Need a little help: Puncture resistant tyres or inner tube additive sludge?
- Thread starter Rusty hinge
- Start date
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HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
I've just fitted a tubeless tyre, so I'm using a road slime of sorts, its messy stuff 
Racing roadkill
Guru
The only way to 100 percent guarantee no punctures, is to get some of these.
http://www.tannus.co.uk/
I have them, and can recommend them highly.
If you go down the route of puncture resistant tyres / tubeless with latex solution in them, you are only reducing the likelihood of getting a puncture, you may still get occasional punctures.
KnackeredBike
I do my own stunts
I have Conti Gatorskins and have only had one puncture in lots of cycling on KB.
But I will probably get the Tannus ones when they need replacing because it is guaranteed than when you get a puncture it will be in the wet, when you are worn out and just want to get home quickly. I would happily pay a lot of money to avoid that.
(My last puncture was in the middle of nowhere, I'd gone out for a short circular ride and thought I'd leave the PRK at home because I wasn't going far. Cue three mile walk to nearest LBS.)
But I will probably get the Tannus ones when they need replacing because it is guaranteed than when you get a puncture it will be in the wet, when you are worn out and just want to get home quickly. I would happily pay a lot of money to avoid that.
(My last puncture was in the middle of nowhere, I'd gone out for a short circular ride and thought I'd leave the PRK at home because I wasn't going far. Cue three mile walk to nearest LBS.)
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BikeCurious
Über Member
What are they like to ride? Does it feel like a "normal" tyre? How easy/hard are they to install?
Racing roadkill
Guru
They are actually brilliant to ride on. They are a little different feeling than pneumatic tyres, at first, but it's not much different than riding with clipless pedals for the first time, or anything that one is not used to. They do require a fair bit of strength to get them on the rims, but you won't have to change them for a few years once they're on. I've ridden in all sorts of conditions, and some quite long rides. I really like them personally. They come in various sizes from 'Brompton' sized right up to mountain bike size. The road bike versions ( 700 c) come in 23 or 28 mm only, and they have a choice of 'virtual pressures' 100 and 130 psi. My road bike is running 28mm at 100 virtual psi. They feel pretty similar to a 28 mm pneumatic tyre at 100 psi. I really like the fact I can plough through broken glass, thorns, flints etc, and not have to worry about a puncture. It is a leap of faith, and they aren't cheap, but I can certainly recommend them.
Racing roadkill
Guru
They aren't.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Well no, but I run 28mm tyres at 65psi front, 80psi rear, so 100 or 130 virtual psi feels too damned hard and a deeply uncomfortable ride, even without the different handling feel.
The main reason I avoid riding through shoot on the road is it's bumpy, not fear of puncturing. Isn't it even bumpier at those virtual pressures?
Racing roadkill
Guru
andrew_s
Legendary Member
- Location
- Gloucester
I'd reckon that Marathon Plus tyres are the best bet, and less likely to leave you stranded than sealants like Slime are.
Sealants are good on punctures from thorns or small fragments of glass, but won't seal anything that puts a sizeable hole in the tube (> 1/8 inch?), and if it hasn't sealed, you are unlikely to be able to patch the tube. M+ are also good for small things, and are more likely to keep out the bigger items too.
Previous generations of solid/foam tyres have had a reputation for a harsh ride, and just giving other wheel problems such as broken spokes instead of punctures.
I've no idea what Tannus are like, but I figure they are going to be much the same.
With a pneumatic tyre, all of the air in the tyre is acting as your suspension, so when you hit the edge of a pothole the pressure is much the same just before the rim hits the road as it was before the hit.
With a solid/foam tyre on the other hand, only that part of the tyre between the rim and the road is doing the suspending, so by the time your 1 inch tyre has compressed to a half inch, the effective pressure had doubled from 100 psi to 200 psi, and at 1/4" it's doubled again to 400 psi, with corresponding increases in the forces transmitted to the wheel. The makers endeavour to limit this ramping up of force by making the effective pressure high enough that the tyre very rarely gets as far as half compressed.
Sealants are good on punctures from thorns or small fragments of glass, but won't seal anything that puts a sizeable hole in the tube (> 1/8 inch?), and if it hasn't sealed, you are unlikely to be able to patch the tube. M+ are also good for small things, and are more likely to keep out the bigger items too.
Previous generations of solid/foam tyres have had a reputation for a harsh ride, and just giving other wheel problems such as broken spokes instead of punctures.
I've no idea what Tannus are like, but I figure they are going to be much the same.
With a pneumatic tyre, all of the air in the tyre is acting as your suspension, so when you hit the edge of a pothole the pressure is much the same just before the rim hits the road as it was before the hit.
With a solid/foam tyre on the other hand, only that part of the tyre between the rim and the road is doing the suspending, so by the time your 1 inch tyre has compressed to a half inch, the effective pressure had doubled from 100 psi to 200 psi, and at 1/4" it's doubled again to 400 psi, with corresponding increases in the forces transmitted to the wheel. The makers endeavour to limit this ramping up of force by making the effective pressure high enough that the tyre very rarely gets as far as half compressed.
Racing roadkill
Guru
Yeah, that's right, my skeleton is smashed to pieces, by all these horrendous forces. Or not, really? Do you honestly think that's what happens? They have engineered the tyres to take account of this 'theoretical case' it doesn't happen. The ride is no different in feel to a pneumatic tyre, trust me I actually have them, I actually ride them a lot, over all sorts of crappy surfaces, this stuff simply doesn't happen.
There's a really interesting review of the Tannus tyres by @Andrew_Culture here: http://veloballs.com/tannus-solid-tyres-review/
Andrew_Culture
Internet Marketing bod
- Location
- The People's Republic Of Suffolk.
Cheers! I'm still happy with my Tannus. The only time I used sludge in my tyres was on my mountain bike, when I got a puncture I got sprayed head to toe with 'orrible green sludge!
Shut Up Legs
Down Under Member
Another vote from me for Marathon Plus tyres. I've used them for 9 years now and find them reliable and easy to use, and very puncture-resistant.
