6 punctures in 16 months, help!

[DaLanMan]

Today's installment in "Why Do I Even Bother?" features another unstoppable puncturing object:

---
I caught it on the way home from work and fixed it on the sidewalk, in the dark, without unloading my bike's

Ok, I am going to have to reccomend you stop doing the anime riding on rooftops thing...

It is scaring the squirrels and confusing the heck out of the pidgeons.

In my neck o the woods (well, where I lived when I first got to Cali) the terror of tires is the dreaded star thistle.

these bastids

I have had those puncture all of the following items:
Snow bike (Honda no idea model, had short fat tires)
Ditty bug (uhm, kind of a weird late 60's underpowered pit bike)
Every pedal bike I ever owned
and 1 I kid you not Model T

Those thorns I am fairly certain are mad of unubtainium.

But at the end of the day Chalo, that has got to be some kind of award winning puncture, you did not go easy into that dark night brother.

 

[Diggs]

I was hoping the OP (@Smurf2 ) would let us know how his Schwalbe tires are working out.........

 

[Smurf2]

I was hoping the OP (@Smurf2 ) would let us know how his Schwalbe tires are working out.........

Sorry. Thanks for asking.
It is too soon for comments, but at start this season after 550km, tires still without damage.

For me, I'll be happy if my punctures decrease at half (6 to 3) in one season.

If someone not seen my tires pictures, they are posted in #45.

Never ending improvements said:
"The other way is the bulletproof Schwalbe Marathon series. Yes, they are very heavy (700-1200grms depends on sizes) but lot of ebiker couriers are use it and have never had punctures. I used it for 1 year without any punctures. It is hard to measure exactly but I feel I can realize the heavy weight at the battery consumption."

The feeling of driving is better than Continental. But not sure that “heavy” is something with a battery. You can't see a difference. This is like you go in shopping and buying 2 milks (1000g), and your battery will discharge more? This is school conclusions, but not in praxis (field). Sometimes peoples exaggerate things, but this is not Formula1.

 

[Chalo]

But at the end of the day Chalo, that has got to be some kind of award winning puncture, you did not go easy into that dark night brother.

New contender today for both "most ghastly puncture" and "sorriest bike lane conditions"!


The rectangular thing is a roughly 1/8" thick piece of aluminum plate that was lying in the bike lane. My front tire flipped it up and the rear tire sneezed out all its air through a 2" gash.

The adjacent open land featured a convenient shade tree for doing some spontaneous shade tree mechanicking. Including prickly pears.


After assessing my options, I decided to cut three file-card sized pieces of denim from my tool roll, and layer them in between the new tube and the cut in the tire. Then with fingers crossed, I aired it up to 30 psi.


Eight miles farther down the road at my shipping container full of bike stuff, this is what it looked like:


But I got to my stash of tubes and tires intact, and then-- very very late-- to work.

 

[amberwolf]

New contender today for both "most ghastly puncture" and "sorriest bike lane conditions"!

Last Saturday a piece of junk out of a truck fell off under my left wheel as they passed me, and I didn't even have time to begin to react to it before it trashed the tire and broke spokes in the wheel...it didn't trash the rim, but I don't think it's true anymore, especially since I had to ride home on it that way, as I did not have a spare tire and there was too much damage for another tube to be installed and survive the ride.

So I had to build a new wheel, and my travails on that and subsequent events are over in the SB Cruiser thread. :/

My only regret is that I seem to have lost or not gotten the pics of the tire itself, somehow.

The rectangular thing is a roughly 1/8" thick piece of aluminum plate that was lying in the bike lane. My front tire flipped it up and the rear tire sneezed out all its air through a 2" gash.

Seeing just that picture, I was going to make a smartassed comment about how you should use tire levers to install or remove the tire, not to disassemble it, but....

After assessing my options, I decided to cut three file-card sized pieces of denim from my tool roll, and layer them in between the new tube and the cut in the tire. Then with fingers crossed, I aired it up to 30 psi.

