[Closed] Too many punctures. Tyre advice please.

Tyres wear down (out?). If you take one of the tyres off and feel it does it feel papery? If so then they've just come to the end of their useful life. Edit: shouldn't happen in three months so possibly not this.

I've 37C Riddlers (tubeless) on my singlespeed and my wife has them on her Arkose, pretty decent tyres IMO. If you want a bit rougher then the WTB Nanos are meant to be good as well.

The only Vittoria tyre I've used in recent years is the Mezcal but that's a 29er 2.6" tyre so not suitable for the Arkose. Seems fine but quite a hard rubber so not sure what it would be like on wet roots, etc.

Go tubeless, you won't regret it.

Go tubeless.

I was riding home from the office the other day, late at night, in the rain, with my pump safely at home, when air and sealant started hissing out of my front tyre.

It didn't immediately seal, but I rubbed some dirt into the hole (yes! this works!) and it sealed enough that I could get to a diner for a late night burger and still get home with about 50psi left in the tyre!

That was on a road bike (700c x 25c).

(I think the G-ones wear a bit fast, so are not great for commuting).

Tubeless like they said up there!

I've used the Vittoria Adventure trail TNT as commute tyres and they roll as well as anything treaded does.

Schwalbe Marathon Supreme. Tough, and pretty fast. Not much tread, but fine on road or a bit of gravel. There is a tubeless version if you want.

There's a theme to the responses 🤔 ...and I'd agree: go tubeless

Tubeless.

But if that's not an option (and it can be a faff), I've found the Continental Cyclo X-King pretty good as an all round tyre, roll well, got some tread for the dirty stuff, and are reasonably puncture proof. Or, if you have clearance the larger sized, same tread, AT Ride.

This might be overkill but I’ve had tons of punctures on the way to/from work and it was driving me nuts. I have replaced my tyres supposedly puncture resistant I’ve added tyre liner into the tyres, it’s a thin plastic strip and then added some slime tubeless liquid to the tubes, that was 4 months ago and haven’t had a puncture since.

It’s heavy handed I know but I cycle past 2 pubs on way to work and the glass in the road is shocking, through an industrial estate and previously picked up bits of metal etc...this so far has solved the problem.

The final straw for me was walking back him one day with double punctures front and rear and I had used both my spare tubes.

any tyre will puncture if it's got a tube in it, doesn't matter how much of little you spend on it. tubeless as has been said is the answer

Thanks people.

Lots of suggestions for tubeless, but I have a worry about this: I've read a few 'how to ...'s about tubeless tyres, and they all say you should not use tyre levers. I don't have strong hands, and I sometimes struggle to get tyres on and off even with levers. I suppose on the plus side I'd have to do it less often if I had fewer punctures.

@ rOcKeTdOg
I don't mind a couple of punctures, It's when I'm averaging more than one a week I'm not happy. I've had tyres that punctures less than yearly in the past (the old-style Crossroads mentioned above), and my last pair nonames gave me maybe 3 or 4 in a year. Surely even tubeless have occasional punctures?

You could get your LBS to do a tubeless conversion.

Quick fix might be worth ttying more psi in the tires and changing the tubes.

Commuting? Slime tubes. Occasionally it goes flat but more air and a spin will fix it. A no brainer if you have doubts about tubeless.

I couldn't get mine to stay up tubeless for love or money my arkose 2

Baz wore his out n got some panaracers can't get them tubeless either....

But yeah great tyre if there are no thorns....

I have used various incarnations of the conti protection tyres ( travel contact and sports contact IIRC) with tubes and find them almost puncture proof without the heaviness or dead feeling of marathons. The tyres on my commuter I picked more than a dozen bits of glass out of them every year with no punctures

I am now on a different bike for commuting and put gp4000 on it - again no punctures in a couple of years commuting and again plenty of evidence of glass cuts in the tread that have not made it thru the kevlar belt

I was on conti cross speed 35s for a long time and they were pretty fast, hard wearing and not many punctures. When they eventually did wear out I swopped to Clement XPlor Ush, also in 35c. First impressions are impressive...

Over 15K km commuting, off road and on, with no punctures in my inner tubes, so I don't agree that inner tubes=punctures..

Get decent tyres like Schwalbe Marathon Plus and you will get less, or no punctures.

I'm interested in this too. I bought an Arkose 3 at Christmas and have had 3 punctures in about 5 miles of off-road riding. The tyres are surprisingly good on-road but useless off-road, with tubes at least.

I do like the bike though.

Marathon is the default bomb proof commuting option. I ride a mixture of tarmac, path and dirt track to work, and I can't remember the last time I punctured a Marathon.

