Novice Audax Tyre Question

[HeltorChasca]

I really enjoyed my first event (Tasty Cheddar) to the extent that I joined AUK and awarded myself a little badge. Ceremony and everything.

I would like to do some more events and I've highlighted a few I like the sound of through the winter into spring.

I'll be doing them on my Surly Disc Trucker. I did the Tasty Cheddar with my 26x1.5s but for various reasons I've put my 26x1.75 Marathon Greenguards back on.

They are heavier, but is life really going to be much more difficult? They are comfy and more puncture resistant as a plus.

Am I doing that over thinking thing again?

[L CC]

yes.

[JamieD]

As the weather is more changeable I'm doing my club runs on my commuter bike with heavy wheels (dynamo hub (front), Mavic A319 (rear)) and 32c Marathon Plus, full mudguards and rack.

It's definitely a bit slower than my dry weather bike for the same effort but I'm definitely able to keep at the front of the medium pace group like normal.

It's also the bike I used recently for the doing the Meridian Hills perm and it performed admirably despite the amount of climbing.

So yes, I think you are over thinking this slightly because the difference in tyre is so small and because it's 90% you not the bike.

[RibbleRouser]

Nowt wrong with being comfortable and having a tyre that'll give you a chance of a puncture free ride.
Just be prepared to deal with the inevitable.
Don't overthink and change equipment or alter the bike setup just before an event though, do that well in advance and get some miles in, that way your bike is familiar to you, all you have to thing about is navigating the route, and enjoying the ride. 😀 🚴‍♀️

[D.A.L.E.]

I'll be doing them on my Surly Disc Trucker.

Rather you than me... 

[Cudzoziemiec]

You got a badge? Wow! You've really got the Audax bug seriously! You'll be counting points and putting in for awards next!

Tyres: important things for speed, comfort, grip and simply carrying on. Having had a blow out on my second 200 (tyre delaminated inside and out – up to that point it had been incredibly reliable and virtually puncture free) I'd say speed is not the most important of these, unless you're racing of course.

Ask yourself: are you a speed monster? Would you become one if a carbon-fibre Pinarello (insert brand of choice) fell from the sky into your hands? Would you actually want to be or care? My guess is no you're not and you probably wouldn't be. Were you pushing the time limit on the Tasty Cheddar? No, you weren't. Would you like to be able to ride so fast you could stop for a pint in every town you pass through on a longer audax? Just don't do this even if you can, okay!

In other words, I'd stick with what you've got until you feel a reason to change it.

[HeltorChasca]

I'll be doing them on my Surly Disc Trucker.

Rather you than me... 

My only option!

'Once you make a choice, you have no choice.' (Anna Chin-Williams)

[Karla]

Nowt wrong with being comfortable and having a tyre that'll give you a chance of a puncture free ride.

You have a chance of a puncture-free ride with any tyre.  With anything except a Dugast track tub, it's infinitessimally close to being 100%. 

Fit some lighter tyres Hector, you won't regret it 

[HeltorChasca]

Sage advice from you lot again. Thank you. AUK sent me an old mag from last winter with my membership pack. No current publications. In it we're some photos of bikes with tyres that must have easily been 1.75s which is what got me thinking.

Perhaps for now I'll keep the tractor tyres on for winter. Maybe if I'm flush towards the end of spring, I'll look into lighter tyres. Any recommendations for 26 wheels? Marathon Supreme 26x1.6s were mentioned once to me. Or shall I just put my old Continental Comfort Contact 1.5s back on when it's warmer?

Thanks again.

[D.A.L.E.]

I'll be doing them on my Surly Disc Trucker.

Rather you than me... 

My only option!

'Once you make a choice, you have no choice.' (Anna Chin-Williams)

Oh fair enough, it sounded like you were using it out of choice.

I've used mine to audax and it was definitely type 2 fun. Still my favourite bike though.

[Karla]

I don't know much about 26 inch tyres, but a good start is not to go for anything with "Marathon" in the title!  Of tyres that Google has shown me to currently have 26 inch versions at the major outlets, the Panaracer RibMo is okay for an extended commute tyre, then there's the Continental Gatorskin for a general road tyre or the Schwalbe One for a summer sporty tyre.

[RibbleRouser]

Stop that thinking !!
Go out and enjoy yourself, and maybe by springtime contemplate getting some lighter tyres, in the meantime have fun riding thru the winter.

[HeltorChasca]

Stop that thinking !!
Go out and enjoy yourself, and maybe by springtime contemplate getting some lighter tyres, in the meantime have fun riding thru the winter.

Good one. Stopped.

[HeltorChasca]

I don't know much about 26 inch tyres, but a good start is not to go for anything with "Marathon" in the title!  Of tyres that Google has shown me to currently have 26 inch versions at the major outlets, the Panaracer RibMo is okay for an extended commute tyre, then there's the Continental Gatorskin for a general road tyre or the Schwalbe One for a summer sporty tyre.

Many thanks.

[tonyh]

I'm still trying to find some of those fast tyres, but all the ones I've tried don't seem to have much effect on my speed. The problem is the rider.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Nowt wrong with being comfortable and having a tyre that'll give you a chance of a puncture free ride.

You have a chance of a puncture-free ride with any tyre.  With anything except a Dugast track tub, it's infinitessimally close to being 100%. 

Fit some lighter tyres Hector, you won't regret it 

These are really good words and worth reading.

I used to do a lot of miles commuting. I went through a lot of tyres.
After the first year, I decided that ease of changing tube/repair was a bit more important than ultimate puncture-proofness - I added up the time lost due to really-puncture-proof tyres and over hundreds of miles, it amounted to well over an hour. Time taken to fix punctures - 10-15 minutes.

