Towpath bike punctures

[Señor Chris]

4 hours ago, BWM said:

I'm not sure of your logic here, if handling a rose bush there would be less chance of injury when wearing leather gloves as they deflect thorns more efficiently than soft skin.

That's using different materials though. A soft tyre can deflect inwards more than a hard tyre. Think about balloons - which is easier to pop, an over-inflated one or an under-inflated one?

 

[Movin' on]

7 hours ago, zenataomm said:

For heaven's sake I was being light hearted !!!!!

As I said I used to lock wheel for my Uncle as a child. 

We did it to keep the boats on.  Lock wheeling is hardly a requirement nowadays.

In the 54 years I have been canal boating at first everyone was allowed to bike on the towpath.

Then you had to have a licence from Waterways to do it, and then for a while nobody was allowed to.

Now we have Sustrans ideals to accept. No thanks.

 

It's hardly a critical element of contributing to the network and its traditions.  What I do know is that back then nobody did speed trialling, OAPs, pets and children weren't terrified or even knocked over.

So if I had to decide between banning cycles on towpaths or allowing everyone merely because some born again boaters wearing trilbies and red neckerchiefs want to persist in inverted snobbery while taking some coal for a chug along the cut. then I'd go with the historical tradition introduced during the 80s and ban them completely.

However, as I suspect that I'll never have that choice and that this forum as it often does is merely experiencing a bout of "let's pick holes in everything for no purpose at all" I'll leave it to you to play without me.

Goodnight ….. To sleep, perchance to dream -ay, there's the rub. For in this sleep of death what dreams may come of some cyclist having to repair a puncture on a muddy towpath in the middle of nowhere.  

Well said, you certainly get my vote...……………………………..I'm not a fan of this age of "entitlement"

Edited February 20, 2019 by Halsey

[BWM]

7 hours ago, Señor Chris said:

That's using different materials though. A soft tyre can deflect inwards more than a hard tyre. Think about balloons - which is easier to pop, an over-inflated one or an under-inflated one?

 

It may not be a perfect example, another might be that you would generally deflate a tyre to obtain more grip, as a fully inflated one slips more and tends to skip over things. I'm not sure of the science but i have noticed the difference in my experience of riding. 

  

[aracer]

On 19/02/2019 at 09:28, Humblespud said:

Tubeless tyres are the way to go. Just like a car set up, no inner tube, tyre bead seals to rim. With the addition of a liquid sealant punctures will generally self seal. A sticky rim tape is needed to cover the spoke heads. I've been using this set up for the last two years, it allows for lower tyre pressures and greater comfort too. A bit of a learning curve but worth it.

This. Though you don't even need specialist tubeless tyres - I've been running normal bike tyres tubeless on my mountain bike for 16 years now and still haven't had as many "punctures" in total as I did in the previous year before I switched. I think in total in that time I've had to put a tube in twice! The important bit is the sealant - the various sealant gunk suggested for use in inner tubes does work, but not as well as running tubeless with sealant (the other advantage of running tubeless is better performance, but I suspect most here aren't too bothered about that). On the occasions I have changed tyres I've often found them to be full of thorns the "punctures" having all been sealed.

 

I suppose I should get around to making my CX bike tubeless as that's the one I keep on the boat and is my towpath basher - though I've yet to have a puncture since I've been boating (probably cursing myself there!)