I’ve never had a flat tyre. Never. There are two reasons for that – the first is I have only been cycling for a couple of years, and until recently my commutes have been pretty short – a couple of kilometres. The other reason is sheer blind luck. I’ve got tyre irons, a spare tube, a floor pump and a wee pump to carry with me, but they are sitting on a dresser in my flat, waiting, well, for a flat.
My Dunedin bike was a big heavy (and dare I say electric?) thing that had green goo in its inner tubes, and maybe I had a flat – I don’t actually know. I did find the back tyre was really soft once, and the goo might have done its thing. My new Christchurch bike has nice road tyres and, compared to the knobbly things on Betty, the Electric Bike (there, I said it) look like they would stop a broken Speights bottle about as well as a road cone would stop a grader. Betty’s tyres are made with kevlar reinforcing because on an electric bike weight isn’t that much of an issue. If it had been, I would never have slung my 125kg body on it in the first place. Now, thanks partly to the cycling, my 95kg svelte (well, svelte is probably going a bit far) frame fits on a town bike I can pootle around Christchurch on, hoping I don’t get a flat, or, if I do, that the next bus has a bike rack.
The new bike (which is so far nameless) has reflective bits on the tyres, to help being seen from the side, and are 700×32. That’s 700cm in diameter and 32mm wide. I think. Tyre sizes are a nightmare. They can be, because bikes didn’t often travel overseas much and each country could have their own system. Now they are made in the places that make pretty much everything else, and its all a mishmash of Imperial, metric and combinations of both. If you like seeing things being made, and I do, check out a video of tyres being made at SCHWALBE Bicycle Tyres: How Are Made (its not very grammatical, but they are German, so I cut them some slack). So far I’ve never needed to replace my tyres, so I haven’t put too much thought into what to replace them with, but the new bike’s road tyres are much much easier to pedal than Betty’s knobbly ones. I have had a couple of spills with the new bike, but I don’t think that’s to do with the tyres, but more about my general incompetence. I’ve even accidentally ridden down a set of stairs (something I would never have done on purpose, but it was dark) and I thought I would suffer the infamous ‘snakebite’ puncture. Not so far. I better carry the tools tomorrow, because having written this, I bet I get a … I won’t even say it.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0P3oQWo22A[/youtube]
Punctures are often as much about luck as good management. That said good tyres can make a difference. I have used Schwalbe Marathon tyres on my main commuter bike for at least the last five years. (I can’t actually remember when I brought them.) The tread is not getting well worn but I have had just one puncture in that time, a piece of wire that pierced outer through to the tube. These tyres are the ones favoured by many long distance cycle adventurers. The only problem can be finding them in NZ. They are available through the Wiggle website.
Hi Glen I should have re read the above. Should read “the tread is getting well worn”
And “a piece of wire pierced the outer”
Sorry
Keith T