I always seem to get a flat tire only when it's pouring down rain or when I am in the middle of nowhere. Do you have any suggestions on avoiding flats and any secrets when it comes to tire repairs while riding ? Thanks

Never let your tires touch the ground.

Thick, heavy tires!
We ride specialized 25mm Armadillos on our Tandem and get about two years a pair without flats. Average 1000 miles per year.

Wet roads are a magnet for flats. Debris tends to stick to wet tires, working its way into the tread.

The best way to avoid flats is to stay out of the debris minefield. The tires of vehicles provide a natural sweeping action which pushes debris onto the shoulders. Try to ride just to the left of this area to avoid flats. Sometimes it's a balancing act. You don't want to ride through crap and you don't want to block traffic. Every road is different.

Flats are a part of cycling. I've had as many as six on a century and nine on my 12-mile commute to work (ran through a field of shattered six-pack glass). There are a few things that might reduce the incidence, though:
--Watch where you're going. Sounds obvious, but if you look farther ahead, you might be able to miss some stuff that will puncture your tires and tubes.
--At least for general riding around, use tires with Kevlar belts. They're a little heavier and some feel stiffer, but you get used to them. You'll catch the guys with the racing tires while they're patching.
--I think (but can't document) that I have fewer flats with larger (700x32 or 35) tires than i did when I rode 23s. Could be because each square millimeter carries less load, or that the slightly lower pressure lets the rubber yield a bit. Or it could be my imagination. But i weigh 240, and I'll never go back to skinny tires.
--If it gets REAL bad, consider Mr. Tuffys or some other liner. I like those better than "thorn resistant" tubes, which are heavy, stiff and clunky.
--What about Slime? Works OK, but in my experience it's more trouble than it's worth. It won't stop every leak, and I've had a lot of trouble cleaning it off the outside of the tube so a patch will stick.

Two that I can think of:
Pinch flats - watch out for potholes and keep tires pumped up.
Road debri flats - what biknben said!

The more you ride the better you will get at changing them.

Besides the good advice in the previous posts about belted tires, do this:
Once a week, scrub your tires clean with a brush and soapy water then deflate them. Slowly inspect your tires while pinching the tread everywhere you see a cut of any size. Look in each cut for glass or metal and remove it with a pointed object like an ice pick or a very small flathead screwdriver. Sometimes you get flats from something you ran over days or weeks prior and it just took time to work through the tread and belt. Make this part of your bike cleaning routine. It also keeps your tires looking good until they wear out.

The more you ride the better you will get at changing them.

Ha ha! Ain't that the truth?

My first year riding I had a set of wheels that hadn't been properly deburred. Before I managed to get some good rim strips on there, I had about seven or eight flats. Front back, front back, consistently. As soon as I changed one, the other would flat. It was irritating as all hell, but I did learn how to change a tube in less than 2 minutes! I can't tell you how many fellow women I've stopped to help change a flat (some of them didn't even know how!), and they were incredibly impressed that I could change a tire faster than their husbands!

And yes, fully deflating your tires on a regular basis and removing any debris will help a LOT.

In addition to all the good suggestions received already, learn to wipe your tires after you ride through the debris you didn't see/couldn't avoid. You don't need gloves to do this. Just run your fingertips lightly along the front tire (in front of the fork) and along the back tire (hook your thumb around the seat stay first). Just doing this for a few revolutions of the tire immediately after you go through the junk will remove stuff from the tread before it has a chance to work its way in.

Use Velox rim tape on all rims.

Keep out of the grass and weeds at all times, especially rest stops and parking lots. These are the areas you'll pick up goatheads and sand burrs.

Pump your tires before each ride or once per day whichever comes first.

Good advice from Kerry about checking your tires before climbing on.

I don't agree with using belted tires, puncture resistant tires, liners, or slime. I think the loss in acceleration is jsut not worth it. Just get some good tires and replace them as soon as needed.

Al

Wet rubber is easily cut by small pieces of sharp glass
Since 80% of my flats are "pinch flats", I tend to watch where I'm going. Why ride over that small rock, when you can miss it by an inch.

I used to do that until piece of glass on the tire sliced my finger.
I saw another guy chop his finger in the spokes.
LMAO!!!:D
Now I only do it if I have gloves or with old wrapper or the stem of my bannana!

I saw another guy chop his finger in the spokes.
LMAO!!!:D


That is so not funny. I sliced off some skin on my knuckle with the Ksyrium bladed spokes trying to clean my chain.

Not cool!

Those things are really dangerous.

