Flint deflectors

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
Anura
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Flint deflectors

Post by Anura »

Many years ago :wink: You used to see a piece of coiled wire attached to the bike either side which just touched the tyre & deflected flint. Has anyone any ideas for doing same nowadays mainly to deflect glass before it gets the chance to embed itself in your tyres? It must be something easy as I'm mechanically deficient!
thirdcrank
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Post by thirdcrank »

I once owned a pair of tyre savers but never fitted them. They may well be somewhere in my garage - if they turn up I'll let you know.

In the meantime, I'll describe how they were made.

Ingredients: Four bits of wire, two bits of plastic tube.

Method: Each tyresaver, one for each wheel, had two wire arms which were bent into a loop at one end to fit the brake centrebolt. (I imagine you could rig something up to fit cantilever bosses.) The other end of each piece of wire was connected to one of the others by a piece of flexible plastic tube, a couple of inches long, of a guage which made it a force fit on the wire. The wire arms were then bent to allow the plastic tube to sit lightly on the tyre tread.

I have heard of bits of leather fastened to the stays / forkblades and stretched across the tyre and all sorts of similar ideas. Basically, you need something that lightly scrapes the tyre. I think you can get a measure of their success from their present availability. (A bit like belts around hubs.)
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Si
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Post by Si »

Do they have weak, breakaway parts to them? Just sounds a little dangerous if they should catch on the tyre (probably worse on a treaded tyre then total slick) and suddenly stop forward momentum - a little like the old days of people not having a stop under their canti brake straddle wire.
thirdcrank
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Post by thirdcrank »

Si wrote:Do they have weak, breakaway parts to them?


Well mine certainly didn't (and if they are still in the garage, ceratinly haven't.) As I have taken another trip down memory lane, I have remembered that you used to see some advertised which had a single strut and were Tee-shaped. The main point being you end up with something curved, a bit like a railway height guage, which fits as close to thetyre as poss., and removes debris before they have a chance to become implanted.

It's the sort of thing I associate with TdeF riders from the days of unreliable team back-up cars and spare tubs carried around the shoulders.

From Sheldon Brown:-

Tire Saver
A frame/fork mounted device designed to brush sharp debris from the tread of tires before it can penetrate through to the inner tube. Tire savers usually attach to the brake center bolt, and are commonly made from recycled spokes.


Elsewhere on the site he mentions that the french for this item is une raclette.

(If Sheldon Brown doesn't need breakaway parts..... :wink: )
yakdiver
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Post by yakdiver »

thirdcrank
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Post by thirdcrank »

Thank goodness for that. :wink:
glueman
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Post by glueman »

Those say they won't work with mudguards. There used to be a near identical set which attached to the mudguard stay bolts. The problem was getting them near enough to be any use at removing foreign objects from the tyre surface but not so close to rub or chatter.
Most people gave up.
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Yorkshireman
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Post by Yorkshireman »

The efficacy (or otherwise) of flint - catchers used to provide many a 'lively discussion' many, many years ago (rather like the helmet debates nowadays) :lol:
Colin N.
Lincolnshire is mostly flat ... but the wind is mostly in your face!
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thirdcrank
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Post by thirdcrank »

And I've always been against compulsory tyre savers although I say, leave it up to the individual :wink:
whoops
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Post by whoops »

Unless you're using really "slick" tyres [oh, how I hate this modern terminology along with "fixie"] or tubular tyres, you might as well forget it.
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DaveP
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Post by DaveP »

thirdcrank wrote:Each tyresaver, one for each wheel, had two wire arms which were bent into a loop at one end to fit the brake centrebolt. (I imagine you could rig something up to fit cantilever bosses.)


A note of caution!!!
A wire loop anchored to the brake centre bolt, outside the tyre surface, doesnt present a hazard - if it touches the tyre it will be brushed away.
A loop of wire anchored to cantilever mounts, below the tyre surface is a different thing altogether. If it touches it could snag and start to tighten. Could be very nasty. Please dont try it!
thirdcrank
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Post by thirdcrank »

I've dug out a pic (pp40-41 June 24 2000 Tour special issue of the comic.) Unfortunately, it is too grainy to scan.

Lucien Buysse, Tour winner 1926 complete with goggles which make modern sunglasses look poncey.

Prepared for anything - tubs around the shoulders and under the seat, whacking CO2 inflator and a frame fit pump, even looks to have spare spokes taped under the top tube and tyresavers. The detail isno't all that clear but they look to be fastened to the forks and chainstays well below the rim. (Frame clearances nearly look big enough for motor bike mudguards.)
pigman
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Post by pigman »

I too bought some of these for my first set of sprints. Took them off soon after, as no tyre is perectly round enough to achieve the ideal tolerance all the way round. On reflection, is this how they are used, or is it a case of lightly pushing the catcher onto the tyre manually every now and then, hence the plastic flexible bit?
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DaveP
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Post by DaveP »

thirdcrank wrote:I've dug out a pic...
The detail isn't all that clear but they look to be fastened to the forks and chainstays well below the rim.

Always willing to concede in the face of evidence :D I've mulled it over and I'm prepared to concede that it wouldnt necessarily be suicidal if the wire was bent to the correct shape, ie long enough "legs" to permit the main arm to be tangential. I reckon it could still give you a surprise if it got bent out of shape though, a bit less safe than a fork crown mounting!

Pity about the photo - could be inspirational for those occasions when I start wondering if I might, just possibly, be carrying excess baggage :lol:
thirdcrank
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Post by thirdcrank »

I suppose things were completely different in those days for racing cyclists - rubbish roads, rubbish tyres, rubbish equipment, little in the way of mechanic support etc. (I'm not clear when mechanical assistance was allowed - for long enough any help attracted severe penalties.) There are also tales about rival fans laying tacks etc.

A rider could only carry only so many spare tyres so a couple of punctures would have meant disaster. Presumably that meant that they would go to lengths to avoid them that would seem silly or even dangerous today.

As I hinted in an earlier post, if these things were relevant to modern conditions I do not think they would have become curiosities. I certainly wouldn't recommend anybody to experiment with anything that might interfere with the front wheel and my suggestion about cantilever bosses was conjecture.

Decent modern tyres, look after them and try to avoid riding through too much broken glass would be my recommendation. (Just off to find my goggles....)
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