Avoinding punctures - All your opinions

HiHi my fabulous LFGSS members!

Just want to start a casual chat on how you all prevent punctures?

To kick of the conversation, I have a question that I have been pondering on...

Q>Do you feel it is worth changing the rims/tyres to a tubeless setup to avoid punctures OR
you can get the same/similar puncture protection with an inner tube setup with a good puncture protective tyre like the Marathon Plus????

Slightly gearing towards the latter....but what do you all think?

Option B, running tyres with pressures at the higher end of range on the tyre, avoiding shit/detritus in the road and a big sprinkling of luck is my approach. There are probably other opinions.

Riding away from the kerb will help massively

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/282074/

Never had a single puncture riding schwalbe marathon plus. They feel horrible to ride tho.

I once had a pair of those shitty solid foam tyres, they didn't get punctures. But they were shite.

+1 on this, with the Marathon Supreme. I know what's happening next time I get on the bike now though...

If the criteria is : not getting punctures, then change tyres to super resistant tyres.

tubeless doesn't prevent punctures and installation headaches. Consider it if your priorities change.

Changed to them at start of the summer. 4 or 5 punctures so far.

Honestly I think the question about tubeless depends on context, but for reasonably low volume tyres (28c or less) I don't think going to tubeless will prevent tyres.

I think one of the most underappreciated aspects of this is where you ride. When I rode mainly on London streets and small lanes in Kent I would get loads of punctures. London streets it is a lot of broken glass or other detritus that is generally worse closer to the curb, so ride further out and keep your eyes peeled. Kent little lanes there is a lot of flint that gets washed into the road round there that causes lots of punctures, so avoid riding over them if you can, or perhaps pick slightly bigger roads.

When I moved to Derbyshire I saw an unbelievable reduction in punctures. I can honestly remember probably 2 punctures in 3 years across 4 bikes, and I rode quite a lot.

You definitely could ride a very puncture resistant tyres, but like others have said, it will feel worse than a fast and supple tyre. Only you can decide if the trade off is worth it.

With marathon plus? Are you cycling constantly through broken glass?

Been using marathon green and pluses on mine and my Mrs' commuters for years and I think the only puncture either one of us had was when a car wheel went over a screw and it rifled into my front tyre.

If you've had that many I'd be looking at my rim tape or you've maybe got a dodgy batch?

Jesus, what are you doing?! What was getting through? Or were they pinch flats?

I’d say completely depends on your riding.
In my case I’m very militant about watching for glass, avoiding certain roads that I know are filled with late night bars (glass) and staying more on the road then cycle lane, I find there’s a a lot more puncturey debris the closer you get the the sidewalk.

Tires wise I use Schwable duranos which I’d rate.

See above on 'small lanes in Kent'. But one was hitting a rock in the road that my mate swerved too late for me to avoid, another was a pothole on a fast downhill with a car passing me so I again couldn't avoid it (and saw it too late to bunny-hop).

But those are pinch flats - that’s user error rather than a failure due to the tyre.

Avoiding punctures is futile, but having a well trusted kit for multiple punctures on a ride and a good routine when you get one helps I reckon. Schwalbe tyres are ugly, heavy and pretty good at protecting the inner tube. I never tried Marathons, but there is so much good written about them regarding puncture protection.

Agreed on all re Marathons - no punctures, but not an overly pleasant ride, and they feel sketchy in the wet; manhole covers will start to scare you.

Gatorskins are a great mix of performance and protection, particularly in the wet.

Tyre choice is the schrodinger's cat situation but there are instead a million cats and the cats are actually tyres.

For any one person the cat (tyre) is both completely impervious to punctures and also completely susceptible to punctures. It's only after you open the box (put tyres on a wheel and ride it) that you will learn which state these tyres are for you.

After typing out i'm not sure the analogy works but i'll stick with it.

Best thread for a long, long time

Worst tyre I ever had for punctures was Gravelkings, the slick version. They were very nice to ride with, but I think I had about 6/7 punctures in <300km

I've had 1 puncture across 3 different sets of Gravelkings (slicks and knobbly). Thousands of miles total. I think I'm the only person in the world who likes them.

I’m 500 miles in (almost all commuting) and yet to puncture my tubeless GK slicks. What a perfect way to tempt fate 🤣

Get a set of these bad boys

https://www.velobitz.co.uk/vintage-style-1950s-60s-70s-tyre-savers-flint-catchers-flint-wipers

Or this style …

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Be Zen with it; accept that Punctures have their place in our lives. Don't fight them, accept we are a lotus blossom in the stream of life.

Although there are good punctures and bad ones. My best ever was 150 yards from home comming back from the Dunwich Dynamo. Worst; I lost my original Forum Cap, still smarts.

I once heard and agree with 90% of punctuers happen in the last 10% of a tires life. New tires are always a sound investment.

IRC for tubeless, marathons for tubed.

that's it.