I inspect the tire tread.

What's worked for me:
1) Run tires that have a good puncture resistance, even if sacrificing some performance; replace when showing some wear - don't run them into the ground.
2) Pump the tires before every ride;
3) If riding through broken glass (when unavoidable) pull off, dismount and inspect both tires, removing any specs of glass on the tire. Over the years the majority of my flats have been tiny specs of glass that work their way through the rubber.

I check the tread for cuts and look for sidewall bulges before I load up the bike for the race. If my tubes have removable valve cores, I make sure they are tight (had one rattle loose once...and flatted on the short ride back to my car; after a race, thankfully). Setting up T1, I wipe down the tires once racked to get anything off that might have gotten stuck with the early morning dew.

For the flat kit, I also have a few of the adhesive tube patches and a micropump. This pretty much insures I can make it to t2 whatever happens. No tire sidewall boots....gel wrappers work in a pinch.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Just curious. I run tubulars and put some sealant inside as my mechanic recommended. That gives me a little bit of peace of mind. I was wondering if you can do the same thing to clincher tubes. Just curious. I put a third of the bottle in each tire.

You can. You just need tubes that have removable valve cores so you can add the sealant without clogging the valve.

Note: Changing tubes after a flat is kinda a mess if you were using sealant and the hole was too large to seal...stringy goop everywhere.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

New or almost new (just a few hours of riding on them) inflated to proper pressure.

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http://www.jt10000.com/

You can. However, most sealants work better on latex inner tubes. Check out the sealant test results here: https://www.slowtwitch.com/...t_-_Part_2_4155.html

Definitely ride the tires before the race. Not just around the block either. There's so many flats in transition the day before the race and then during the race itself from people who install new tires, probably pinch the tube, and then don't ride them at all before the actual race.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Practice changing a flat as part of your race training. You don’t want your first time changing a tube and using an inflator to be during the race. Also be careful on potholes, I tried jumping one, hit the edge of the hole and flated. Most of the time I run gatorskins, so you lose a little time with resistance, but getting a flat just makes for a lousy race.

get Tannus solid rubber tires. no need to carry tools ever again.

I dont think anyone has tried them on a tubular wheel though

https://tannusamerica.com/

"Most of the time I run gatorskins, so you lose a little time with resistance, but getting a flat just makes for a lousy race."


You would have a faster bike ride if you used fast tires with latex tubes and had to change a flat tire compared to Gatorskins.

I ride my race wheels for the week before the race. Chances are, if something is going to happen, it'll happen during those training miles.

This isn't entirely true. To be more accurate you lose a TON of time riding Gatorskins, probably enough time to change 2 flats in an Ironman distance.

What about Tannus Armor? In theory its looks good. Any users or reviews?

I have Tannus wheels on my road bike (not race tri bike).

The Tannus tires work great for training, the flatproof convenience is great if you're like me and absolutely cannot afford to flat on a short 45-60 min lunch work ride where I absolutely have to be able to get back without incident.

That said, I would never recommend them for racing unless you truly don't care at all how fast your bike split is. They are slower than regular tires. Not so much that you'll go from FOP to BOP or anything crazy like that, but you'll lose anywhere from 0.5-1.5 mph depending on terrain and speed, which is a pretty big hit, particularly if you're a faster 22+mph rider where 1mph lost equates to like 40+watts of power required to make it up.

Don't run Gatorskins either. They also give you a real speed hit, not quite as bad as the Tannus, but not much better, either. It's really noticeable compared to a Conti Gp5000 which is the ST-approved training-race all purpose tire.

Agree with folks above - a newish (but not brand new) set of tires for race day does a lot to prevent flats. A lot of recurring flats are due to small tirewall punctures that get gradually bigger, and may be very hard to notice unless you're doing a very detailed inspection of your tire.