TIRE LINERS

[HONDO]

Looking for opinions on tire liners vs. just purchasing the best tire you can for a long distance ride. Would both be overkill?

[BrianCM]

Do you mean the Mr. Tuffy kind of tire liner?  When I first bought my bike I used those in my tires.  They wore a hole in the inner tube, and the tire went flat one morning about a mile from work (fortunately).

If you know that you will be riding through a region with a lot of puncture problems, then I suggest that you bring thorn-resistant inner tubes, and install them just before entering the area.  These inner tubes are as heavy as a tire, so riding with them will sap a good 2mph off of your speed.

A tire sealant in an inner tube, like Slime, will leave a tube virtually unpatchable.

I rode the Seattle-to-Portland group ride (200mi) with Continental Town and Country tires, and nothing punctured those.  Other people got lots of flats, while I kept riding along.  You might also consider Schwalbe Marathon Plus (built-in liner) and Marathon XR (Aramid fiber tire carcass).

Some of the extra-security tires weigh more, but they don't make your speed suffer.  After my Continental SportContact tires got nailed by glass, I put on Schwalbe Marathon XR which weigh twice as much, and my distance speed doesn't suffer.  Yeah, my sprinting speed is down, but I'm only going after the groceries.

[HONDO]

Thanks for the input. Ive heard good things about the schwalbe tires.I will get some feedback from my LBS too. Common sense says start with the best tire you can afford, I just didnt know if liners would be overkill.

[cyclesafe]

Data points to ponder:

100 miles on XR's with $11 Mr. Tuffies: slit in tube where the liner doubles back on itself.  After several interations gave up.  Maybe I didn't install them correctly (?).

4000 miles on XR's with $24 Spinskins: zero flats, but had to throw away the shreaded, worn out liner.

4000 miles on XR's with no tire liners: zero flats

Conclusion: If you buy good tires, you shouldn't need tire liners.  If you buy cheap tires, you can get the performance of a good tire by spending another $24 for a pair of Spinskins.  This implies that if you need a tire in the boonies, you can buy whatever is available and beef it up with a Spinskin.  The former is far lighter (18g each)than a folding spare tire (35mm XR - 590g).  A Mr. Tuffy that works for a 35mm tire weighs 80g.    

[ptaylor]

Get Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires, and a Schwalbe Maraton XR (folding tire) for a spare. Assuming you are doing loaded touring in the mountains, plan to replace your rear Marathon Plus after about 4,000 miles. Put nothing in your wheels except air. Plan on your folding tire being dead weight - it's just insurance.

Plan on one flat about each 3,000 - 4,000 miiles.

At least, that is the experience Hans and I had this summer on our Schwalbe tires.

Paul

This message was edited by ptaylor on 10-27-06 @ 9:50 AM