Cycle punctures

[b0atman]

At the Banbury first CaRT meeting one of the complaints was that when hedges are trimmed then the thorns which are left on the towpath cause lots of punctures.Can they not be cleaned up!

Many years ago we got tyres called Green tyres these where full of foam.

In the absence of those then I would have thought it would not be too hard to fit a thin metal barrier between inner tube and tyre.

[Barry]

You can get thin a flexible plastic barrier between tube and tyre

[gbmud]

...or bright green jollop which you squeeze into the tyre through the valve as a prophylactic measure, and which will seal any small puncture as soon as it happens. It works very well.

 

Chris

Edited March 2, 2014 by gbmud

[ChimneyChain]

Or you could use what my grandad use to use when he had a bike, he put an old leather belt between the tyre and inner tube and hey presto no more punctures.

[Ssscrudddy]

That green slime is great stuff. Doesnt stop you getting a puncture, but you can pump your tyre back up again & it will stay up. Eventually of course when you get home you do have to remove the trye & get rid of all the thorns.

The most I've had is 15 punctures in 1 go & still made it home.

[patty-ann]

Or you push the bike till you find someone who knows or leave it at a friends house till they fix it.

[Jim Riley]

Was it a thorn or the last fork in the road? It's only flat at the bottom just turn it round.

 

Coat......

[onionbargee]

Same happens all around mk and fenny Stratford, garenteed puncture on the towpath, when the thorns are dry. Its not even worth considering biking in hedge trimming time.I was going to complain but I can't see any answer to it now they only use contractors, are they going to pay for a third bloke to follow up with a leaf blower ?

[Ray T]

You need bicycle repair man:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U01xasUtlvw

 

Or http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showuser=2389

[SamKingfisher]

Schwalbe Marathons.

Or is it Marathon Plus? Anyway they work.

[craftycarper]

when my kids were little and i got fed up of fixing there punctures i just bought a can of that emergency puncture repair foam from a car shop and filled all there tyres with it, one can was enough to do quite a few bikes and they never had a puncture after tha

[Jim Riley]

Schwalbe Marathons.Or is it Marathon Plus? Anyway they work.

It's both. The plus costing more. Got em on the bromptons, great!

[Alex&Derek]

Marathon Plus' are pretty bomb proof tho you'll pay a weight penalty as they are not light and they roll a little slower. Got them on my do-it-all bike and haven't had a puncture in 18 months. They are also long lasting. I must have over 2500 miles on em with minimal wear, and I got them second hand off ebay.

[patty-ann]

when my kids were little and i got fed up of fixing there punctures i just bought a can of that emergency puncture repair foam from a car shop and filled all there tyres with it, one can was enough to do quite a few bikes and they never had a puncture after tha

Its on the shopping list

[alan_fincher]

I've used the (allegedly) Kevlar based bands, as well as buying Schwalbe tyres with an inbuilt band, and in my experience, although they help, once you encounter cut Hawthorn in any amount and still keep riding, a puncture is still almost guaranteed.

 

Admittedly I'm talking a few years back, so maybe some of the technologies have improved, but if you look at bits of cut Hawthorn it is hard to imagine a better designed "stinger" for stopping a push bike in its tracks.

 

Tubes full of that green gloop make the bike absolutely horrible to ride, and can also render the valves inoperative, because that of course is the route you have to use to get it in there in the first place. I have had it in rough bikes we hired for a day, and it does what it says on the can, but no way would I put it in my own.

 

In fact I never found a solution when I was riding regularly, other than be very vigilant, and as soon as you see any Hawthorn cutting, get of any carry it!

Or you could use what my grandad use to use when he had a bike, he put an old leather belt between the tyre and inner tube and hey presto no more punctures.

 

Did you have phenomenally fat grandfather, or did he in fact need more than one old belt to protect a whole inner tube?

[ditchcrawler]

...or bright green jollop which you squeeze into the tyre through the valve as a prophylactic measure, and which will seal any small puncture as soon as it happens. It works very well.

 

Chris

Green slime. Anyway my boat never gets punchers from thorns. O I forgot its the Cycling and Rambling Trust

[QDos]

Being a ex bike racer - old school eighties , hairnet helmet and tubs.(no drugs - honest !!)

You buy the most expensive tyres you can afford , put a few psi in them then hang them in a dark cupboard for 4 years until the rubber hase nicely matured. Pump them up to 150 psi + You get a fast ride exccent handling and no punctures

[Phil Ambrose]

Being a ex bike racer - old school eighties , hairnet helmet and tubs.(no drugs - honest !!)

