Is it time to change my tyres?

Sheikhus

Hi folks,

I've a Specialized secteur which I've been riding almost daily since May. It still has it's standard all condition 25s fitted, and after some inevitable early p*nctures, I've had a good few months of no problems / good luck with my tyres.

This last week though has not been good; and after spending ages on the weekend picking loads of little pieces of glass put of my tyres today found myself in a situation where I managed to p*ncture in two places, but was down to my last patch. Add lots of rain and a slightly dodgy part of town and it was not fun.

Granted I should have been better prepared and had a new tube / few more patches on me, and in fairness the shard of glass I hit would have gone through most tyres I think, but is it time to accept that I need new tyres or should I continue to put it down to luck?

I've bee thinking of fitting some gatorskins for a while and the chap in cyclesurgery reckons that as well as better puncture protection, they would be noticeably faster than my standard all conditions. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

Long_Time_Lurker

I will always take a heavier puncture protected tyre over a standard tyre - it was the first thing I changed when I turned my MTB into a commuter bike.

I run conti sport contacts (slick) and specialized crossroads armadillos (semi-slick mtb) on my bike and haven't had a single puncture in the last year. And I travel over glass-strewn paths - it's one less thing to worry about on the way to work.

The Rookie

I'm with LTL, I'd take a little weight for the puncture protection, I run WTB slickasaurs and have had just one visit from the PF in 1500 miles despite cycling through a Uni campus which often has broken glass between the halls....at 540g each (26x1.5) they are not heavy but are certainly not as light as some!

Simon

saladdays

Consider Conti Grand Prix 4 Seasons. I've had them on the front for a few years. They puncture about every 3000miles. Just the other day I was removing little bits of glass - they rarely get through the double vectran layer. Gatorskins have a single vectran layer.