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Ah yes, I remmeber now why those tyres were hanging in the garage rather than adorning a bike... My average in a year (riding Vittoria Rubinos, Panaracer Paselas and Halo Twin Rail Couriers) is about three punctures.
That's how many I've had in the last ten days since switching to the Gatorskins in the garage after the Halos ran out of tread (which is their own particular problem).
I use either continental punc proofs (cant remember name exactly) Or 700cx23 Armadillos (~£22) around town and for training. Not one single puncture ever on them - touch wood.
I have ridden over 2,270 miles on my current set of Conti Gatorskins without problems.
Aren't we all tempting fate here? Ah ARobComp touched wood. Good man.
...or woman. You never can tell around here.
Touch wood again, but I've been using gatorskins on my road bike for the past 2 and a half years (~3,000 miles) and have only had one puncture (that was when an inch long thorn went straight into the tread - even then it stayed lodged in so I had a slow punture for a couple of days before I noticed it).
Where are you ridign when you get the punctures, Anth? Road/path/tarmac/dirt?
All of the above PS. Which are no different to the roads and paths I cycle on with the other three brands...
Cyclingmollle - I am a man. Hear me roar etc...
Make that 4 in two weeks... Rode home on Friday, nae bother. Saturday evening looked at the bike and the rear tyre was flat.
Now, it's human nature when one's own experience doesn't match that of someone else to query whether they are doing something wrong. So here are some possible reasons etc etc etc...
Nipping the tube when putting the tyre on
Four times in a row? And riding for days in between without an issue?
Riding on a puncturererery surface
No change to the usual routes and surfaces which garners this many flats in a year.
One off poor tyre or inner tube
Two punctures in each wheel, and the one in the rear from last week was so big I changed the tube rather than patch it. So that's four punctures in two different wheels and 3 different tubes.
Not fixing the punctures properly
Again, spread over two wheels, and the holes are in completely different places around the wheels each time (which also rules out a there being a specific rim problem at one point).
I did buy the tyres as a pair, so maybe I've just got unlucky on both having come from a dodgy batch, and I've no doubt at all that people have ridden thousands of miles without problems - there's no reason to suspect not, nor for anyone to lie to that extent, but I'm telling god's honest truth on a sudden burst of punctures that that coincided more than, erm, coincidence, with putting the Contis on...
SO a@w - will you be doing what 'most' people do -
give up cycling
??
Indeed. I plan to take my bikes to the recycling centre tomorrow...
Ach, just eat less pies and pump the tyres harder if you don't want pinch flats ;-)
Cheeky beggar... :D
You say the tyres were hanging in your garage. Any chance they could've got dry/cracked in that time and therefore more susceptible to puncturization? (I think I made that last word up).
probably just cheap chineses copies (JOKING)
did the sabotaged Etape in gatorskins and picked up no punctures
I had some specialized boroughs which claimed 8 punctures before I binned them, actually I hung them up in the garage. You can spit through the one that came off the back wheel.
This is intriguing - a bike-related mystery.
Anth, what sort of puncture are you getting? pinch-flats, cuts, tears? What pressure do you have them at?
Just to confirm the ongoing robustness of my Gatorskins, I did a shortened Radar Ride yesterday, including being blown off the road into a heavily brambled verge, which I cyclocrossed through (code for cycling off-tarmac without actually falling over) for at least 10 metres, without picking up a puncture...
"You say the tyres were hanging in your garage. Any chance they could've got dry/cracked in that time and therefore more susceptible to puncturization? (I think I made that last word up)."
This happened to me once, after refitting otherwise perfectly good tyres from the shed. Couldn't work it out until a friend noticed the wire poking through the sidewall..
D'oh.
Make that 5 in 16 days as the tyre let me know it was soft this morning riding rund a corner a few hundred yards from work by trying to roll off the rim...
If puncturization isn't a word it SHOULD be!
The tyres getting dry in the garage would be the most plausible explanation I've heard yet, but I remember hanging them up there in the first place because I'd had problems - I'm coming round more and more to it having been a dodgy batch.
I'm going to confuse matters even more PS. One puncture was a drawing pin, so I can understand that one (picked up on George Street!); twice I've come out in the morning to find the tyre flat and tiny little holes the culprit; once it just let go with an almighty 'fsssssss' and there was a half centimetre hole; and this morning, no noise, no drama, just a slowly softening tyre.
Two have been front tyre and one tube; 3 have been the rear tyre spread over two tubes (2 being in a brand new tube).
Tyre pressure is usually about 95-100 psi. But with the trouble I've been having I've experimented with 80 psi and 110 psi, with the same results.
None have had the 'snakebite' pinch flat telltale.
5 punctures, over two different wheels, three different tubes, a variety of different pressures, in different parts of the tyre, riding the same routes to and from work as usual. I'm ordering some new tyres this morning.
It is odd in dry weather. I once got repeated punctures due to the fibres in the tyre rubbing against the tube after damage from an initial puncture. But that would apply to the same position.
I got a puncture this am - unusual in dry weather - a wee bit of glass from near the Innocent tunnel. However it was much more pleasurable repairing in this weather - cleaner hands too.
I use Michelin Krylion carbon - fairly cheap - pretty quick and reasonable puncture resistance. The resistance is similar to Stelvio Pluses and Marathons that I have had in the past. Would not use Marathon Plus - too slow. I have heard that Gatorskins have worse puncture performance when they're worn.
I find when I ride on the road I never pick up flats, but venture onto the Roseburn and I start getting them regularly.
Have you been round the tyres when deflated and picked out any glass from the tread?
Tis a habit of mine when fixing punctures Dave (and as said previously, if there was glass stuck in the tread then the punctures would be in the same place, and same wheel...).
Oh, wait, you probably meant just random bits of glass that can get stuck in the tread without causing a puncture at that precise moment but might in the future? Aye, still check for that - quite regularly actually.
That's another cause to cross off the list... ;)
anth at work - there is only one reason left - Its the taxi drivers - they are banding together with the bus drivers and puncturing your tyres..
I knew it!!!
I think I've discovered why it was I hung them in the garage rather than just chuck them when they punctured frequently in the past - they feel really secure in the wet...
"twice I've come out in the morning to find the tyre flat and tiny little holes the culprit;"
Mice?
Hens?
Hamsters?
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