So it is worth getting a couple of extra punctures in those hundreds of miles.

As for which tyres, on 26" wheels I found panaracer paselas to be really good in the fatter (1.5" and up) sizes to be really good. I tried the ribmos but they were not as nice to ride on. You'll get people saying that paselas have fragile sidewalls, but I never had a sidewall blow out or get ripped through.

[Banjo]

I think you got round the tasty Cheddar quicker than me on a lightish bike with 25c tyres .  (Which proves that the engine is more important than the tyres)

Unless you felt totally wiped out after the ride I would stick with what you have for now and see how it goes.

When I selected some new wheels recently my priorities were strength reliability and easy to get tyres on and off.Getting a puncture doesn't completely ruin your day but struggling for ages to get a tyre on a rim that's clearly bigger than it should be is very frustrating.

[JamieD]

Nowt wrong with being comfortable and having a tyre that'll give you a chance of a puncture free ride.

You have a chance of a puncture-free ride with any tyre.  With anything except a Dugast track tub, it's infinitessimally close to being 100%. 

Fit some lighter tyres Hector, you won't regret it 

After losing 45 minutes to punctures on the The Cambridge Autumnal 200 I'm switching my view slightly. That was GP4000sII and I switched them out for Durano Plus (25c) on the faster bike.

My feeling is that for rides where I'm confident I'm not going to be spending a lot of time riding in the dark or wet I'll take the light fast bike, otherwise the slower heavier wet bike.

Although even on a slower bike I'm still  comfortably (>3 hours) within time limit even on AAA rides, so I don't feel a particular need to worry about the tyres. Also, training all winter on a heavier bike with horrible tyres is going to make switching to the dry light bike seem like a massive boost in fitness.

[mattc]

Nowt wrong with being comfortable and having a tyre that'll give you a chance of a puncture free ride.

You have a chance of a puncture-free ride with any tyre.  With anything except a Dugast track tub, it's infinitessimally close to being 100%. 

After losing 45 minutes to punctures on the The Cambridge Autumnal 200 I'm switching my view slightly. That was GP4000sII and I switched them out for Durano Plus (25c) on the faster bike.

So is pharti's statistic wrong? 

Perhaps 1 puncture would not disprove it, but 2 or 3 in one ride ...

[JamieD]

Nowt wrong with being comfortable and having a tyre that'll give you a chance of a puncture free ride.

You have a chance of a puncture-free ride with any tyre.  With anything except a Dugast track tub, it's infinitessimally close to being 100%. 

After losing 45 minutes to punctures on the The Cambridge Autumnal 200 I'm switching my view slightly. That was GP4000sII and I switched them out for Durano Plus (25c) on the faster bike.

So is pharti's statistic wrong? 

Perhaps 1 puncture would not disprove it, but 2 or 3 in one ride ...

It was 4 punctures in one ride which lead to other riders calling out "not again" as they went past me. I spent a chunk of the ride saying to my friend "if we see anywhere with a bike shop I'm stopping and buying some new tyres"

It was more the time saved with nice tyres vs. slower more puncture proof tyres.

You can't really disagree with the comment about every ride being possible to be puncture free.

[mrcharly-YHT]

When you get 4 punctures in one ride and other people aren't puncturing, there is a high likelihood that something is stuck in your tyre and re-puncturing your tube. Either that, or your tyres are worn to being too thin.

That can happen with almost any tyre.

The solution can be to replace the tyre.

I was running some conti 4seasons on a bike, really liked them. Almost no punctures. Changed route and started getting punctures. 3 in 25 miles at one point; 3 separate punctures, all glass, each time found the shard.

They weren't up to keeping out that glass, not in their worn state.

[mattc]

You can't really disagree with the comment about every ride being possible to be puncture free.

I wouldnt disagree - but that's not what he said!

If you use tyres with air in, they will puncture at some point. Tougher tyres reduce the frequency. With a fair wind behind you, you will replace them first. Hopefully ...

[LMT]

When I first started audax riding I went with M+ 32’s, the idea being that I did not want the hassle of dealing with a puncture, but then on the run up to PBP I changed out the M+’s for S1’s and have not looked back. Yes these tyres are more susceptible to punctures, but the added speed you get for the same effort, as well as comfort and the hum that you get from running a proper road tyre I’d rather go with this then the former. The S1’s have since burnt out so I know run Michelin Pro4 endurance.

[Cudzoziemiec]

When I first started audax riding I went with M+ 32’s, the idea being that I did not want the hassle of dealing with a puncture, but then on the run up to PBP I changed out the M+’s for S1’s and have not looked back. Yes these tyres are more susceptible to punctures, but the added speed you get for the same effort, as well as comfort and the hum that you get from running a proper road tyre I’d rather go with this then the former. The S1’s have since burnt out so I know run Michelin Pro4 endurance.

The hum? The slicker, better rolling and roadier the tyre, the less the hum, surely? Compare to mtb knobblies which really do hum.

[mattc]

I used to do a lot of miles commuting. I went through a lot of tyres.
After the first year, I decided that ease of changing tube/repair was a bit more important than ultimate puncture-proofness - I added up the time lost due to really-puncture-proof tyres and over hundreds of miles, it amounted to well over an hour. Time taken to fix punctures - 10-15 minutes.

So it is worth getting a couple of extra punctures in those hundreds of miles.

I think your analysis bang-on.

But it doesn't work for the minority of scenarios where a puncture is near-disasterous. e.g.
- commuters who cannot afford to be 14 minutes late (yup, some of us only give ourselves 1min contingency    )
- riders who have zero confidence in fixing flats.