12-01-2011, 05:49 PM
Hey guys,
Figured I'd share this tidbit of advice. I just completed a 22.000km trip from New Zealand to Holland bike trip. I Used a steel road bike from with 700c/23 tires, whilst carrying 10 to 20kg of luggage. The amount of luggage of course sorta depended on the terrain, going across the Nullabor in Australia the bike was lot heavier loaded then in places like Thailand. During this trip I only had two punctures in 7 months. Not bad eh? So here's how I did it.
First of course, tires. I've mostly used Continental tires (Gatorskin Hardshell or even better the SuperSport Plus) and Maxxis Refuse tires. The Continental's are better but more expensive and don't come in a folding option. The Maxxis Refuse are cheaper, but once the outer rubber layer has been slashed, the whole tire disintegrates. Gatorskins sidewall gave way before the rubber running surface was used up or big slashes appeared. Tires usually lasted about 3000km to 4000km. The quality of the front tire is a lot less important then the rear of course, the front tire I've used for the last 12.000km was the cheapest a lightest Schwalbe I could get my hands on, not a single flat on it
Tubes: I used pyramid thorn proof tubes, 700c/23. They weigh half a kilo a piece. So not the ones with thick rubber on only one side, but heavy thick rubber all around. The size of them makes it hard to seed you tires, but they are indestructible. Pump them up once every few days to keep em at 7 bars so they won't slip. This and good tires you can keep going through every sort of road surface. The two punctures were due to those metal wires of truck tires that litter highways. Additional advantage of these tubes is that when they go flat, they go slowly and you can ride for miles on a flat till you find a good spot to change it all.
I had a plastic tire liner between the tube and the tire. Not sure whether they are usefull, but you never know. I do know that they're useless when using normal tubes. If the tire liner doesn't fit like a glove, the gap or the overlap will probably cut into the tube and make it useless after some 1000km. Also had a double layer of rim tape. Why use one when you can use two
Conclusion, 2 flats in 22.000km on heavy loaded roadbike. The whole set up weighs a ton, so don't use it if you want to best your TT time. But sick of flats, there is a solution!
Figured I'd share this tidbit of advice. I just completed a 22.000km trip from New Zealand to Holland bike trip. I Used a steel road bike from with 700c/23 tires, whilst carrying 10 to 20kg of luggage. The amount of luggage of course sorta depended on the terrain, going across the Nullabor in Australia the bike was lot heavier loaded then in places like Thailand. During this trip I only had two punctures in 7 months. Not bad eh? So here's how I did it.
First of course, tires. I've mostly used Continental tires (Gatorskin Hardshell or even better the SuperSport Plus) and Maxxis Refuse tires. The Continental's are better but more expensive and don't come in a folding option. The Maxxis Refuse are cheaper, but once the outer rubber layer has been slashed, the whole tire disintegrates. Gatorskins sidewall gave way before the rubber running surface was used up or big slashes appeared. Tires usually lasted about 3000km to 4000km. The quality of the front tire is a lot less important then the rear of course, the front tire I've used for the last 12.000km was the cheapest a lightest Schwalbe I could get my hands on, not a single flat on it
Tubes: I used pyramid thorn proof tubes, 700c/23. They weigh half a kilo a piece. So not the ones with thick rubber on only one side, but heavy thick rubber all around. The size of them makes it hard to seed you tires, but they are indestructible. Pump them up once every few days to keep em at 7 bars so they won't slip. This and good tires you can keep going through every sort of road surface. The two punctures were due to those metal wires of truck tires that litter highways. Additional advantage of these tubes is that when they go flat, they go slowly and you can ride for miles on a flat till you find a good spot to change it all.
I had a plastic tire liner between the tube and the tire. Not sure whether they are usefull, but you never know. I do know that they're useless when using normal tubes. If the tire liner doesn't fit like a glove, the gap or the overlap will probably cut into the tube and make it useless after some 1000km. Also had a double layer of rim tape. Why use one when you can use two
Conclusion, 2 flats in 22.000km on heavy loaded roadbike. The whole set up weighs a ton, so don't use it if you want to best your TT time. But sick of flats, there is a solution!
![[-]](https://forums.bikeride.com/images/flatty/collapse.png "[-]")
