Seriously, WTF.
-I put about 200 miles on some crappy Michelin, ran over a 4 inch screw and ripped the sidewall out, had to walk home.
-Replaced it with a gatorskin and rode maybe 90-100 miles before I tore the sidewall open on a rock. I patched and sewed it, but now its all lumpy.
-Finally got a new gatorskin about 2 weeks ago, put ~275 miles on it so far. Today I ran over something that instantly cut a hole in the tread big enough to stick my little finger through. I couldn’t find the culprit but it looks like someone took a razor sharp knife to the tire
I’m so sick of this shit. I’ve never got a tire-killing catastrophic flat on any of the thousands of miles I’ve ridden on threadbare dumpstered, hand-me-down tires (just lots of normal flats). Now I have to ride this lumpy ass gatorskin that might blow out at any moment.
What do I have to do? Sacrifice a goat? Burn a virgin at the stake? Maybe a virgin goat?
Well that goes without saying but I honestly have no idea what I ran over today. I didn’t see anything in the road before it flatted and couldn’t find whatever it was when I went back to look for it.
cut beads off old tires, put in new ones. it’s heavier, but not in any way that will be particularly noticeable, and the ride does feel weird, for about a block, and then you don’t notice anymore. and flats stop happening.
Just buy Schwalbe Marathons. Even the lightest ones are still pretty fucking when it comes to flats (and about twice as heavy compared to supple tires).
You’ll never get a flat riding on those bricks.
They also have two variants that knock over different trash cans with their snouts to establish dominance, each weighing nearly a kilogram apiece — the Marathon Plus has a puncture belt about a cm thick, and the Marathon XR has a shitload of very hard tread designed to be ridden around the world repeatedly without wearing out.
I’m kind of surprised that the FGFS bros haven’t cottoned onto them yet — instead they seem intent on ruining the meaning of the word Randonneur.
as some will know, i’m pretty well experienced with this
gatorskins just weren’t doing it for me, armadillos are great for avoiding flats but feel like your wheels are wearing condoms
riding rubino pro’s now. havn’t had a blowout and while they’re really cut up, not alot gets through to the tube
edit: now that i think about it, i don’t think i’ve had one puncture from glass on the rubino’s, just a couple from thorns
[quote=donks]as some will know, i’m pretty well experienced with this
gatorskins just weren’t doing it for me, armadillos are great for avoiding flats but feel like your wheels are wearing condoms
riding rubino pro’s now. havn’t had a blowout and while they’re really cut up, not alot gets through to the tube
edit: now that i think about it, i don’t think i’ve had one puncture from glass on the rubino’s, just a couple from thorns[/quote]
Rubinos are the fucking bomb for this, really excellent flat protection in my experience.
If things go real south you can always throw in some mr tuffy tire liners as well.
Or the tireducken too. I know a crust punk messenger dude who rolls on those and seems pretty happy and he never has issues despite putting on an assload of miles
Longshot but you might not have your tires inflated properly. I ride probably some of the shittiest roads in the country and only get a flat every thousand miles or so. Currently using GP4000S with schwable tubezz and I’m a total nazi about proper psi.
[quote=Rich][quote=donks]as some will know, i’m pretty well experienced with this
gatorskins just weren’t doing it for me, armadillos are great for avoiding flats but feel like your wheels are wearing condoms
riding rubino pro’s now. havn’t had a blowout and while they’re really cut up, not alot gets through to the tube
edit: now that i think about it, i don’t think i’ve had one puncture from glass on the rubino’s, just a couple from thorns[/quote]
Rubinos are the fucking bomb for this, really excellent flat protection in my experience.
If things go real south you can always throw in some mr tuffy tire liners as well.
Or the tireducken too. I know a crust punk messenger dude who rolls on those and seems pretty happy and he never has issues despite putting on an assload of miles[/quote]
I know a fucking cat2 spandex rodie dude who rides a goddamn Moots who does this with with fucking Armadillos. He puts a chopped up armadillo inside his armadillos!!!
I was like “Don’t they weigh a ton and ride like shit?”
And he was like “Yeah but I don’t get any flats. Ever.”
And I was like “You’re crazy”
Randos are a bit less like concrete and a lot cheaper than some of the fancier tires and really are completely unflattable. I have 3000 miles on a pair that have only flatted once, when a valve stem cracked, and probably have another couple of thousand miles in them.
when it comes to flats (and about twice as heavy compared to supple tires).