Part of what makes riding a bike a beautiful thing is that it works on feeling – pure interaction between the protagonist and the laws of physics. It’s not the only sport like this – think skiing, skydiving, even running.
But this also sets it apart from many others, and the bike adds an extra dynamic – a go-between between rider and mother nature.
This exquisite agony begins with little more than an inkling – a sixth sense maybe – that tells you something isn’t quite right. The bike isn’t handling quite as it should.
However at the risk of bringing all manner of foul pestilence down upon myself and my tyres, punctures don’t seem to be happening half as much these days. This could be a dangerous thing to admit, but since switching to tubeless two years ago, it’s happened only once – and that is using a multitude of tyres of different brands.
(Although that was a gift that kept on giving – spitting out the tyre plug I’d inserted and spraying me and the bike in sealant on more than one occasion).
(Image credit: Future)
There are three factors which have converged to propel us headlong towards a world where newbie bike riders will only ever learn from the club elders about what it was like to stand at the side of the road, tears combining with the rain as you search in vain for the minute hole to patch in your inner tube.
Those three factors are: bigger volume tyres, lower pressures, tubeless. Combine all three things and you’re on to a winner.
As Jonathan Heasman of Vittoria tyres tells Cycling Weekly:”One of the big things that everyone realises is bigger tyres and lower pressure, which helps considerably. And certainly when we’re talking about tubeless, even if you do get a puncture your starting pressure is so much lower than it used to be, so the sealant has got a chance to do its job without all 120psi being blasted out within a split-second.”
Heasman’s road set-up of choice, he says, features 32mm rubber at a pressure of 47psi. It’s a far cry from the 25mm / 100psi that a rider using tubes 10 years ago might have opted for, and theoretically plenty low enough for tubeless sealant to deal with.
This tyre-based triple threat of bigger tyres, lower pressure and a tubeless set-up allows for lower pressures, which equals less risk of punctures from sharp objects. This lower pressure would in turn mean a higher risk of pinch-punctures too, but the tubeless set-up then steps in to solve that and mop up all but the biggest cuts and slashes you might incur. In short, everyone’s a winner – unless you happen to be a travelling inner tube salesman.
Such developments have also shown riders a way that differs to the old-school roadie approach, which involved inflating the tyre to the manufacturer’s maximum (always three-digit) pressure – plus another couple of strokes on the pump for good measure – with anything less regarded as a bouncy waste of watts.
Combined with an increasing prevalence of studies that demonstrate, or at least put a good case forward, for the performance benefits of a wider tyre with lower pressure, we are all being gently ushered in the direction of fewer flats.
And things continue to improve, says Heasman.
“Everything’s been optimised now,” he says. “We’ve got much better bead technology for example. And the actual construction of the tyre – the material that everyone’s using – has come a long way. We’re getting the best of both worlds now in terms of a nice and supple casing, but puncture proof, with nylon inserts as puncture breakers, which is still lightweight, supple, but puncture proof.”
This means that if you’re a performance cyclist, your treads are more likely to be more puncture proof by default these days – rather than having to weigh up the choice between performance and puncture protection. “You can have your cake and eat it,” Heasman says.
One of the next breakthroughs, he anticipates, could be in sealant and valve technology, allowing sealant with bigger particles to plug bigger holes and yet without that tubeless bugbear – valve clogging.
Refinements in solid tyre tech also mean that they could one day be the go-to for utility journeys around towns and cities, but in terms of pneumatic tyres, Heasman reckons the day when we truly live in a post-puncture world could happen.
“I think it will happen,” he says. “It’s getting closer and closer. I mean, I can’t remember the last time I had a puncture and knew about it.”
Unfortunately that day is not here just yet, as the recent experience of our tech editor Andy Carr is testament to: three separate riders, all on new tyres, had their inner tubes visited by the dreaded puncture fairy on a recent group ride.
Don’t be leaving that mini-pump at home just yet!
When was the last time you had a flat? Were you riding on or off-road; tubeless or tubed? Let us know in the comments!
