How to save yourself from flats

Nothing ruins a beautiful day on the road (or trail) like a flat or two. There are a few things that you can do to minimize the amounts of flats you get while riding.

One of the easiest things is to visually inspect your tires for any embedded debris. Little slivers of glass, small rocks, nails, staples are just a few of the things you might find in your tires before you go out. If you see them and brush them away before you go it is a small measure of protection against that early in the ride flat tire.

While out riding pay some attention to what is on the road ahead. This is not the same as staring down at the road in front of you tire, that would be dangerous. If you see some rocks or garbage ahead give yourself ample time to move over in the lane so you don’t have to do it at the last minute.

Ride in the good portion of the road. Here in Union County the roads are typically narrow with little or no shoulder. The area on the white line and to the right of it is usually never driven on by automobiles and the debris is never pushed off the roads. In fact much of the road debris settles there, so your chances of running something over greatly increases.

Do not ride with seriously squared off tires. As a bicycle tire wears, the center will square off, noticeable by the flat area in the center. This area becomes so thin that it is easier for an object to penetrate the tire casing and put a hole in the tube.

Latex tubes are a more expensive than butyl tubes but since they are much more elastic they may offer a small amount of protection against flatting. The disadvantage is that they leak air, so much so that even if you ride everyday, you usually need to pump up your tires everyday also. I do not recommend them for most people unless you are trying to save a few (very few) grams and have money to burn.

Borrow a trick from the MTB crowd, tire sealant. There are a few options here. If you use tubes that have removable valve cores, you can pre-seal the tubes. Tufo Sealant and Stan’s No Tubes are two of the most popular brands among bike enthusiasts. Just squirt some in the tube then replace the valve core, insert tube and ride around for a few months without too much worry over what you run over. This is what I do, I have had one flat this year in nearly 4000 miles of riding and it sealed itself up and I am still riding this tire.

The other type of sealant is applied after your incident. Vittoria PitStop is a propellant canister with latex sealant added. The purpose is to seal the puncture while at the same time filling the tire. I carry a can of this, it is just a little bigger than a CO2 inflator.

There are many ways to increase the enjoyment of riding and with just a little preplanning you can minimize one of the pains, flat tires!

Enjoy and have a happy holiday season.