In addition to all the good suggestions received already, learn to wipe your tires after you ride through the debris you didn't see/couldn't avoid. You don't need gloves to do this. Just run your fingertips lightly along the front tire (in front of the fork) and along the back tire (hook your thumb around the seat stay first). Just doing this for a few revolutions of the tire immediately after you go through the junk will remove stuff from the tread before it has a chance to work its way in.

Wiping tires is incredibly dangerous and totally worthless. By the time you get your hand down there, you've rotated your wheels a few times and some stuff has already gotten in. Most of what you would wipe off was coming off on its own anyway. I would challenge anyone to <i>prove</i> that it is anything other than a "cool" roadie trick. I ride with people who do it religiously while I do not. We ride through the same stuff, but do I get more flats? Nope. It's a dumb roadie trick and it only makes you unstable and puts body parts in harm's way. Don't do it.

Chunk chunk chunk.

I also laugh thinking about the guy who went to tap on his handlebar plug to get to go back in and totally wrecked and went into the ditch!


But if it makes you feel any better I will not laugh at the thought of bladed spokes slicing your knuckles.

:)

But be careful. I only do it with gloves too. It's very effective.

I grew up back east, but moved to Seattle. Want to know how to wipe a rear wheel when you have a full fender? You unclip one shoe and put the top of your shoe on the tire below the bracket. Yeah, I only do that one when the booties are on. :)

Yeah, and I totally agree about riding a little more left than the average guy. Way less stuff a little further out.

I use tire liners. The SLIMEY brand is pretty good. They have a nice warranty. Still haven't hand any flat in months (knock on wood)

Besides the good advice in the previous posts about belted tires, do this:
Once a week, scrub your tires clean with a brush and soapy water then deflate them. Slowly inspect your tires while pinching the tread everywhere you see a cut of any size. Look in each cut for glass or metal and remove it with a pointed object like an ice pick or a very small flathead screwdriver. Sometimes you get flats from something you ran over days or weeks prior and it just took time to work through the tread and belt. Make this part of your bike cleaning routine. It also keeps your tires looking good until they wear out.


I actually get more flats riding indoors on the trainer than I ever do on the road. I've gotta believe that it's due to imbedded bits getting driven into the tube by the higher pressure resistance of the wheel against the roller.

In addition to all the good suggestions received already, learn to wipe your tires after you ride through the debris you didn't see/couldn't avoid. You don't need gloves to do this. Just run your fingertips lightly along the front tire (in front of the fork) and along the back tire (hook your thumb around the seat stay first). Just doing this for a few revolutions of the tire immediately after you go through the junk will remove stuff from the tread before it has a chance to work its way in.


Yeah, and you can get the sawdust out of a tablesaw blade by gently holding your fingers over it while it's spinning.

If theres something in your tire that's sharp enough to stick in the tread, it's sharp enough to cut your flesh. At 18 mph, that tread is moving about 27 feet per second.

Best way to avoid flats is to watch the road surface and avoid the debris. This was standard operating procedure when everyone rode sew-ups -- which aren't vulcanized and pick up everything on the road. And it must work because I have thousands of miles on clincher tires, 700 X 23 and have never had a flat. But then too, I check my tires after a ride while I'm cleaning up the bike.

Yeah, and you can get the sawdust out of a tablesaw blade by gently holding your fingers over it while it's spinning.

If theres something in your tire that's sharp enough to stick in the tread, it's sharp enough to cut your flesh. At 18 mph, that tread is moving about 27 feet per second.

Best way to avoid flats is to watch the road surface and avoid the debris. This was standard operating procedure when everyone rode sew-ups -- which aren't vulcanized and pick up everything on the road. And it must work because I have thousands of miles on clincher tires, 700 X 23 and have never had a flat. But then too, I check my tires after a ride while I'm cleaning up the bike.

I don't usually recommend it to anyone because of the potential danger, but I've never had anything slice through my finger before. I can attest to it saving me from a flat when I could feel the glass or debris peel off the tire. I've never gotten a flat after scrubbing the tires, I've always gotten one after not scrubbing them. I guess it takes the right technique. Obviously if you press your finger firmly against the tire surface you're gonna lose some skin, but a light touch with a couple fingers has always worked for me. You kind of develop some callouses after doing it a few times. Try it at your own peril.

-R

Nobody has mentioned air pressure beyond inflate before each ride. Try upping your air pressure by 10 PSI. If that does not help, add another 10. Low tire pressure increases the tire contact patch, thus increasing your chance of flats.

95 psi... works for me, I used to get tons of pinch flats, now I get them very rarely. Also, if you do get flats, use Park's self-vulcanizing patches. It's a no-brainer, needs no messy glue and you can pump it up right away.

