Wheels
shadowone1
Posts: 1,408
in General Chat
Getting pretty sick of punctures.. Was a lot better prepared this time.
I suppose I get all I deserve for buying a cheap entry bike that has cheap wheels on them.
I'm looking for suggestions for a good set of wheels & tyres that will help cut down on the punctures a bit. My budget is £200 as I've just spent the best part of £400 at Christmas (turbo, pedals, tri shoes, new goretex cycle jacket etc)
I wanted to get out for a decent cycle today and got 3m into and got a puncture. Had to call the wife to come and get me... she found in hilarious!!!
I suppose I get all I deserve for buying a cheap entry bike that has cheap wheels on them.
I'm looking for suggestions for a good set of wheels & tyres that will help cut down on the punctures a bit. My budget is £200 as I've just spent the best part of £400 at Christmas (turbo, pedals, tri shoes, new goretex cycle jacket etc)
I wanted to get out for a decent cycle today and got 3m into and got a puncture. Had to call the wife to come and get me... she found in hilarious!!!
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Don't get me wrong, I freely admit that the wheels are cheap so I know its better to upgrade but to what???
If not, having under inflated tyres can cause "snakebite" punctures.
I'm using just a normal hand pump. I had the bike serviced not so long ago and I do check to make sure the pressure is ok.
Having said that, I know previously in 220 that they done some testing on wheels so what do you's think of these?
[ol][*]M:Wheels Mavic Open/Pro Tiagra
[*]Shimano RS20
[*]Fulcrum Racing 7[/ol]
These all fall in my £200 budget and would be a little left over to go for better tyres. What do you's thinnk?
Cheers
I think get yourself a quality set of tyres before new wheels as very often bad batches of tyres come onto the market and they become very prone to punctures. Maybe you have just got a bad set of tyres?
Now I have largely resolved the issue:
1) Decent rim tape!!! - Take off your tires and tube and look what is on the inside of the rim of your wheel.. Rip out what there and replace with the good stuff - the toughest most expensive you can find.
2) 100psi MINIMUM - I would rather have a sore ass then mend a puncture... You must buy a track pump if you want to play road biking! (and carry a mini pump that can go hard).
3) Don't ride in the gutter - Motorist might beep but contary to popular belief they do not own the road (also stops them trying to whip by when there is little room).
4) Avoid potholes (The hardest bit!) not only is it unhelathy for your bike it avoid the snake bite puncture where the tube is nippid by the tire compressing to the rim when you hit a steep bump.
5) Decent tires - they state the TPI - buy ones with a high TPI!.. GP4000's are good all round.
?????) buy tubulars.... I don't have these but I think this woudl largely reduce our biggest threat the aforementioned snakebite... Who ever had a different kind of puncture.
There you go - by the way - new wheels wont solve your puncture issues!
I have a pair of 50 quid wheels on my commuting bike, and have only punctured twice since september. Keep your tyres pumped up to the recommended pressure, check the rim tape and dont use featherlight inners. The easiest way to avoid punctures is get some decent tyres. I use michelin pro3 race, and granted they are the same price as the wheels themselves but are great! They have a kevlar lining in them which should stop most things getting through, and if you keep them pumped up and trying to avoid massive pot holes you will be fine. Also give your tyres a quick check before you go out each time to remove any debris as it can usually work its way in over a couple of rides. And that should solve your problems. Remember that punctures are a fact of life, you can do all you can to prevent them, but a long shard of glass or thorn will always get through sometimes, so always carry a spare inner, patch kit and pump with you
I'm using Panaracer Extreme Evo2, which seem very confidence inspiring in the wet and haven't punctured yet. They also fit my requirement of taking a huge amount of air - I always ride at max pressure, in this case 160psi. Most road debris doesn't stand a chance with a tyre that hard!
I'd have to wear 2 pairs of shorts for the padding! Ouch!
**EDIT** Thanks for the tip-off, Barny. It wasn't easy to find the information, but I managed to find a username and password for the Mavic tech-support site and had a dig around. On a 23mm tyre the max recommended pressure for Mavic road wheels (all of them, it seems) is 138psi!! I'll consider myself deflated. Thanks.
The full list of numbers is:
19mm-146psi
23mm-138psi
25mm-131psi
28mm-117psi
32mm(tractor tyre, surely!) - 103psi