Does anyone have a suggestion on a good tire that has both good performance and durability? I don’t even care about weight anymore. I have flatted in both IM CDA and Wisconsin and get one about every 4th training ride. I use Mavic Carbone clincher wheels and my tire is the Michelin Ironman. I’m SICK of changing tubes! (The good news is that I’m freakin’ Speedy Gonzales when I change a flat!)
Great wheels - great tires. Have you checked your rim tape? If yes, it just sounds like really bad juju.
If your flatting that many times, it’s not the tires or wheels… It’s either the way your ride or the roads you ride on…
Personally, I ride ksyriums with Michelin PRO’s- I think my last flat was about 2000 miles ago.
Tell me what pressure do you pump your tire to? What type of flat’s have you been experiencing? Pinch flats?
I usually ride with 110psi. It’s always my front tire. Some of the flats are obvious such as a small thorn and a pinch flat. Many times though I’ll come out into the garage all decked out ready to go and I’ll pull my bike of the rack and my tire is totally flat. So, somewhere along my ride the day before, I got a slow leak and it didn’t completly deflate the tube until after my ride. I usually can’t find the cause. I wonder if I have a rim problem. I ride alot on rural, farmland type roads so I’m guessing I’m picking up junk because of where I’m riding. I’m sooooo sick of it though. I’m ready to buy puncture proof tires, install Mr Tuffy tire liners and fill the tubes full of that green slime. That way I can ride over nails and be okay! 
For training, just get something like Armadillos and get a kevlar liner for extra protection. Then slap on your good race tires for the special events and you’ll feel the speed!
Chris
Get the tire liners for training. I always used a 26 or 28 conti 2000 tire with MrTuffies adn almost never got flats. I even raced with them for most races.
Just an FYI, I got the conti gatorskin tires and I still get flats a lot, so I wouldn’t buy them.
Some guy at a LBS told me to inflate to 120psi before every ride to ensure no flats. Has anyone else heard of this? He said that riding at a higher psi will shoot debri away rather then catch it in the rubber.
Are you sure it is not the rim tape as previously suggested?
Is the puncture always @ the same spot?
I got about 4/5 flats in a row (front wheel) recently and it was all about the rim tape…
Cheers,
Fred.
Some guy at a LBS told me to inflate to 120psi before every ride to ensure no flats. Has anyone else heard of this? He said that riding at a higher psi will shoot debri away rather then catch it in the rubber.
I’ve never been told that but I do inflate my tires to 120 before every ride… as I said I think my last flat was about 2000 miles ago and I don’t ride on the cleanest roads.
I would say that over the past 5 years I average about 3 flats/yr over 7k per year of riding. I’ve never been a high flat person… I know other individuals who seem to flat on every other ride. I don’t understand why.
Pinch flats - can’t find the cause…
Carnac says you have a rim tape problem. Change it out and use cloth. Best.
The IronMan PRO is not a durable training tire. I’d go for something like the Armadillo if you are riding on roads with a lot of thorns. I have to deal with glass mostly, and have been comfortable on the now discontinued Michelin Carbons. The GP4000 is also a pretty tough tire, though the GP3000 I think was a little thicker. The Hutchinson Carbon was pretty soft and sucked up every piece of glass I rode over, though I never flatted with it. I just had to stop every 10 miles or so and pull another piece of glass out…very annoying.
But really, if you are flatting that often then I’d replace your rim tape with some good Velox, check the inside lip of the rims for any burrs and sand them smooth with 300 grit. Use talc on the tube when you change it, that’ll help a lot to make sure you don’t get pinches. Inflate to ~10-20psi first and make sure the tube isn’t visible underneath the bead. And a quality tube like the standard Michelin Service Course A1 etc are way better than the crap that most LBSs carry. I had two valve area failures in the “Wrench Force” or whatever those were. Even on really crappy roads you shouldn’t get that many flats.
I had 3 flats in 4 rides. changed the rim tape and i’ve been good for a few thousand miles since then. i didn’t even use real rim tape, i just used some cloth medical tape
When I get home from rides I usually deflate my tire and inspect all the little cuts and gashes in it and remove any rocks, glass, or thorns or whatever is in there. Sometimes the tire will pick up something during a ride but not get a flat until the next ride when the piece of whatever has a chance to work its way into the tube. It only takes a few minutes to inspect the tire, but saves a lot of flats. You may be surprised with what you find.
Michelin Krylions. 'Nuff said.
The Conti GP Triathlon Tires, thing aren’t lightest but are bulletproof, use for both training and races.
JD
Rim tape here too. WHen I got my last bike, I flatted 10 times in 2 weeks, called the shop complaining, took my wheel in, and it had come from the the factory with some crappy rim tape. We changed both wheels to good leexible rim tape, now no flats, well occasionally, but not 10 in two weeks!
Stay away from plastic rim tape, I flatted twice in a friggin race because of that stuff. It can move around and pinch the underside of your tube. Go with sticky cloth tape. Always pump up your tires to at least 110psi before every ride. Believe it or not, but the foldable Kevlar belted Performance Forte tires are a good value and virtually bomb proof.
higher PSI will definitely result in less flats. i learned that mountain biking. you can get better traction with a lower psi but are also more prone to flats. this makes sense, if you think about it. at lower psi’s the tire is going to compress more deeply on debris, which creates a higher likelihood of a puncture.
still, you’re getting enough flats that I’m with everyone else in suspecting there’s something wrong with your rims.
but has anyone else noticed that flats seem to come in bunches? I’ve gone 2000 miles+ without flats and then, for no obvious technical reason (PSI the same, roads the same, rims, tape, tire seem fine), I’ll flat on almost every ride for a week. Then, just as quickly, the problem goes away. It makes me think flats have more to do with karma than anything else, so if you’re going to ride, make sure you’re nice to everyone.
Stop racing on clinchers and watch your flats decrease! Races are too important and expensive to risk flatting on clinchers. You can’t pinch flat a tubular and you can pump them up higher.
~ AB ~
You can’t pinch flat a tubular and you can pump them up higher.
But why would you want to pump them up higher? (If you are in the 35-39 AG please pump them up to the max of whatever the tire max pressure is.)