By Lars Hundley
I got a flat last week, and it did not go well.
It was my rear wheel, and I was only two or three miles from home at the end of a 30-plus mile ride. I pulled over, got off the bike, and stood there doing the mental math.
I was so close to being done. The thought of spending 10 minutes, maybe even longer, on a flat change just didn’t sound appealing. Walking home would take even longer, and I was wearing cycling shoes, so that wasn’t really a reasonable option either. Fixing the flat would mean standing on the side of the road when I just wanted to be done with the ride.
So I made a different call. I put a CO2 in the tire and started riding. The leak was slow enough that I made it home with a bit of time to spare, the tire getting a little soft but never going completely flat on me.
Here’s the thing. I’m not bad at fixing flats. I used to be fast at it.
Back in the nineties, when I was riding constantly and getting a flat every few weeks, I had it dialed in. Wheel off, tire off, tube out, new tube in, wheel on, riding again. The whole thing in under five minutes. It was muscle memory.
That muscle memory is apparently gone.
Part of the problem is my setup. I’m running disc brakes, and my rear wheel requires an Allen key to remove the thru-axle before I can even get to the tire. I carry two TPU tubes, two CO2s, and a small pump as backup in my seat bag. I had everything I needed. I just knew it wasn’t going to go quickly.
The other part of the problem is that I almost never get flats. I ride Continental GP 5000s, and they’re extraordinary tires in that regard. Thousands of miles a year and very few punctures. Which is great, until you finally get one and realize you’re completely out of practice fixing one on the side of the road.
I’m running TPU tubes, which I switched to a couple years ago for the weight and packability. No road tubeless with sealant for me, though I do run tubeless on my gravel bike.
The reason I stopped using tubeless and sealant on the road bike is that it requires more maintenance than I was giving it. Months would go by, I’d forget about it, and then I’d get a flat and discover dry sealant inside the tire.
It’s not that sealant doesn’t work. It does work most of the time. But when it doesn’t, it’s a real messy pain to fix, and sometimes you can’t even get the valve off to put a tube in because it’s on too tight to get back off with just your hand.
You also have to stay on top of it. Spin the wheel when you get home so it doesn’t pool and solidify at the bottom. Keep enough fresh sealant in there. And if you keep topping it off over time, the tire just gets heavier and heavier.
On the road bike, where I ride thousands of miles a year and rarely flat anyway, it stopped feeling worth the effort.
The other issue with road tubeless (and most tires these days are tubeless ready) is getting the tires on and off the rim. Tubeless ready tires on hookless rims can be incredibly difficult to mount and unmount. That’s by design, since a tight fit helps keep everything sealed, but it makes roadside repairs a real ordeal.
And if you ever have to get the tire off the rim to change tires or deal with a flat that won’t seal, the rim tape can become a problem. It sometimes shifts around, and once it moves, you’re dealing with a whole separate issue of cleaning out the wheel and retaping it before you can even get back to fixing the flat.
All of that added up for me. Road tubeless seemed like a great idea in theory, but in practice it was more trouble than it was worth.
I eventually fixed the flat properly once I got home, where I had better light, more tools, and no pressure. But it made me think about all the different approaches riders use these days.
There are more options than ever. Rene Herse offers a sealant option that will go inside their TPU tubes, and you can also get heavy butyl tubes with sealant built in, like a Slime tube. Either one gives you some of the self-sealing benefit without the mess of sealant loose inside your wheel.
Some riders go tubeless with foam inserts like CushCore, which allows you to ride a completely flat tire and still get home if the sealant doesn’t work. The downside is that a plugged-up tubeless insert setup is much harder to rescue with a spare tube if something goes really wrong. If you think getting a tire on and off is hard with regular tubeless, you’ll be astounded by how difficult it is to put a tire on with an insert. Tire plugs like Dynaplug, which you push into the hole without removing the wheel, can get you back on the road fast if the hole is too big for sealant, but they don’t always work either.
On the other end of the spectrum, tire liners like Mr. Tuffy strips add puncture protection inside any tire and tube setup. And heavy puncture-resistant tires like the Continental Gatorskin are excellent at avoiding flats but give up a lot in ride quality and handling.
The tricky thing for road cyclists who want to ride fast is that there’s no perfect answer. The most flat-proof solutions all add weight and rolling resistance. A commuter might be happy to make that trade. But if you’re out doing fast miles on a performance tire, you’re basically accepting that flats will happen occasionally and your job is to be ready when they do.