You buy the most expensive tyres you can afford , put a few psi in them then hang them in a dark cupboard for 4 years until the rubber hase nicely matured. Pump them up to 150 psi + You get a fast ride exccent handling and no punctures

Oh yes all comes back to me, and glueing tubs onto rims, oh and getting needle and thread out to repair punctures, where you any good? I got to about an hour for 25 and under 24 mins for a 10 cannot remember my 50 time but - think it was about 2-10. Also road 12hr and 24hr in fact my last race was the National 24hr Championship down Ringwood way. Always said I would take it up again when I became a Vet but life got in the way, happy days

Phil

[Beaker]

Did you have phenomenally fat grandfather, or did he in fact need more than one old belt to protect a whole inner tube?

 

My thoughts too, maybe his bike had very small wheels?

[MtB]

Marathon Plus' are pretty bomb proof tho you'll pay a weight penalty as they are not light and they roll a little slower. Got them on my do-it-all bike and haven't had a puncture in 18 months. They are also long lasting. I must have over 2500 miles on em with minimal wear, and I got them second hand off ebay.

 

 

But how much (if any) summer towpath riding is included in your 18 months? I never had puncture problems either until I started regularly riding towpaths.

 

 

I've had reasonable success with a bright green tape sold in bike shops that goes in the tyre and protects the tube, it's SO resistant to thorn penetration that they tend to snap off instead of penetrating right through, leaving a small stump of thorn point in the tyre which does no harm. My main criticism is that it's only about 30mm wide so on a decent mountain bike tyre, the thorns miss the tape sometimes so a wider version would be great. . It's also a complete pig to position correctly inside the tyre. I've tried glueing it to the inside of the tyre without success. Wrong glue I suspect.

 

The problem with the Schwalbe Marathon tyres is they are road tyres - no mountain bike-style knobbles essential for grip on wet grass or mud. Having just looked on ebay though, I see the Schwalbe Marathons Plus are exactly that. I think I'll buy some and report back to the board once the hedge cutting season gets under way again.

 

MtB

[trackman]

It's both. The plus costing more. Got em on the bromptons, great!

Agreed, far better than foam in the inner tube etc.

Another tip from an old cycle shop owner is to buy a spare tyre before you need it. Hang it up for a few months in a cool dark spot before using it. They last longer and are a bit more puncture proof if properly cured. He reckoned tyre makers used to cure their tyres before sale years ago but no linger bother as it costs them and people buy fewer tyres too!

It seems to work for us.

[bizzard]

Many moons ago during the 1930's my old dad was a very keen road racing cyclist as were a great many folk. His bike had split cane wheel rims and a fixed gear rear chain sprocket and only the front brake as is still permissable I believe. Out in Essex in an area called the Easters was a large kind of country lane trianglular circuit where the clubs would gather to do sprints and time trials ect. My dad used to pace Reg Harris there when he was training for an event. I still have my dads cup which he won, engraved 1935 for winning a Chelmsford to Gt Yarmouth road race and then back again in the evening.

[onionbargee]

Answer is to invoice CRT for punctures cause by their negligence in not clearing up the thorns.

[magnetman]

I wish they had lots of hawthorn and blackthorn around the towpaths in London and very regular trimming it would make the place more pleasant

 

That or deciduous drawing pin trees

[smileypete]

Tubes full of that green gloop make the bike absolutely horrible to ride, and can also render the valves inoperative, because that of course is the route you have to use to get it in there in the first place. I have had it in rough bikes we hired for a day, and it does what it says on the can, but no way would I put it in my own.

 

Best to spin the wheel to get any out of the valves before adding air, works for me. Don't seem to affect the ride too much with MTB tyres, I put 40% in the front and 60% in back.

 

Goo seems to help them keep inflated too but after a long time the goo dries out and isn't so effective, wonder if a little water would extend it's life.

 

One time I had latex tubes which were pretty puncture proof and would lose air in a kind of linear way, but any tiny gap between valve stem and rim and the light would rot them .

 

I've had reasonable success with a bright green tape sold in bike shops that goes in the tyre and protects the tube, it's SO resistant to thorn penetration that they tend to snap off instead of penetrating right through, leaving a small stump of thorn point in the tyre which does no harm. My main criticism is that it's only about 30mm wide so on a decent mountain bike tyre, the thorns miss the tape sometimes so a wider version would be great. . It's also a complete pig to position correctly inside the tyre. I've tried glueing it to the inside of the tyre without success. Wrong glue I suspect.

 

How about some sort of double sided tape, isn't that what's used to fix 'tubs' on?

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~