Do you carry puncture equipment in a race?

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Comments

  • buckles
    buckles Posts: 694
    I carry a frame mounted mini pump and an inner tube in my back pocket. It's no fun getting a blowout or puncture halfway around a 12 mile lap of a road race - with no neutral service - and having to walk all the way back to the village hall.

    It happened on a very cold day on which I forgot to bring the inner tube; neutral service drove straight past me because my eyes started stinging as soon as I stopped riding and I couldn't see them to wave them down. Had to stand and wait for them to come around again, and in the meantime borrowed a spectator's jacket to stop me from freezing to death.
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  • JTUK
    JTUK Posts: 67
    No, puncture repair would take too long, you’d never get back on but you can take spare wheels and give them to neutral service. Best to go with friends/family or club mates who can pick you up if you go missing, although I wouldn’t carry a phone either so you will probably end up walking unless a kind stranger happens to stop for you.
  • svetty
    svetty Posts: 1,904
    Walking to HQ from the back end of a road race circuit isn't much fun.......
    FFS! Harden up and grow a pair :D
  • webboo
    webboo Posts: 6,087
    When I was road racing I used to carry a spare tube and a couple levers. I always reckoned I could borrow the use of a pump of someone either watching or one of the marshals.
  • Vino'sGhost
    Vino'sGhost Posts: 4,129
    Imposter wrote:
    whatleytom wrote:
    Imposter wrote:
    whatleytom wrote:

    Lol, whereas the difference between good tyres and bad ones is probably almost a minute on a quick 10 course.

    Something like a gatorskin will have a CRR aproaching 0.006, whereas a tubeless vittoria corsa speed will be closer to 0.002.

    Have a go on mywindsock on you're nearest TT course, should give you an idea of how important tyre choice can be in terms of rolling resistance alone.

    Like I say - fractional. Worth reminding people that the OP is talking about road races - not TTs. And if you miss out on a top 10 in your local evening crit - well, let's just say it won't be because of the .004 loss in CRR...

    Hardly fractional, the difference between that amount of CRR is probably getting close to 15w. Tell me you wouldn't feel the fresher being able to average 15w less sitting in the bunch after an hour of racing.

    Freshness after an hour of racing has more to do with how much work you have done/had to do during the race and whether you have sat in for an hour, or spent the race attacking or off the front. It really has fck all to do with your tyres.

    If you ride 60mm wheels, tubeless tyres, wear a skin suit aero bike, you actually dont even need to pedal, in fact its possible to finish the race before youve even started. the majority of racers these days dont take a repair kit with them because even the circuit of the volcano with presumably shards of lava doesnt affect you on Zwift.
  • thistle_
    thistle_ Posts: 7,149
    Buckles wrote:
    I carry a frame mounted mini pump and an inner tube in my back pocket. It's no fun getting a blowout or puncture halfway around a 12 mile lap of a road race - with no neutral service - and having to walk all the way back to the village hall.
    Our club time trial is short, and I'd be happy to push back to HQ so I don't carry anything for that. I'd like to think fellow riders/marshalls would get word back to HQ that I was going to be DNF so they could start packing up but that's all.

    On a 10 mile I'll carry a tube/pump unless I have my 1 woman pit crew in the area to fetch me. Over 10 miles I'll always take pump/tube. I'm not aware of any event I've entered having a neutral service.

    I'm not that quick, or aero, so not fussed about saving a couple of watts.

    I'd expect marshalls to offer sympathy but no help. If they've cycled there it would be nice to lend me their pump if needed. Similarly if team mates (or any other rider) saw me stranded I'd expect them to let someone know when they finish but only come back if they wanted to heckle/offer sympathy.
  • Andymaxy wrote:
    Lucky enough where I live pretty much all races have neutral support, besides those weekly races where everyone get together and just have fun. I don't see any riders bring spare here because of the awesome support crew.

    Personally I don't bring anything because I run tubeless tires and there is a very very low chance of puncture. Even if there isn't any neutral support and that I'm running clincher, I wouldn't bring spare because that defeats the purpose. If you get a puncture during a race, then by the time you fix it it's race over for you, so I wouldn't even bother to carry the extra weight.
    Okay old thread but hey ho!
    The purpose of carrying something to fix a puncture is not to get back in the race (as you say, it's over) but so you don't have to walk on cleats or rim it home.
    Of course you could race on tubs and then rimming it could be less catastrophic
  • Even on a 10TT I carry a tube and levers tucked under the saddle and a very short lezyne pump taped under one extension. The weight of the pump is less than a co2 cartridge plus valve, and more aero!

    My finest hour was changing a tube on a 20 mile hilly TT and continuing the race and not coming last!

    On a cold night it's far preferable repairing a flat than getting hypothermia waiting for a support car.
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601




    Irrespective 15 watts is still 15 watts - why would anyone turn that down for the sake of a slightly increased risk of a puncture ?


    It does seem odd to eschew carrying a pump and tube but then not use race tyres - especially as average tyres are not puncture proof so there is still the risk of having to walk back to the HQ.


    Sure I'd take any power gain, but let's try to get things in perspective. I've said this before, but I've seen members of the GB junior academy rock up to local evening crits and win comfortably on their training wheels (Aksiums and Gatorskins, as I recall). Meanwhile, some of us are obsessing about buying 15 watts...

    I believe that the problem here is that "imposter" is arguing with a person who believes two things. That you can buy performance, and also believes ALL the tire testing articles.
  • Yea I carry puncture kits in a race but with tubs or tubeless that less stuff than tubes. I once double punctured clinchers in a road race it was a long way back to the hq and had to get a lift in the end. Fro. That day one I carried stuff to fix punctures.
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  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028

    Yea I carry puncture kits in a race but with tubs or tubeless that less stuff than tubes. I once double punctured clinchers in a road race it was a long way back to the hq and had to get a lift in the end. Fro. That day one I carried stuff to fix punctures.

    You already replied this thread - back in May 2018 ;)