Here’s how the main options compare:
| Setup | Flat protection | Ride quality | Roadside repair | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latex or butyl tube | Low | Good to very good | Easy | Light |
| TPU tube | Low | Very good | Easy | Very light |
| Butyl tube with sealant (Slime-type) | Medium | Good | Easy | Heavy |
| TPU tube with sealant (Rene Herse) | Medium | Good to very good | Easy | Light |
| Road tubeless with sealant | High | Very good | Messy/harder | Light to Medium |
| Tubeless with foam insert | Very high | Very good | Cannot use spare tube | Medium |
| Tire liners (Mr. Tuffy) | Medium-high | Slightly degraded | Easy | Heavy |
| Puncture-resistant tires (Gatorskin) | High | Acceptable | Easy | Medium to Heavy |
Readers, what are you running and how has it been working? Are you on butyl, TPU, or tubeless? If you’ve gone tubeless, has it actually cut down your flats, or do you still end up on the side of the road wrestling a tube in? When’s the last time you had to change a flat, and did it go smoothly? And if you’re running thru-axles, have you found a way to make wheel removal faster, or do you just accept the extra time?
In the meantime, I should probably practice changing flats in my garage to get my skills back.
Have to laugh. Sounds like another reason to stay with rim brakes. And why are the bike manufacturers forcing road cyclist to use disc brakes?
you can do ‘pump and ride’
it is less risky if you know somehow, how fast the leak is
usually you do not
so you can try it once and gauge the speed of the leak and know what to do
i do that
but also when i park at work, i will go check my tires a couple hours later
if they have leaked then i know it is at most a 2 hour leak!
i may pump again then go back in 15 minutes or whatever
or just fix immediately if it is whooshing out
i have done pump/ride even if i know the leak is 10 minutes in a one hour ride
also you could just fix it, find a shortcut to the route, ride to the lunch destination and meet the others
or meet them along the ride if you can figure that out with a shortcut
i can do a road bike tire in 10 min
wle
true that!!
I agree with the messy, upkeep requirement ding on tubeless. After going that route with one road bike, never again. I tried Latex with sealant (flat attack) in. Worked well, but its downfall was a bad batch of tubes, where the valve stem came unglued. Even before that, the everyday loss of air was a pain. What I have settled on is regular butyl tubes with Flat Attack sealant. I would rate it up there with tubeless on flat protection. I could go a couple years without messing with it, but each year I change the tube and sealant. I have yet to try TPU, might give it a go for the weight savings.
Same here, GP5000s were a game changer. Once had a year and 5,000 miles between flats. Plus, TPUs hold air much better, often only pump up a couple times a month now.
Ok, but I’m riding Vittoria Open Pave CG III tires with no protection belt, just 320 TPI Corespun cotton belt, and haven’t had a flat from new to worn out, which is by rounding is about 2,000 miles on the rear, but then my front tire goes to rear to live out the rest of its life and new on is put on the front, but means the average is for two is about 3,000 miles; but the second set gets used and between the 2 sets of tires about 6,000 miles have gone by without a flat. I had a set of Specialized Roubaix Pro on a commuter bike that lasted about 5,000 miles without a flat. This going X number of miles without a flat is not unusual and it not brand specific.
TPUs tubes usually need air every 3–4 days.
Butyl tubes usually need air every 7 to 12 days.
Latex needs to be aired every day.
Butyl tubes continue to be the air holding champs. Now that is if you are using a standard butyl tube, an ultralight butyl tube will need air 3 to 5 days about the same as the TPU.
Running tubeless on my newest road bike for 3+ years. If I’ve gotten flats before I wasn’t aware of it, as I’m guessing the sealant fixed it. Dealing with one now that won’t seem to fix with sealant. Going to try a plug next to see if that does it. If not, I’ll put on a new tire.
As for the thru axle issue, I just put these on my road bike –> https://www.rapilock.com.tw/en/product-c157603/Bicycle-Through-Axle-Series.html. They are pretty cleverly designed; they come with adapters for tons of different axle lengths and thread pitches. And they include hidden levers so they can be removed without tools. Going to put them on my mountain bike in the fall.
Great article that summarizes all the issues I’ve confronted with flat repairs during a ride. Like the author, I have the same problems with tubeless tires and sealant – great for most of the time but a complete mess if they puncture while riding (I got a shower of sealant when my front tire punctured on a nail). Also, living in a hot dry climate requires more frequent refills and eventually a gunked up tire). Tubeless clincher tires are also very difficult to pry over the rim (along with the tape issue). I’ve broken tire levers trying to get them off. To address that problem I’ve found Crank Brothers Speedier Tire Lever or the Cyclami 2 in 1 lever work pretty well and fit in the saddle bag.
