Prevent Flat Tires On Your Bike

Flat tires are a pain in the body-part-that-touches-the-bike-seat for all cyclists.

With the possible exceptions of high winds and reckless motorists, there’s nothing more likely to

cause an otherwise mild-mannered bike rider to utter a few obscenities and maybe even do an impromptu bike toss.

Unfortunately, almost every street, highway or trail has flat-causing hazards such as mesquite thorns, cactus, broken glass or sharp rocks.

Everyone will experience a flat bike tire at some point, so you need to carry a spare tube, tire levers, a small pump, and learn how to replace and patch a tube.

The good news is that flats can be minimized and in most cases completely avoided if you just take a few anti-flat steps.

Your lowest-cost options for mitigating flat tire issues are to install thicker ‘thorn resistant’ inner tubes, tire liners or tubes with sealant. Better still, just do all three.

Thick-walled tubes will help prevent small stickers from penetrating the tube, although bigger thorns can still poke their through.

Tire liners are narrow strips of hard plastic that install inside the tire between the tube and the tire. These strips will usually protect the tube from most thorns, goat heads and broken glass.

The third option is to install tubes that have a pre-installed sealant such as Slime or Stan’s, or add the sealant to your existing tubes. If a thorn or shard of glass does penetrate the tube, the sealant will (in most cases) plug and seal the puncture.

You may have to remove the offending thorn, rotate the tire so that the puncture is on the bottom, wait a few seconds for the sealant to work, and then air the tire back up.

The next level of anti-flat defense is to install tires that are more puncture-resistant. These tires will typically have a thicker tread or hard rubber and also have a belt of tough fiber (such as Kevlar) to resist punctures.

The downside of all options listed above is that the weight of the tube and/or tire will increase.

However, remember that a heavier fully-inflated tire is always a lot more enjoyable than a flat tire.
For people riding mountain or cross bikes, tubeless tires are another option that almost completely eliminates flats.

Tubeless set-ups have become the norm for most serious mountain bikers and many cyclocross racers.

Instead of having a tube inside the tire, the wheel’s rim is sealed (airtight) and a sealant is put into the tire to seal air leaks around the bead and to instantly repair any punctures that may occur while riding.

There are multiple advantages to going tubeless, including a much lower risk of having flats and also the ability to run tires at lower pressures (i.e., no ‘snakebite’ punctures and better traction on trails).

Although there are ‘tubeless-specific’ rims and tires, most standard (good quality) wheels and tires can also be converted to tubeless.

Any bike shop can do the conversion for you, but the process of converting to tubeless is something that anyone with patience and a few tools can easily do.

In fact, I’ve been running self-converted tubeless on all of my mountain bike and CX bike wheels for several years and would never consider going back to tubes — it works that well.

There’s a good how-to article on converting to tubeless at www.mbaction.com/Main/News/How-To-Installing-a-Stans-NoTubes-Tubeless-Convers-4640.aspx and also a tutorial video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5jJh_xYBwM.

Maintenance for tubeless tires is minimal — they tend to ‘leak down’ a little more than tires with tubes, so you may need to check air pressure before each ride and air up as needed. You’ll also need to periodically add some sealant (especially during hot weather) since the sealant will dry out over time.

One question that people often ask is “What if I do have a flat with tubeless?” This is rare, but if it does happen out on the trail and you can’t get the tire to re-inflate, simply remove the tubeless rim strip, insert a normal tube (which you should always carry anyway), air it up and continue riding.

Flat tires are something that all cyclists deal with, but taking a few no-flat steps such as those listed above will prevent most flats and make your cycling experience much more enjoyable.

Remember — flats happen, but you can eliminate all or most of them.

Upcoming Events

Feb. 14: Funnel Cake 5K, roadlizards.org
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