After once grinding a hole (that let the tube herniate out, but didn't pop it) in the tire tread during hard emergency braking (to be fair, the tire *was* nearly worn out) I carry some dollar bills in my "tire kit", after being advised by someone that because of the cloth/paper nature of "paper money" it can make a good temporary patch to protect the tube.

Been lucky enough so far to not have to test this, but if I have to replace the tube from the damage, I could also use a section of the old tube wrapped around the new one at the area, or use it like a liner (slit circumferentially on the inner seam, after removing the valve stem) as I often do anyway, to help keep the tube in place when the tire itself is too damaged to do that job.

 

[DaLanMan]

when I was a kidlet living in the foothills of cali, hard core thistle and Manzanita territory, punctures were a common event, go to the point I could strip out the tube, get it fixed and back in only delayed by the glue dry time...

But urg, the number of tires that Manzanita ate was stupid. Never had a great solution, but carried denim soaked in a waxy dunno exactly what (strains both brain cels) I guess it was a varnish of some sort, was old like.. 30's era and was yet still a liquid, gran had me drop the patches in that stuff, then air driy em. Get a minor tear, stuff a chunk unter the rubber and it got ya home..

IIRC denim and dollah bills are pretty much same stuff just varying density...

 

[Papa]

Dollar bills in my "tire kit", after being advised by someone that because of the cloth/paper nature of "paper money" it can make a good temporary patch to protect the tube.

Was told same. Easy to test. Just tear a short ways into the corner of a bill - no problem. Not unlike nearly everything else... I'm beginning to suspect that perhaps my bills are '"made in china"...eh?

Chalo... Don't chuck that tire just yet - cut it into 3" sections and carry a couple sections with you. They make decent emergency boots.

 

[DaLanMan]

Throw away? THROW AWAY! ::Rage Mode engaged::

THe Chalo does not throw them away, he takes them home, cuts them into small easily consumed doses then goes to the baby emotor farm and feeds the remains to the young, so they will be themselves in turn some day enraged at such foolishness...

Ok I had a better ending on that and I had to stop to respond to a message, and completely forgot what I was gonna say...

 

[Atak_Snajpera]

New contender today for both "most ghastly puncture" and "sorriest bike lane conditions"!

View attachment 348346
The rectangular thing is a roughly 1/8" thick piece of aluminum plate that was lying in the bike lane. My front tire flipped it up and the rear tire sneezed out all its air through a 2" gash.

The adjacent open land featured a convenient shade tree for doing some spontaneous shade tree mechanicking. Including prickly pears.
View attachment 348347

After assessing my options, I decided to cut three file-card sized pieces of denim from my tool roll, and layer them in between the new tube and the cut in the tire. Then with fingers crossed, I aired it up to 30 psi.
View attachment 348348

Eight miles farther down the road at my shipping container full of bike stuff, this is what it looked like:
View attachment 348349

But I got to my stash of tubes and tires intact, and then-- very very late-- to work.

You simply buy bad tyres. Rubber is paper thin. No puncture protection. Too flat tread.
I have CONTINENTAL Ride Tour tyre and NOT a SINGLE PUNCTURE after 12000+ km. It was also very cheap ~20 EURO.

 

[Smurf2]

I have CONTINENTAL Ride Tour tyre and NOT a SINGLE PUNCTURE after 12000+ km.

Then it seems your roads path are very clean...

 

[Chalo]

You simply buy bad tyres. Rubber is paper thin. No puncture protection. Too flat tread.

The Maxxis Hookworm 26 x 2.5" is a thick, tough tire with tread rubber wrapped all around the sidewalls. It weighs 1250g and is a favorite of city pedicab drivers for its sturdiness and all-around puncture protection. It doesn't have any supplementary armor belts, just thick tread and a thick casing.

Extra tread features mean more thin spots that are easier to poke through, and more places for foreign objects to be captured and held in the tread for repeat attempts to puncture. Also the more tread features, the more noise and rolling resistance. So I prefer as smooth a tread as I can get for any given size and thickness of tire.

I have CONTINENTAL Ride Tour tyre and NOT a SINGLE PUNCTURE after 12000+ km.

I'm guessing you didn't see, or didn't remember, my earlier post about a puncture in a Continental Ride City tire that has the same construction and the same built-in protection as what you're using. I got that puncture the first time I rode home from work on it.