Pedro’s levers are also unbreakable in my experience and there are now two different shapes they make if you don’t like the original version.
Old school here. I still use wheels with rim brakes, QRs and tires with regular tubes. Flat at most once or twice per year. Also have a supply of tires which are not tubeless ready so I can get them off the rims more easily.
Hi,
Just curious as to how much weight sealant adds to, say, a 700c x 28 road tire?
I’m too big to be a weight weenie, but I try to pay attention to the tires and tubes because sometimes they’re heavier than you’d think.
I know folks spend good money on light weight but if you add it back with sealant or liners seems like a waste of money.
Pete (old enough to be skeptical of anything the bike industry does)
Whatever weight the sealant adds to tubeless is mitigated by the lack of a tube (which has weight) on the rim, The lack of a tube means zero pinch flats so that concern is essentially zero. .
I’ve been riding adult road bikes for over 55 years, I’m 78, I started on silk and cotton tubulars, then I embraced clinchers when Specialized came out with the first ones and never looked back to the inconvenience of tubs whenever there was a flat, which was frequent because back in those days flat protection belts in tires was not in the dictionary yet, and after you go through a spare tubular and it had a flat you had to cut open the stitching, pull out a section of the tube patch the latex tube, put it back together and stitch back, the whole process took about 45 minutes! Back in those days we had frame pumps, which made pumping to over 100 psi far easier than a mini, but today we don’t use those higher pressures, my road bike I only use 75, but to get to 75 is quite a bit of work with a mini, and most mini pumps cannot reach that no matter what they say they’ll do. I can get that high with my Lezyne Road Drive medium (they have 3 lengths), but wow is it difficult, and I believe it would be impossible with the short version.
Latex tubes ride more comfortable than either butyl or TPU, I have never tried tubeless so can’t compare that ride quality. Latex ride feels similar to tubular IF you use a cotton belted tire, but even if you don’t use cotton the ride quality is still better than the other types of tubes. I tried TPU tubes but found out that after a year of use they deteriorate and tiny little pin holes will begin to form driving you nuts because you think there is something either in the tire or on the rim causing the holes. I tried several different brands, and they all do the same thing, if fact I found that cheap RideNow tubes work just as good as the ones costing twice as 3 to 4 times more.
Flat protection wise, about the same no matter the type of tube, I haven’t noticed anything really different, once a tube is in a tire and filled with air that pressure is tight against the inside of the tire, there is no give if something penetrates the tire, the tautness of any tube will allow for easy penetration. I don’t use any sealants or liners. When I lived in goat head country, I tried all sorts of things to stop flats nothing worked, sealants, thorn resistant tubes, even liners, not until Specialized came out with their Armadillo tires did I find success and dumped all that other stuff and just used a butyl tube. Once my life was done there, I moved out that area I no longer use any protection belted tires on my road bike, I do on my touring bike though. I found that all liners will eventually rub a hole into the tube, and Mr Tuffy was not that good, Rhinodillos worked better but they still rubbed a hole into the tube over time. All those liners do is increase both weight and rolling resistance plus make for a harsher ride.
Your first line of defense is the most important line of defense, and that’s the tire itself, once something makes it past that, you will probably get a flat. Of course, a tubeless tire with sealant can work pretty good, but you have to add in more sealant every 3 to 6 months, and that adds extra weight each time, and eventually your tire will weigh more than a latex or TPU or a Continental Race lite butyl tube. And if you get a flat that the sealant won’t seal you have to put in a tube, or if you plug the tire then you need an inflator with enough blast to seat the bead, no thank you. I also do not believe in using sealants inside a tube, I found they are messy, can gum up the valve and your pump, and that stuff too needs to be renewed every 3 to 6 months by adding in more.
Today’s tires have excellent flat protection belt technology if you need that sort of thing, unless you live where thorns, or flints are on the road, you don’t need a heavier tire with better flat protection belt then a standard tire has. I use cotton tires and run over glass all the time without issues. If I was commuting to work like I use to I get a more robust tire.
I patch most of my flats on the side of the road, I don’t like to do things twice, I don’t want to take out a tube, roll all the air out of it, stash it away, but there is a very old method of fixing most flats, I can fix about 75% of all flats without ever taking off the wheel, a neighbor of mine when I was 8 years old taught me this trick. First without taking the wheel off the bike, try to find where on the tire that caused the puncture, if you find the hole, simply remove about half of the bead of one side of the wheel with that hole in the center of that half, next pull out about a fourth of the tube with the hole in the center of that fourth, buff, apply Rema glue, let it dry for about 3 to 5 minutes which the glue will go from shiny to dull matte look, apply the patch and press the patch on between your thumb and finger as hard as you can for 60 seconds, check to make sure the edges are sealed tight, if not repress that area, you’re done, let the tube set for a minute or so while you check the inside of the tire for anything poking through, use a rag to snag it, using your fingers you could get cut by the object. Even if I can’t find the hole and I have to take the wheel off I first try to find the leak in the tube, only if then if for some odd reason I can’t find the leak will I go to my backup tube. I’m not racing so there is no worry about time being spent.