[QUOTE=bigbill]Besides the good advice in the previous posts about belted tires, do this:
Once a week, scrub your tires clean with a brush and soapy water then deflate them. Slowly inspect your tires while pinching the tread everywhere you see a cut of any size. Look in each cut for glass or metal and remove it with a pointed object like an ice pick or a very small flathead screwdriver.

Slowly spin each wheel b4 putting the bike away to look for debris stuck in the tire.

Don't ride over pot holes, through glass, puddles or any other junk unless traffic makes avoiding the obstacle risk something more serious than a flat.

Don't ride in the gutter.

If forced to run over junk, or through puddles lightly wipe your tires with your fingers or gloves. Relative to the overall risks of road riding a boo-boo finger seems pretty acceptable. Anybody who does this regularly has knocked stuff off the tires and come to believe, rightly or wrongly, that some of that stuff would have punctured it.

Inflate your tires regurlary.

In pacelines, ride behind a rider who points out problems and do the same for the rider behind you. If stuck behind somebody who's hands are glued to his/her bars, find a new spot in the line.

Wiping tires is incredibly dangerous and totally worthless. By the time you get your hand down there, you've rotated your wheels a few times and some stuff has already gotten in. Most of what you would wipe off was coming off on its own anyway. I would challenge anyone to prove that it is anything other than a "cool" roadie trick. I ride with people who do it religiously while I do not. We ride through the same stuff, but do I get more flats? Nope. It's a dumb roadie trick and it only makes you unstable and puts body parts in harm's way. Don't do it.
I totally agree and it ain't worth the risk anyway but like you said, I see people doing this and haven't seen any evidence that they get fewer flats either.

It's all too easy to just go ride without pumping the tires up to proper pressure. High pressure tires lose a lot of pressure in a very short time. The comment above about pumping every day may be a little extreme, but not by much IME.

Always check before riding and keep the pressure up. I keep them at about 100 PSI. Last year I had *1* flat tire in 4000+ miles of riding.

I've been riding the same set of Michelin Axial Pros for the last year. I do think tires make a difference. For example, I gave up on Conti GP 3000s because of they seem to be prone to sidewall tears.

Also, don't use ultra-light tubes. They are not worth it.

Nobody has mentioned air pressure beyond inflate before each ride. Try upping your air pressure by 10 PSI. If that does not help, add another 10. Low tire pressure increases the tire contact patch, thus increasing your chance of flats.

Sheldon Brown says that overinflation causes MORE flats, because the rubber can't deform as easily over small objects.

As much as I respect Sheldon I'd have to disagree with this opinion of his.

Sheldon Brown says that overinflation causes MORE flats, because the rubber can't deform as easily over small objects.

Too high pressure = more puncture flats
Too low pressure = more pinch flats

Had a great ride today - only enhanced by one of the riders trying to bunny hop a squished possum. He did not completely clear the deceased with his rear tire -- You guessed it -- got a piece of broken bone in his rear tire. Giving him grief was well worth the down time to help fix the flat.

95 psi... works for me, I used to get tons of pinch flats, now I get them very rarely. Also, if you do get flats, use Park's self-vulcanizing patches. It's a no-brainer, needs no messy glue and you can pump it up right away.
I've found a spare tube even easier. I always carry a couple and only use patches if I end up with more than 2 flats in a ride..

Had a great ride today - only enhanced by one of the riders trying to bunny hop a squished possum. He did not completely clear the deceased with his rear tire -- You guessed it -- got a piece of broken bone in his rear tire. Giving him grief was well worth the down time to help fix the flat.
How funny.. I don't however recommend trying to bunny hop a deer carcus on the shoulder...

I always seem to get a flat tire only when it's pouring down rain or when I am in the middle of nowhere. Do you have any suggestions on avoiding flats and any secrets when it comes to tire repairs while riding ? Thanks
When I get lots of flats I usually take that as a sign to change tires.

Always check before riding and keep the pressure up. I keep them at about 100 PSI. Last year I had *1* flat tire in 4000+ miles of riding.

I've been riding the same set of Michelin Axial Pros for the last year. I do think tires make a difference. For example, I gave up on Conti GP 3000s because of they seem to be prone to sidewall tears.

Also, don't use ultra-light tubes. They are not worth it.

I find the same thing with Continentals too. I find the side walls wear out before the rubber does. Must be all the wonderful cancer-causing rays out here on the West Coast (not kidding here folks). I use mostly the Conti Ultra 2000's now but I have found that the mid to lower class Panaracers offer more life but not the suppleness of Vredestein or Continental. My Axial Pros wore out way too fast and suffered from way too many cuts. My thing about lower pressure is to run 10 lbs lower if you don't want to beat the hell out of your wheels as much. I'm not one of the fortunate few who weighs 115 lbs wet.