No tire is invulnerable to puncture. That 3mm thick metal plate that caused my latest flat could easily have flatted a car tire.

 

[Atak_Snajpera]

The Maxxis Hookworm 26 x 2.5" is a thick, tough tire with tread rubber wrapped all around the sidewalls. It weighs 1250g and is a favorite of city pedicab drivers for its sturdiness and all-around puncture protection. It doesn't have any supplementary armor belts, just thick tread and a thick casing.

Extra tread features mean more thin spots that are easier to poke through, and more places for foreign objects to be captured and held in the tread for repeat attempts to puncture. Also the more tread features, the more noise and rolling resistance. So I prefer as smooth a tread as I can get for any given size and thickness of tire.



I'm guessing you didn't see, or didn't remember, my earlier post about a puncture in a Continental Ride City tire that has the same construction and the same built-in protection as what you're using. I got that puncture the first time I rode home from work on it.

No tire is invulnerable to puncture. That 3mm thick metal plate that caused my latest flat could easily have flatted a car tire.

That tyre is paper thin. Tread is also very small. My back tyre after 12000km has better tread than this. Front still looks like new.

 

[Chalo]

That tyre is paper thin. Tread is also very small. My back tyre after 12000km has better tread than this. Front still looks like new.

The part of the tire that was cut is thicker than the sidewall of your tire, believe me. The largest size of Continental Ride Tour for 26" wheels weighs about 400g less than this Maxxis Hookworm. Tire sidewalls are usually quite thin, but the Maxxis Hookworm is an exception. Please know what you're talking about before you spread misinformation.

Hookworm

The Maxxis Hookworm's bead-to-bead tread design provides durability and traction in harsh environments. The Hookworm is also a great solution for cargo bikes, pedicabs, or any application where a tough tire is needed.

www.maxxis.com

 

[neptronix]

I had hookworms, and in my opinion, they were a slightly above average tire, puncture protection wise.
You get more rubber, and harder rubber with something like a Schwalbe Marathon Plus.

I don't think the best bike tire on the market would resist that flat though.

 

[Zambam]

Chalo, you get the worst flats! The latest one is one in a million.

 

[Papa]

Yes, what's the point? Why buy spendy tires, if the end results are the same? Makes little sense to me.

Reads to me you either need to boost your voltage and take-the-lane.,. or have a serious discussion with the City Council (not that you'll see any positive results).

 

[Chalo]

I had hookworms, and in my opinion, they were a slightly above average tire, puncture protection wise.
You get more rubber, and harder rubber with something like a Schwalbe Marathon Plus.

I don't think the best bike tire on the market would resist that flat though.

True. I don't think any motorcycle tire I ever had would have walked away from that injury.

More heavily armored tires like Marathon Plus and Kenda Kwick Drumlin don't have as much sidewall protection as Hookworm, when that was the critical factor in this specific case.

 

[Chalo]

Reads to me you either need to boost your voltage and take-the-lane.,. or have a serious discussion with the City Council (not that you'll see any positive results).

I could raise my speed to an unsafe level, and above applicable speed limits, but drivers would still want to charge past me going even faster. Traffic tickets are no longer a thing in my area post-George Floyd. The cops became butthurt at having their racial profiling, corruption, and impunity called out, so now they only do those things and no actual law enforcement.

As a result, drivers have become much more anarchic, with wild speeding everywhere, absurd passing on the right, and blasting through stale red lights all now standard practice. Cycling faster won't help.

The last time I used the city 311 app to report hazardous conditions in three particularly junked-up bike lanes, the city closed those tickets and marked them as having been swept, when there had been no sweeping whatsoever. It's hard to get activist about it when there's not even the slightest attempt to address the issue, and complaints are disregarded.

EDIT:
On many of the arterial streets I have to use to get across town, heavy buses and trucks have deteriorated the lane surface to the point it's dangerously bumpy for a non-suspended vehicle at posted speeds. The bike lane might be full of glass, car parts and other garbage, but it's not collapsing from constant overweight traffic. So it's sort of a pick-your-poison situation.

