Punctures

[densmall]

Does tyre pressure affect resistance to punctures?

[foxyrider]

Yes

[Bmblbzzz]

It certainly affects resistance to pinch punctures.

[meic]

Apart from the pinch punctures, I dont think that the effects of tyre pressure are large enough that people actually agree on whether higher pressures increase or decrease the incidence of punctures, other things seem to drown out any influence of tyre pressures.

[JohnW]

Apart from the pinch punctures, I dont think that the effects of tyre pressure are large enough that people actually agree on whether higher pressures increase or decrease the incidence of punctures, other things seem to drown out any influence of tyre pressures.

I've read somewhere that harder tyres will crush some of the puncture making items on the road, rather than taking them in - on balance my experience seems to agree with that for glass..........but that's just me. However, the biggest element for me in puncture resistance has been the introduction of the Kevlar and Kevlar-type strips incorporated into some tyres.

I agree with meic on the 'pinch-punctures' issue.

[meic]

I've read somewhere that higher pressures will force the tyre onto a cutting edge making it penetrate the tyre when a lower pressure would not.

I for one dont know the answer, it probably varies with what you are riding over.

[Vorpal]

I've read somewhere that higher pressures will force the tyre onto a cutting edge making it penetrate the tyre when a lower pressure would not.

I for one dont know the answer, it probably varies with what you are riding over.

I think it does. Futhermore, I think that I am more likely to experience punctures from sharp stones, like flint and slate when my tyres are hard and less likely to experience them from thorns, glass, and other debris. Similarly, on lower pressure tyres, I think I am slightly more likely to experience puntures from thorns, etc, and less likely to experience them from sharp stones.

If puncture resistance is important, as JohnW points out, the most impotrant factor is having a tyre with puncture resistant components.

[Phil_Chadwick]

contact patch area is inversely-proportional to pressure, so on a purely statistical, all-else-being-equal, basis you'd expect more punctures at lower pressures

I'm not sure it makes a lot of difference in the real world.

[meic]

I quite often return home with a thorn in the tyre but it stays up and gets me home.
I think this is helped by the high pressure holding the inner tube, tyre and thorn more rigidly together.
Lower pressures would probably let the thorn wriggle out.

I hit a submerged pothole or stone once, it almost wrenched the bars out from under me and my tyre went flat. When I went to repair it it was quite a thick thorn and it didnt look fresh and there were no thorns around. So I deduce the shock of the impact moved tyre and tube and displaced the thorn.

[Bmblbzzz]

I expect that, just like for speed and grip, there is a range of pressure within which any given tyre will be most resistant to punctures. Go too high or too low and you'll be more puncture prone. But I also think that far bigger factors in punctures are what tyres you use, where and when you ride and how you ride, as well as all-up weight, etc etc.

[meic]

I think that just like for speed and grip the ideal pressure will not be a constant for the tyre and will vary depending on the external conditions like road surface contaminants and roughness and for punctures on the amount of potential threats of different kinds.