best way to pretect against thorns?

monkey_man_1

hiya, it seems that every time i go out riding now i get a slow puncture from thorns thats only obvious when i next go to get the bike out and its flat as a pancake what can use to help stop these? im currently using conti speed king 2.3 tyres which i find quite good (but then i havnt tried any others!) would different tyres make that much difference or should i use some thicker innertubes or some slime/sealant stuff?

thanks for any help!

*AL*

Go tubeless...

Raymondavalon

*AL* wrote:

Go tubeless...

Right, here comes the great debate.. let me go put the popcorn maker on..

On a more serious note, there are tubes with additives to prevent flats, Slime I think.
They do weigh more than a regular tube, thus they may not ideal for weight weenies.
I've used the PanaRacer Kevlar tyre liners on my commuter MTB and they've held up against carpet nails and a glass shard, both of which I've removed from the tyre without suffering a flat.

bjj.andy.w

Go tubeless +1
Went down the " ghetto" method 18 months ago due to continually getting nip punctures and tbh I wished I'd done it sooner. Not a single flat in that time. Only costs about £20 too (£11 for the sealant , £9-10 for a couple of tubes) so it's a cheap way of finding out if tubeless is for you.

wordnumb

Or put some time and £ into trying different tyres and pressures specific to different conditions.
And stop riding into thorn bushes.

blablablacksheep

wordnumb wrote:

Or put some time and £ into trying different tyres and pressures specific to different conditions.
And stop riding into thorn bushes.

that seems counter -productive tbh as the whole point of trying to stop thorns and puntures is stopping the exspence of constantly buying tubes... :roll:

If you trail riding a lot go tubeless/getto style

Meatfox

i use inner tubes and a tyre liner strip in each. had three punctures in 2 years.

Raymondavalon

Meatfox wrote:

i use inner tubes and a tyre liner strip in each. had three punctures in 2 years.

You get 2 years out of your tyres?

cooldad

I've had one puncture in the last two years (a pinch) and ride a few times a week, always off road. Maybe it's the luck of the draw.

chrisj82

i have slime inertubes and slime protectors and not had a puncture yet

monkey_man_1

bjj.andy.w wrote:

Go tubeless +1
Went down the " ghetto" method 18 months ago due to continually getting nip punctures and tbh I wished I'd done it sooner. Not a single flat in that time. Only costs about £20 too (£11 for the sealant , £9-10 for a couple of tubes) so it's a cheap way of finding out if tubeless is for you.

What is the ghetto method? Is this converting standard rims and tyres to tubeless? £11 for sealants sound good but then I need tubes aswell?? If tubless seems better then might give that a try if it seems about the same price as 2 of these...
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... tedKingdom

Is there a link to a 'how to' thread for ghetto tubless to save people retyping lol. I basically know nothing about tubeless so need all the info! I definitely need to do something v soon though, had to fix a flat to get out riding today and picked up another 2 today!

Thanks for the help so far guys!

Meatfox

Raymondavalon wrote:

Meatfox wrote:

i use inner tubes and a tyre liner strip in each. had three punctures in 2 years.

You get 2 years out of your tyres?

Um no...thats irrelevant ;-)

bjj.andy.w

Ghetto tubeless involves using 20" bmx tubes which you put on your rim and slice down the middle and fold over the sides of your rim. You then fit your tyre on and put a bit of sealant in. ( stans no tubes is good). Now the difficult bit is getting the tyre inflated and sealed on to the rim. A air compressor is your friend. I probably haven't explained it very well but if you go onto you tube and type in ghetto tubeless there is several vids you can watch.

bjj.andy.w

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRM7gq1f ... ata_player

monkey_man_1

ive just watched those vids, seem a little long winded and bit of a bodge but if it works then its all good! it is called 'ghetto' after all i think i prefere the look of using the gorrila tape though, seems easier. might give that a go first as its cheaper aswell!

delcol

try putting stans or joes in your tube..

next time you puncture nic the tubewith a knife a tiny slit, then add some stans into the tube then patch up the hole and refit to wheel and pump up... i went 2 years plus without a puncture using this method..
untill one day i hit a big rock and bang pinch flat (a 3inch gash in the tube) both bloody tyres it looked like an elephant had jizzed all over my bike and legs.....

it works against small thing like thorns glass nails.. but not on snakebites.....

milfredo

Go propper tubless, it's less of a bodge and will hold up a lot better.

Anonymous

Tubeless isn't a protection from thorn punctures. Tubeless just stops you getting pinch flats as there's no tube to pinch.

Slime can seal a tyre that's spiked from a thorn though, and the lower pressure you can run the tyre at when tubeless may help avoid the thorn breaking through the tyre.

Tubeless increases the chance of a puncture in the tyre being a flat, as with tubes you might get thorn through the tyre but not into the tube.

Anyway, 2 years, only one puncture in all that time running tubes and that was a pinch early on. Run Maxxis stuff 2.35 at 30 psi, and plenty of thorny substances and other things many complain about always getting a flat and never have a problem.