Patching a TPU tube is similar, you do have to buff the tube, but very lightly with about 6 passes, do not get as aggressive with the buffing like a butyl tube. Clean the area with a alcohol pad, wait for it to dry, apply the stick on patch, and press as hard as you can for 60 seconds, let it set for about 3 to 5 minutes if on the road, or wait till after an hour if at home. I have never had one of these patches fail.
CO2 is very problematic, sure it’s fast, but once you get home you have to get all that CO2 air out because if not the next day your tire is near flat, so you have to get the air out and then refill with pump air. If I was racing that would be fine to use. Also, with CO2 you have a waste product, and you have to keep buying new carts, the air is not free. New electric pumps fascinate me, but so far, I haven’t gone with one but as I get older pumping a tire to 65 plus psi with a mini pump is becoming more of a pain, literally, due to arthritis in my hands, so I may get one but always carry a mini pump as an emergency backup.
I am not the kind of person that will only fix a flat good enough to limp home or call my wife to come rescue me. I fix my flats so I can continue my ride to wherever I was headed and then return home. I even carry a mini tool to fix other issues, so I don’t have to call my wife. This is the way it was with us old school guys.
Sorry for the length of this, but maybe something in what I said may be of interest…or not!
I run tubeless on my daily rider, TPUs in the occasional bikes. I’m currently well into my second set of Conti 5000 star’s without a flat. I carry a TPU tube just in case. Works for me. One thought is you could replace your current thru-axles with the quick variant which used to be standard issue on disc brake bikes.
Total old school. Rim brakes plus aged tubulars ( Conti. competition aged at least 1 year) I dry mount them on spare rims during storage. I also carry a spare pre-glued tire in the rare event I flat. If I’m close to home, I’ll just ride home on the flat and never had a problem doing so. The only time I’ve had a flat in the last ten years was my fault for not realizing the rear tire was wearing through the rubber into the carcass. Back in my racing days I could change a flat tubular as fast, or faster than a clincher. Using glue could be a PITA, but the more modern glue tapes have reduced that task to what amounts to a nothing burger
Frank R is spot on that the TIRE makes all the difference. Where I ride I’ve had multiple flats with GP 5000s vs zero with Gatorskins. I ride both & no doubt the GP5k are a bit quicker, but just don’t hold up to our Midwest chip/seal (& road hazards) near as well as Gatorskins (both puncture resistance and tread life/durability). Others in my big city riding club have similar experiences.
And for sheer speed of flat fix, replacement with traditional butyl tubes with quick release wheels rule. I stopped trying to repair tubes out on the road decades ago (unless I’m down to my last tube, of course!).
Regular butyl tubes and (foldable bead) Gatorskins on my main road bike. Pump air into the tires before most rides. I’m a heavy rider and keep the psi at 100.
Gatorskins will get flats, but a lot fewer than the regular or “tough” road tires I’d been using for decades before that. I am not, in general, a nuanced “feel the difference in tires” person, I just sort of let the bike disappear beneath me.
I always carry two tubes and a patch kit & pump.
Everything I’ve ever read about tubeless road tire setups has kept me far away from that “development.”
Specialized Armadillos are my tires of choice here in New Mexico where we are plagued with goatheads from the Tribulus terrestris plant.
After 30 years of Randonneuring and 55 years of riding, I got REALLY tired of fixing flats. I used Specialized Armadillos for brevets and Schwalbe Marathons for touring. But for some reason my little 16″ e-bike kept getting flats even with Marathons Pluses. (Too much weight in the rear perhaps, but I just weigh 185).
Anyway I Iearned about Flatout at Area13bikes and started using it. No flats in over two years. It works:
https://area13ebikes.com/products/flatout#product-reviews Now I have it in all four of my bikes.
I’ve been using Gatorskins for many years. They do get fewer flats than other tires I’ve tried, but the big problem I have with them is that they are so difficult to get them onto the rims. Many times I’ve gone through the tube replacement process only to be unable to get the tire on the rim. I never use a tool to try to mount the tire; it’s too easy to damage the tube.
