Puncture resistant tyres

[Paulie73]

Hi all I currently have road tyres on my mtb which are continental gatorskins and was quite expensive! Problem I’m having is I’m still getting punctures despite these are supposed to be puncture resistant! Any recommendations appreciated as I’m thinking of replacing them something else maybe Schwalbe marathon plus ???

[Nearholmer]

Marathon plus are effective in puncture resistance, but a rough old ride, and I would recommend Continental Contact Plus as a better option for the same duty, but …..

MTB? What are you using it for?

I ask, because these aren’t exactly knobbly tyres, so less than ideal in mud, climbing on loose ground, and (my guess here) for the sort of death-defying cornering in the woods that MTB’ers impress everyone with. Oh, and they’ll slide off damp roots, which can be really rather dangerous if the front wheel does it.

[Brucey]

have you identified the culprit?

[pjclinch]

Hi all I currently have road tyres on my mtb which are continental gatorskins and was quite expensive! Problem I’m having is I’m still getting punctures despite these are supposed to be puncture resistant! Any recommendations appreciated as I’m thinking of replacing them something else maybe Schwalbe marathon plus ???

Puncture resistance is a spectrum rather than on or off, and will also vary according to the pressure you run at, and despite active attempts to make them better at resisting punctures Gatorskins are at the relatively light end of bombproofing so you can't expect miracles.

Even Marathon Plusses have been known to get punctures so nothing* is completely proof, though personally I find Marathons (without the Plus) good enough, with something like 1 a year across several bikes running them. But Marathons (even the relatively whizzy ones) won't roll as well as Gatorskins on decent tarmac... you choose, you lose.

Pete.

* there are non-pneumatic tyres which won't puncture. I've never tried them but from every account I've ever read their lack of popularity appears to be well deserved

[roubaixtuesday]

There's no such thing as a puncture proof tyre, though Marathon plus are pretty good.

But it's unusual to get a lot of punctures with any tyre.

Exactly how many punctures are you suffering? In how many miles, and on what sort of surfaces?

Is it possible some/mopst of them are repeats as a result of not finding the original culprit, or spokes/other rim issues puncturing from the opposite side?

Every time I've suffered a spate of punctures there's been a specific issue causing them.

[Paulie73]

I ride on cycle paths so don’t really go off road ! I do pump them up to high pressures so I get a good rolling resistance! Have heard of solid tyres but no reviews from anyone off how good or not good they are ? What about if I go tubeless would that be better ?

[Nearholmer]

Tubeless can be better in terms of fewer disabling punctures, but it is quite a faff to start with, and can work out more expensive, so tends to be most popular where it’s advantages are greatest, off-road.

Before getting into that, it would truly be worth doing what others have said, and trying to get to the bottom of what is causing the punctures in the first place.

Have you got any thoughts on that?

BTW, inflating “rock hard” is no guarantee of lowest resistance, and you’re better off using one of the many on-line pressure calculators as a starting point.

(I ride a lot on shared cycle paths, and in terms of frequency of disabling punctures, never had a problem when using Marathon Plus or my favoured Continental Contact Plus. I changed to tubeless only for comfort, and for traction off-road)

[rareposter]

What about if I go tubeless would that be better ?

Before everyone dives down that rabbit hole, let's just go back to basics for a moment....

How old are the tyres? Cos if they're old and worn, that'll be part of the problem.

What is actually causing the punctures? Thorns / glass / flints etc getting through the tyre or something like a spoke poking through from the rim, a crack or lump in the rim tape or the valve pulling through the rim hole and tearing? You say you run high pressure so it's unlikely to be snakebite punctures but too high can also cause problems with overstressing the tyre or tube.

Cos until that is all sorted and known, we could go around for hours debating tubeless or massive heavy duty tyres but it won't solve the problem of a dodgy rim.

Also - what are the wheels (inc the size, 26", 650b or 29") and are they tubeless ready?

[roubaixtuesday]

To reiterate, two questions:

(1) How many punctures have you suffered

(2) what was the cause

[PH]

Then there's luck, as discouraging as a run of punctures can be, it isn't data. I had twelve punctures in 2023 over 8,400 miles, three different bikes, seven different tyres. In 2022, for similar mileage and comparable rides, same bikes and mostly same tyres, I had two.
Brucey asks the culprit, it's this that should direct you towards change, if needed, and that change might be something other than tyres. Frustrating as my bad year was, I made no changes, past experience and the variety of causes gave me faith it would pass.

[pjclinch]

On Tubeless, see https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/i- ... -tubeless/ for a well informed piece on how they're not the answer for everyone.

Pete.

[Paulie73]

Most my punctures appear to be glass or thorns ! My wheels are 26 inch size on my cannondale mtb I changed to road tyres from knobbly as was always on cycle paths ! Tyres are less than a year old

[Nearholmer]

It might be worth starting with a really thorough going-over of the existing tyres, inside and out, to look for remnant thorns etc, and round the tape inside the rim to look for spokes poking further in than they should etc, and giving things one more try, and if that isn’t enough, then swapping to marathon plus, or contact plus (better IMO).

I had a “shopping bike” that I bought secondhand, a Pashley with 26” wheels and quite wide tyres 1 3/4”Marathon Plus, and that never had a puncture in all the time I owned it, about five years, despite daily use to the shops and accompanying the kids to and from school, all on cycle paths that are prone to glass and thorns, so there is definitely hope that you can become puncture free! As regards tyre pressure, that bike thrived on neglect, the tyres only getting checked at its annual birthday service, when I’d return them to c60psi …… they barely lost any pressure in a year. The tyres and tubes were at least ten years old when I gave it away, with the reflective strip peeling off, but seemed good for more years yet.

[Brucey]

Most my punctures appear to be glass or thorns ! ....

I wonder if gatorskins plus tyre savers would be a combination that would work for you? I suppose it all depends on how many 'first time around' punctures you have.

[roubaixtuesday]

Most my punctures appear to be glass or thorns ! My wheels are 26 inch size on my cannondale mtb I changed to road tyres from knobbly as was always on cycle paths ! Tyres are less than a year old

If you're absolutely certain all of these are new punctures (rather than a previous culprit still in the tyre causing subsequent punctures) then I'd expect M+ to reduce the frequency compared to Gatorskins. I've only ever had one puncture on M+.