 

[neptronix]

Fair point!

 

[Diggs]

EDIT:
On many of the arterial streets I have to use to get across town, heavy buses and trucks have deteriorated the lane surface to the point it's dangerously bumpy for a non-suspended vehicle at posted speeds. The bike lane might be full of glass, car parts and other garbage, but it's not collapsing from constant overweight traffic. So it's sort of a pick-your-poison situation.

I've ridden Austin several times. The trail loop along both sides of the river is an excellent ride, but every time I've gotten off it and tried to navigate the in-city bike routes I've thoroughly regretted it.

 

[DaLanMan]

Austin? you live in Austin?

The only city worth visiting just for the donuts?
(and worth staying just to see the weird in Tx)

I was active duty Army when I was told I needed to move to Austin to see the opposite event (I was a lone moderate in uniform in a sea of hippies and hard core liberals) Austin is a city ran by oddity. Filled with a mix that is like 65% liberal/Uber Lib 20% Standard Texan (they have their own kind of conservatives) and the rest is riffraff and people that voted for Bernie.. It is a weird place.

Only town that I have seen that uses the phrase "Keep ________ Weird" and bloody well deserves it.

I got back from Somalia and took a week off to go there with a buddy.

I had hippy girls kissing me and thanking me for my service (this was the 80's/early 90's and that did *NOT* happen then)

I had old cowboys buying me drinks and asking where my first drop was.

EVERYONE knew what the rank tabs meant. EVERYONE knew what the dead turkey on my shoulder was for. No one complained about me being a baby killer. Not one complaint about the military costs etc. They all got that I was an officer, but I was a bloody LT. I wasn't responsible for budget. And that whole Vietnam thing.. i wasn't even born until near the end of it.

First place I considered moving to after I left service. I ended up back in California because that is where the Doc that had stitched my pelvis back together had a practice. Kind of got stuck here.

Is Pollen season still as bad? do the tree's of hate still dominate?

So many questions.. Sorry, i am gonna go to my garage and reminisce...

 

[neptronix]

I've been researching tires to see if anything

We may have the contender for 'most rubber ever put in a bike tire'. These can easily be 3lbs or beyond. It's also ~40% less expensive than a Schwalbe.



Kwick Drumlin



Versus marathon e-plus:


Versus Marathon Tour:



..and of course they're out of stick on the 26 x 2.0" size... maybe they're brand new?

 

[calab]

Flat tires suck!
extra expensive kevlar reinforced tires.
wish I had a Marathon Plus to install, no no I got the Continental.
Setting the tire in the bead is very easy on the new wheel, has disk and vbrake rim, fw, bolt. I hope it fits the road bike, might have to take the rotor off and hope the mount doesnt hit any 'stays'

 

[Chalo]

I've been researching tires to see if anything

We may have the contender for 'most rubber ever put in a bike tire'. These can easily be 3lbs or beyond. It's also ~40% less expensive than a Schwalbe.

View attachment 348562

I like everything about the Kwick Drumlin with K-Shield Plus, except one thing. Armor seems at least equal to Marathon Plus, ride quality and grip are better, price is attractive. But about half of the KS+ version ones I ever used suffered casing failures at or below max pressure. Not blowouts, but hernias that made the tread crooked.

For this reason, I prefer Kwick Drumlin Cargo, which has the thinner K-Shield breaker belt, but twice the casing plies of the KS+ version. Those of us struggling with frequent punctures on e-bikes could really use a version with both the 4 ply casing and KS+ breaker belt (and 2.4" width).

For what it's worth, I replaced my mortally wounded Hookworm 2.5" with a Wan Da 26x3.0" tire that's appallingly heavy. The one I used was branded for Zooz bikes, but it's this one:

Amazon.com

It doesn't seem to have any breaker belt, textile armor, or anything else other than a very stiff coarse casing and a whopping lot of rubber. So I have no idea whether it will do a decent job fending off punctures. And it rides poorly, just like you'd expect. I'll check back if it disappoints in terms of its puncture resistance.

 

[e-beach]

Moped tires on wide rims.