As I am now...................

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sick and tired of punctures in this wet weather, (two again yesterday) that I am now wondering if Tyre liners in my training bikes (road) will help?

 

I guess they are so cheap I could just go and buy a set and try, but I wondered if anybody used them.?

 

...............and YES before I get the usual comments on "tyres 101", "my tyres are in good condition, with plenty of tread and pumped to the correct pressure".! 

[bobby]

dit sal help ja,mar ek ry nie met dit nie

[dylankeyter]

yes invest in tire liners, i use them in my training wheels and have never got a puncture, they are the answer

[Johan Bornman]

sick and tired of punctures in this wet weather' date=' (two again yesterday) that I am now wondering if Tyre liners in my training bikes (road) will help?

 

I guess they are so cheap I could just go and buy a set and try, but I wondered if anybody used them.?

 

...............and YES before I get the usual comments on "tyres 101", "my tyres are in good condition, with plenty of tread and pumped to the correct pressure".! 

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What you experience is quite interesting. You say you seem to get more punctures on the road in wet weather. This is in fact perfectly true.

 

What's happening is two-fold.

 

1) Rubber cuts very, very easily when it is whet. Water is quite a good lubricant and the extra lubricity (cool word of the day) helps the glass or thorns penetrate easily. You can demonstrate this for yourself by attempting to cut a piece of rubber like a kettie elastic above and under water. The difference is remarkable.

 

2) The wet sheen on the road disguises the glass quite well and you have less opportunity of avoiding glass shard colonies.

 

If you look carefully on the label of all alcoholic drink bottles you'll see the instruction to motorists to drink whilst driving and smash the empty bottle onto the road.

 

About tyre liners.  Yes they work. The vinyl in there is very tough and although a glass shard will still cut your tyre, it will more than likely be stopped by the liner. But, nothing is bullet proof.

 

Tyre liners bring their own set of problems.

 

1) They're heavy and increase the rolling resistance dramatically.

 

2) They chafe the tube and cause punctures of their own. It is quite easy to spot a potential puncture caused by a tyre liner. You'll notice an abraded line inthe tube at the edge of where the liner lies, usually where the liner overlaps.

 

But, punctures are so random that I think you've had your share for this week and someone else will now puncture. Forget the liners, unless you're a commuter and 20 minutes late means the difference between being fired and having an income.

 

JB

 

 

 

[widget]

Hee, Hee, I had a good chuckle over your remarks Johan, -  Naaa, I am not a comuter, just maybe not that "hard-core" to enjoy fixing punctures in a downpour, but I feel guilty about that now too  - but maybe my bad luck IS over, ......................... but, if I get another puncture today or tomorrow Johan , I am gonna be the m**r-in.

 

One last question though Johan, would they (liners) upset the wheel balance - or is there no actual issue here? - surely there will be some effect that may need compensating for??

 

You see,.......................... I have this fear of flying down a hill and I get this crazy bounce in the front wheel....................!!!!

 

 

[1hill@aTime]

i wouldn't go the liner route again, just as johan said above they do cause puntures on there own, when i first started out, i tried them and within 70kms the tubes where worn through, and the rolling resistance is rediculous, i'm telling you now rather, fix the punctures caused by glass than worry about liners. 1hill@aTime2007-10-11 03:20:04

[Red Zone]

If you are having regular punctures inspect your tyres for imbedded glass which could be working its way through the tyre.

[Reg Lizard]

I also fitted these liners, but as Johan said, they also cause punctures in that they cut, chafe through the tubes. Since changing tyres to Gatorskins I haven't had to use these again. But you right, nothing to frustrate one more than a puncture.

 

My dad and I one day went for a ride and within the first 5km of the 65km ride he had used up both our spare tubes (his 2 and my 2). Luckily we did not get anymore punctures the remaining 60km, although we did have some patches and glue. 

[Johan Bornman]

One last question though Johan' date=' would they (liners) upset the wheel balance - or is there no actual issue here? - surely there will be some effect that may need compensating for??

 

You see,.......................... I have this fear of flying down a hill and I get this crazy bounce in the front wheel....................!!!!

  

[/quote']

 

Wheel balancing is not an issue on bicycle wheels. We are not as fast as we think. Although you can spin a wheel in your hand and feel the out-of-balance effect, it doesn't translate to a bounce when you ride.

 

If the wheel is very out of balance you will feel it as a forward-backwards jerk, not a bounce.

 

I experienced this once when I experiemented with some home-made tyre sealant in a MTB tyre. The stuff settled at the bottom of the tyre overnight and congealed into a golf-ball sized lump of rubber. I could feel it when it rode even slowly. I took it out and weighed it - 70 grams.

 

Most balancing discrepancies on a bicycle are in the order of grams. Thgis is evident from the way a wheel on a hanging bike slowly comes to standstill at its heaviest point. A large balance problem settles quicker and more violently on an oscillating wheel.

 

JB

[widget]

One last question though Johan' date=' would they (liners) upset the wheel balance - or is there no actual issue here? - surely there will be some effect that may need compensating for??

 

You see,.......................... I have this fear of flying down a hill and I get this crazy bounce in the front wheel....................!!!!

  

[/quote']

 

Wheel balancing is not an issue on bicycle wheels. We are not as fast as we think. Although you can spin a wheel in your hand and feel the out-of-balance effect, it doesn't translate to a bounce when you ride.

 

 

 - .and I am very slow, so I guess no problems there, - Okay, so I guess liners are out and I shall just have to live with the puncture issue,  thanks for the "heads-up" anyway. - much appreciated.

 

[amateur]

I have liners on my mtb and have not had a puncture in 3 years!!! Ok I don't do technical but I can't hold my line on singletrack properly either so I go off the trail allot, and have pulled big thorns and stuff out of my tyres, but no punctures. <?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

Don't have liners on the road bike and had punctures a-plenty, one on almost every ride, sometimes even two and yes checked the tyres inside and out every time, and with different sets, just bad luck I suppose!!!!

 

I have recently bought a set of gatorskins (although I have not put them on yet) when I bought my bike it had a set of '<?:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Vitoria" or something like that tyres on (ewep help me out here, you know what they are), and have been lucky thus far!!!!

 

But if these and the gatorskins don't hold out, I'll be putting liners in. I'm not going to be winning any races soon, so the weight issue isn't a problem for me.

amateur2007-10-11 03:57:46