How often do you actually get a puncture?

[alicej]

I've been cycling for two years now and haven't had a puncture. Possibly I'm invoking the fairy just by typing this, but I'm actually starting to worry about the fact that I now have experience of fixing lots of things and even bodging things until I get home, but have no experience at all of having to change a tube at the side of the road.

Other people's comments on here suggest that it's quite normal to get quite regular punctures, so I'm just wondering why this is - have I really just been very very lucky all this time? What's "average" for rates of puncture?

I cycle mostly on city roads over plenty of glass and potholes, have Marathon tyres, can't remember what width but fairly wide for road tyres, and inflate them to a good pressure but then forget to check them for ages and ages. I try to take a spare tube whenever I'm going far enough that it'd be really awful to have to walk back, but often forget. I've only recently bought a decent pump.

Am I overdue for a long walk home?

[stewartpratt]

I think I've only ever punctured once on the road (split a tyre hitting a sharp stone at reasonable speed, IIRC).

Used to puncture a fair bit off-road in years gone by, but I tend to use more sturdy tyres now than was the norm 15-20 years ago, and hence these days I rarely puncture off road either.

[irc]

I general cycling about the city I reckon I'll get a puncture every 1000 to 1500 miles. I use varying tyres on my bikes like Marathon HS368s, Conti Sport Contacts, Marathon Supremes I can't say I've noticed any tyre being much better or worse. I typically ride a mixture of urban streets, towpaths, a bit of cycle lane.

[snibgo]

The fairy rarely bothers me; my repellant kit is effective. I had to change the tube away from home once earlier this year, and can't remember the time before that. So that's maybe once every 10,000 miles.

I did have a plague of slow punctures from a farm track between flinty fields. Tractors ground up the flints and left thousands of little presents on the track. I've learnt to keep off that track.

[swansonj]

Previously, with Panaracer Hi-Road: about every 1000 miles
Now, with ordinary Marathon on front and Marathon Plus on rear: not for about 3000 miles

Large club rides should provide a good sample. Simon should have exact statistics from some of the Friday Night rides to the coast. On the Brighton ride in May this year, there were, from memory, 140 riders doing 70 miles. There seemed to be a lot of punctures on the night, but if it was ten punctures, that is in fact only one every 1000 miles.

[Ayesha]

I've found over these past fifteen years or so that there is one thing that goes through the Kevlar belt. Broken crockery. Ceramics.

Every time I get a deflation, its a shard of coffee mug. I've ridden through smashed beer glasses, broken bottles, metal cutting and not got anything through the Kevlar.

The latest deflation was when I passed a lay-by ( a 'stop-a-side' in US ) where someone had dropped a coffee cup on the road.

So to indirectly answer your question, if I avoid picnic areas alongside the road, I rarely get a P******e...

The real answer to your question is, 'cycling punctures are dependent on other people's road cleanliness'.

[Guy951]

The real answer to your question is, 'cycling punctures are dependent on other people's road cleanliness'.

+1

No unauthorised air outlets so far this year.
One last year (popped a patch by hitting a pothole at speed).
Two in 2009 (one thanks to council "resurfacing" ie scattering sharp stones rim-deep along the road , the other off-road due to me being too tight to buy a new tyre for my mtb )
None in 2008.

I can't remember any further back.

On average it's one every 1750 miles.

[dougie]

I hate getting punctures. The last time I had a puncture was in the middle of an all night bike ride near Salisbury Plain; it was pouring with rain. My cycling friend said "with all this rain, wouldn't it be awful if we had a puncture?". Within 5 minutes my bike tyre was flat in the middle of nowhere at 1.00am.

Thankfully I had a couple of spare tubes, plus a repair kit.

I have remarked before about Panaracer Tourguard tyres for not being wonderfully puncture resistant. "Shysters" is a word I have used before but it's probably down to bad luck more than any other factor.

As for how often, roughly once every 600 miles this year - not good. Next year will be much better.

[[XAP]Bob]

Over three years (15k ish miles)

P*nct*r*s due to me wearing through 451 tyres and shops sending me 406 versions - 2
P*nct*r*s due to me leaving the repellent kit at home - 1

I now have spare tyres at home, and the repellent kit is firmly reattached (it was off for 'maintenance')


This is on a combination of cheap knobblies (none, but they were short lived) M+ (none over half the above distance) torn up old/cheap 451 tyres (2) and nice Marathon Racers (1 - without kit)

[MarkF]

I've never had on on a road bike. Had run of 3 in a week on my hybrid when used for a towpath commute, thorns galore, glass, debris, sharp gravel etc I swapped the Schwalbe Delta's for Schwalbe M+'s 3 years ago and have not had one since.

[Graham O]

Riding Gatorskins, 1 this year, none last year and don't think there were any before that in the 4 years since I fitted the tyres. Average riding is about 2000km per year on the commuter/tourer. Had 2 punctures in quick succession on the fixed wheel bike with Hutchison tyres.
With the kids having gone back to school and the darker nights, it is good to see the amount of broken bottles decreasing. Nothing like bored kids and a beer bottle to increase the amount of glass on the bike paths etc.

[Vorpal]

I have spates of punctures. They've all occurred when I've been riding on worn tyres. One spate of punctures occurred about 2-1/2 years ago. The tyres I was riding on had only seen about 500 miles, so it didn't occur to me that they needed replacing, but after 3 puntures in a couple of weeks, I did replace them and haven't had any on that bicycle since.

More recently, I had a puncture on the tandem, and saw that the tyres were looking a bit tired, so I asked at the LBS when I was next in. They only had one tyre to fit, so I bought that one & ordered a second. I put the new tyre on the rear wheel of the tandem. Guess what? The very next day I had a puncture on the front On my way back I found the glass that had (probably) caused the puncture. I'm sure if I'd had the new front tyre I had wanted to put on, the glass wouldn't have bothered me.

If you want some practice changing inner tubes, swap your front tyre for the back one. It will extend the life of your tyres & provide the much needed practice changing them.

[tykeboy2003]

Can't say what the frequency is, but they are most prevalent in the autumn mostly due to the council cutting hawthorn hedges. This has caught me out on both roads and on tracks. Another one to look out for on tracks is the bramble growths which seem to reach out across many tracks at this time of year.

[Ayesha]

The real answer to your question is, 'cycling punctures are dependent on other people's road cleanliness'.

+1

No unauthorised air outlets so far this year.
One last year (popped a patch by hitting a pothole at speed).
Two in 2009 (one thanks to council "resurfacing" ie scattering sharp stones rim-deep along the road , the other off-road due to me being too tight to buy a new tyre for my mtb )
None in 2008.

I can't remember any further back.

On average it's one every 1750 miles.

I'll extend that statement.

"and the incompetance of some cyclists to apply puncture repair patches".

[new2touring]

30 odd years ago when I used to commute to work, 10 miles each way, all year round - I had one p*ure in 8 years which was pretty good going.
When I used to race, I had 1 puncture in a race in 4 years and 2 whilst out trainign over 6 years - and they were skinny tubs.
Since returning to cycling I have clocked up around 800 miles and had none at all. I do use 32c touring tyres so they should be pretty tough.
Then again perhaps my luck will now desert me ......