That polyurethane formula was damn near impregnable. I started using Tuffy ages ago when it first came out, on road bike tires. Tuffy being the oldest of the bunch and arguably the most effective. You will find that using a bigger tube means it is capable of tearing your tire apart from the inside. So when using oversized tubes don’t overinflate the tire past its rated max. Oh and, like I said you need to be smart. Once the tube is safely in and the tire is mounted, you are golden. The trick is if you are doing this, you are going to need to work more carefully to get that tube in under that tire safely without it getting pinched under the bead (top tip: Barely inflate it so it is not sufficient to hold shape… that will happen when you are stuffing the tire onto the bead). Now take another balloon and just put a puff or two of air into it, so its barely stretched out. Try blowing a balloon up full and then barely touch it with a pin. In fact it may not be distended in the slightest. Why? Because the tube doesn’t blow up like a balloon inside of the tire. If you have a 26×2.8″ tire, a 26×4.0″ tube is perfect for it. This is a little counter-intuitive, but you want to always try and oversize your tubes. What do I mean by “smart inner tubes”? Well, the tubes aren’t smart but you need to be when choosing the size. Again because of the colossal weight.įor fat bike riders, scan the marketplace (it changes by the month) and look for the thickest tubes you can get: 1.2mm is the most I have been able to find, and only sporadically. Here again, if you own a fat bike you don’t have to worry about it because they don’t make them for fat sizes. I’ll make this simple: If using tubes, use thornproofs wherever possible. Thorn Resistant / tough / Smart Inner Tubes If you have a fat bike, don’t worry about what flatproof tires would do to your ride comfort because you can’t get them for fat bikes. Thats the price you pay for modern, genuinely flatproof tires so either live with it or look to a different solution. In other words it sort of feels like you are rolling on a smooth rock (full suspension would be a big plus). If you can get this tire on your wheels, consider it seriously. The Contis are cheaper because in part Continental is fighting to take market share from Schwalbe, and partly because they sell into ebike rental fleets where cost is a big factor. It is less expensive than the Schwalbe Marathon Plus (which garners all the mindshare for this class of tire) but essentially the same performance: Flatproof. It is E50 rated so its got a seriously sturdy casing. I found it also wears like iron, so you will get lots of miles out of a set. I have found, for instance, the Continental Contact Plus City tire is to all intents and purposes invulnerable. If you have a bike where such tires can fit, these are the Holy Grail. What you see here is what I’d call state of the art to keep me on the road and not on the side of it. Nothing sucks worse than flatting on a cold winter night after work (well, maybe getting hit by a car but you know what I mean). Not because I can afford to throw money at the problem but … because I need to keep rolling not walking. I won’t be describing all of it and just focus on where I have evolved to today – probably after trying a lot of other things that you are thinking about trying yourself. I have tried just about every anti-flat tech there is. What TO DoĮverything described here is about flat prevention. Thats not me and we’ll be doing the polar opposite of this philosophy: going almost literally for Bulletproof. If you want the most responsive ride, and are willing to work thru flat tires to get it, fine keep your wheels light weight, your tubes ultralight and your tire casings thin. It lasted until Hole #8 was finally too big to fix.
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