until this mornings double flat.
Please don't tell me tubeless I don't want to (I've heard when they do go if you're a long way out it's a night mare to repair), there must be something with an armoured wall under the tread, the thorns always get lodged between the tread nobbles in the main tyre wall.
Oh and preferably not a lot of cash or on some sort of last gasp 26er deal because everyone is now on 27.5 and 29's..
Anyone?
MTB tyres are heavy enough without puncture protection layers. You can get anti-puncture strips to place between your tube and tyre.
If you run schrader valve tubes, you can remove the valve (unscrew with needle nose pliers) and squirt some sealant in.
You're worried about going tubeless because of a failure, but you can always carry a tube with you and deal when you get home. I run tubeless and in the rare event of failure I just chuck a tube in.
Slime tubes?
Whatever you do, I'd avoid Slime. It does work some of the time, but...
They don't seal everything, and when they don't, you can't patch the tube.
They bung up the valve eventually, so the tube dies.
The slime gets into your pump, it will kill that too.
When you change tubes, there's no way of knowing how many thorns are in the tyre. You'll never find 'em all!
I'd use an puncture-proof tyre, or an armoured layer between the tyre and tube.
APF
+1 for Slime Tubes, they're heavy but they do the job. Also, you can buy a roll of PVC armour to line the tyre, which will keep most thorns at bay but won't afford you any sidewall protection.
Also, UST tyres can be used with tubes. They'll be heavy, but better protected than non-UST tyres.
Tubeless is great when it works well, I learned (the hard way) not to treat it as an exercise in losing grammes from the bike. I've had numerous torn sidewalls with Specialized S-Works and Control carcasses, but the Grid carcass is pretty tough.
We have used the Schwalbe Marathon Plus and more recently the Continental equivalent they are very puncture proof but very heavy
A 26x1.75 is 1kg for the Schwalbe and 900gm for the contis
[i]Please don't tell me tubeless I don't want to (I've heard when they do go if you're a long way out it's a night mare to repair)[/i]
But.. but... it works! And it's the only thing that does 😆
Still, if putting a tube in is your idea of a nightmare...
I saw some puncture proof inner tubes once they were at some show or other but can't find them, no amount of googling will reveal anything other than puncture proof roadie shit. I'm wondering why nobody has grafted that armour proof lining stuff you used to be able to buy onto the actual inside of a tyre, is weight an issue, these things are not exactly the lightest thing on two wheels.
I just thought by now the marketing appeal of promoting a puncture proof tyre would have been adopted by someone, business opportunity fro someone right there..
Thanks for all your comments, so the consensus is tubeless and spare tube then, are they not a bitch to get on and off the rims, and will I not need new rims to accommodate them? Or go with the urethane liner stuff I can't remember the name of to even begin to google..
Thanks again folk.
I ran Schwalbe Marathon Plus for a few years on my road/off road bike and never had a single puncture.
In 25c they were around 600g which for a 25c is very heavy but I used to get a lot of punctures with anything else.
However, they don't make great MTB tyres as they have no knobs but I believe they do make some that do in the Marathon plus range.
They will weigh more than 1KG each and ride horribly but they are unlikely to puncture is that is top priority.
What do I use on an MTB? Tubeless....
I am a fan of Continental Mountain King MkII's with PROtection and a bit of black chilli compound thrown in. Not the fastest, but i was getting a puncture every ride in the woods I ride through. Since putting these bad boys on I have had 1 in 18 months, and to be fair, it was a thorn whose baby brother is a six inch nail.
They aren't cheap but you get them on special on Merlin occasionally. I also bought a pair for the missus from the STW For Sale ads for a bargain price.
Tyre liners work well for me, Slime or Zefal make some.
Schwalbe do most MTB tyres in 'Double Defense' form and they're supposed to offer decent puncture protection.
The only issue with tubeless is ensuring that you have a rim/tire combination that works well - you want it to be tight enough to not burp but not so tight that you can't break the tyre from the bead to put a tube in.
Other than that the sealant will seal most punctures - possibly with a small loss of pressure which you can just put back in with a pump.
And if the hole is too big to seal then you use a tubeless repair kit, which means probably repairing the tire without having even taken the wheel out of the frame.
And if the gash is bigger then the next stage up might be to use the small tube of flexible superglue to join the tire back up, and then the tubeless repair kit/sealant to seal the rest.
Note that at this stage you would have issues keeping a tube safe from being punctured anyway.
And only the last stage is having to break the tire from the bead, pour out any latex that is in there, and fit a tube - probably with some tire boot as the tire is damaged.
It really is a lot less hassle - and you don't even need a compressor nowadays with the Airshot thing or the bonty flash charger pump.
My mate uses those slime liners and says that they work well, but I wouldn't take that as a surefire recommendation - he unclips form his eggbeaters when going downhill as he feels safer !