Typically I then have to bring the wheel to a bike shop to have them mount the tire. Invariably the person working there goes through the same repair process that I do, and when it comes to mounting the tire, they just grab it and pop it on. I ask them how they are able to do it, and they tell me that they do it all the time and it’s easy when that’s the case.
Since I’ve been having this trouble for so long, and I don’t replace tubes very often, I’ve started exercises to improve my grip strength. I haven’t had a flat since beginning that, so I don’t know if it works, but I think if I had a stronger grip I’d be able to replace the tire properly.
Since I’m 75 with no chance of placing in the Tour de France I prioritize durability and flat avoidance over speed for my tire setup. For me, Continental Gatorskin Hardshell tires and Mr. Tuffy tire liners have combined to basically make cycling a flat free experience. At most, I’ll get one or two flats a year. Being retired and living in Arizona, my annual mileage total is typically in the 6000 to 7000 range. My riding includes urban, highly car trafficked 6 lane roads with debris ranging from gravel spilled by landscapers to bolts, razor blades, etc, coming from garbage trucks which have a habit of spilling broken glass along the side of the road along with increasingly rougher road surfaces. My riding also includes loaded self-supported bicycle touring for months at a time. Sure, your ride may be a little less smooth and your tires heavier, but I’ll take that over spending time on the side of the road fixing a flat tire.
I still use wheels with rim brakes, plus Quick Release Axles, and regular tubes. The tires are Schwable Marathon Plus. In my regular tubes, I run with a double dose of Green Slime. Not getting flats is more important than lightness (wouldn’t you know). I run the same tires front and rear. When I figure the rear tire is getting close to its mileage limit (around 7,000 or 8,000 total miles on it, I swap the (former) front tire onto the rear and put the new tire on the front. I do about 4,000 miles per year and (knock on wood) don’t get flats. It is a trade-off between getting the most miles and money out of the rear tire and avoiding flats. Three years ago, I ran my rear tire until it flatted and got a bit over 10,000 miles out of it.
Do you do any group rides? That seems like it would add at least 20 or more watts of resistance and make it hard to keep up with a group.
I gave up on the mess and maintenance of sealant and went back to butyl and TPU tubes (latex leaks air too quickly). The key is to make it easy to change a flat. That means using tires that don’t fit too tight so you don’t struggle getting them on and off. I use 2 wraps of powder coat tape as a rim tape because it’s strong and thin (thinner than Stans tape). The tires I’m currently using (Vittoria Corsa Next clincher) are easy to mount. Avoid tubeless tires (use standard clinchers) when you’re using tubes (easier to mount, lighter, cheaper). I use CO2 as it saves time and effort on the road. Use an inflator that can throttle the flow so you get a low flow rate of CO2 into the tire. Some say TPU is OK to use with CO2, others say not. I figure a low flow rate would minimize any damage to the tube (use metal stems also). YMMV with that.
Great summary, useful table. I’m migrating off tubeless and experimenting with TPU. Had two flats with TPU on Conti GP5000s–one with Vittoria TPU tube, other was Tubilito. I need to patch the TPUs and see how that works. I’ve ditched CO2 and carry Bontrager electric pump.
Have separate set of gravel wheels and switched to TPU (experimenting) because I use them a couple times/month and want to avoid sealant drying in a dead spot which then makes the wheel unbalanced. Years ago used foam inserts for a while on gravel wheels with sealant and removing the tire with the insert in there was a major hassle/project. Riding with super low psi and inserts was fun–until the tire burped. So, no inserts anymore.
In 2008 I did a transcontinental from L.A. to Boston with Crossroads Cycling Adventures. We had been warned about flats so I used Schwalbe Marathon Plus 700x25C tires. They were heavy tires and hard to mount and dismount on the rims. However, I had only two flats from the shredded radial truck tire wire along the shoulders. I should mention that we traveled on Interstate 10 from L.A. to Arizona and Interstate 40 from Flagstaff to Albuquerque using the shoulders. I still had tread left on the original set of tires at the end of the tour. One woman rider had only one flat but I don’t know what tires she was using. All other riders had many flats with one having seventeen flats during the entire cross-country. Next time, I may try a lighter tire that is puncture resistant such as Gator-Skins. Tire liners might be an option to look into. One thing to keep in mind is that the flats of the person you ride with are also your flats, as you will stop and help him fix them. Also, my 30 year old Silca frame pump with a Campy head was very popular as I helped several riders fix flats.
tubeless/tubular – ridiculous
my number 1 tip – helmet mirror
it helps you ride out of the glass/nail lane – if you see no one behind you, do take the lane
and do it anyway if you need to
also keep max air in tires
wle