Some interesting tyre suggestions there. The Clements seem cool, but maybe a little narrow for my use. I really like the look of the Cross Speeds. Probably the Marathons seem most sensible, but they are very heavy, and there are lots of reviews saying people found them hard to get on and off.
I tried Slime tubes - they were great for the first puncture but not so good after that, so I'll give that a miss for now.

I got another puncture on the way to work today, so I'm going to have to do something. I'll visit my LBS on Wednesday to see if they have any suggestions. I'll mention all the tyres suggested here to see what they say.

I'm a bit disappointed nobody has used the Revolutions. They might be just right, and I can get them at a good price, but I'd hoped for a personal rec.

Oh well, thanks once again. I'll post again if I ever get round to making a decision.

Went tubless after 15+ punctures in a year. (Not including one nightmare ride down the trent and mersey canal from notts to chester over a couple of days where we had more than that alone - that was the ride that changed it - I'd gone tubeless on my bike, no punctures, she went through all our tubes and all our patches).

That was five years ago. Not had a single puncture on mine or my missus' bikes since.

Schwalbe land cruiser. They are very robust and see the extra weight as a training aid!

Marathon Supreme are way lighter than regular Marathon (or even Marathon Plus), and much easier to fit on the rim, and about as puncture proof.

Firstly I'd point you here: Clustering Illusion and then I'd agree with everyone else and say go tubeless.

@rjmccann

Thanks for the Clustering Illusion link.

In your opinion how many punctures would I need to get over how long a period before I can say it's not an illusion but probably the wrong tyres for the terrain? I'd say 10 in 2 months up from 2 in 6 months was enough, but I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

Marathon Supreme very interesting. I'd already been looking at the Land Cruisers, so good to get a rec.

The tubeless suggestions are stacking up. I don't know anyone who rides tubeless or I'd ask if I could have a try.

Over 15K km commuting, off road and on, with no punctures in my inner tubes, so I don’t agree that inner tubes=punctures

you sir should buy a lottery ticket asap!

Not really. One is based on luck, the other using the correct tool for the job!!

they all say you should not use tyre levers.

Why on earth not? To avoid potentially gouging the rim tape? You could also take the "just be a little bit careful" route and crack on with using them. I had never heard this before.

In your opinion how many punctures would I need to get over how long a period before I can say it’s not an illusion but probably the wrong tyres for the terrain? I’d say 10 in 2 months up from 2 in 6 months was enough, but I’m interested to hear your thoughts.

So if we model this as a Poisson Distribution we have an average rate of success of 0.33, that is there is a 0.33 chance of a puncture in any one month, and we have a Poisson Random Variable of 5, that is 5 punctures in one month, then the probability of 5 punctures is zero to 5 decimal places. So given the data above the chances are it's the tyres*.

Running the calculation for 2,3 and 4 punctures give the following probabilities for n punctures in 1 month:
2 = 0.03981
3 = 0.00442
4 = 0.00037

* I'm not a professional statistician, caveat emptor. Lots of info and a distribution calculator here.

@mechanicaldope
I'm not really sure why not - something to do with damaging the beading if I remember correctly. I don't know about these things, I 'm just repeating what I read.

@rjmccann101
Thanks, that was an great reply. I have a friend who is a statistician - I don't know why they have a rep for being dull, he always has interesting ways of looking at things

Looking at the Riddler - they look to be an off road tyre, so have a thin carcass with knobbles. They'll have very little puncture resistance to thorns or glass chips. A puncture resistant tyre like Marathons would be much more appropriate for reliable commuting. If you're concerned about tubeless, maybe give these a try. I have had good success with Marathons.

Thanks for the suggestion. A few people have recced these.

One more puncture today! The Clustering Illusion is seeming less likely by the day. It is mostly chips of gravel sticking to the tree then working their way in.

I can pick up Vittoria Revolutions from Planet X for 8 quid each, or for 13 if I Choose Graphene. Does anybody reckon that Graphene is worth the extra tenner?
And will the 700x38 tyres fit nicely to my wheels? The current Riddlers are 700x37.

I sent off for the Revolutions - they were a fiver each at Planet X, I figured that at that price I could take the risk.
I tried out an Orange RX9 S last year that came fitted with the Revs. I was really impressed with them, which is why I had been hoping to get a rec from someone who'd tried them for a bit longer.
I'll let you know how they are when they arrive.

Thanks again for suggestions.

I've fitted the Revolutions and given them a few rides. They're pretty much what I expected - heavy, but they roll well.They seem remarkably grippy considering the lack of tread, at least till you hit wet mud.
Anyway, for a tenner the pair I'm happy.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.