Puncture

[2Lazy]

Isn't any puncture bad luck?

I have had untold punctures because of thorns or small shards of glass etc., all of which Marathon Plus tyres would shrug off with ease but in all my years cycling I've only ever once landed on one industrial staple!

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Punctures is not exactly a big deal to fix, even on an electric bike. They're just a natural inconvenience when you ride a road bike. Provided that you haven't used slime or any of the other puncture avoiding/mitigating solutions, it takes less than 10 minutes to fix one. You need to carry a puncture kit (99P on Ebay) and some sort of pump that you tested works on your bike beforehand (important!).

• Invert your bike
• Lever off the tyre on one side
• Pull the tube out
• Pump it up a bit to see/feel where the air comes out
• Apply the patch with rubber solution
• Pump it up a bit again to check that there's no more punctures
• Spread some chalk powder over it, which should be in the kit, otherwise use dust.
• Push the tube back in
• Pull the tyre back on
• Turn your bike back the right way and ride on.

Before anybody says it, yes you can fit patches in the rain. I've done it many times. Obviously the tube mustn't be wet when you apply the patch, which is easy to avoid.

 

[Ultrafunkula]

My worst puncture nightmare was a freshly cut towpath hedgerow made up of hawthorn, I counted over 26 in the rear and 14 in the front, needless to say, a long walk home and 2 new tubes, my Bro's bike was virtually the same, not a good day.

 

[RobF]

Punctures is not exactly a big deal to fix, even on an electric bike. They're just a natural inconvenience when you ride a road bike. Provided that you haven't used slime or any of the other puncture avoiding/mitigating solutions, it takes less than 10 minutes to fix one. You need to carry a puncture kit (99P on Ebay) and some sort of pump that you tested works on your bike beforehand (important!).

• Invert your bile
• Lever off the tyre on one side
• Pull the tube out
• Pump it up a bit to see/feel where the air comes out
• Apply the patch with rubber solution
• Pump it up a bit again to check that there's no more punctures
• Spread some chalk powder over it, which should be in the kit, otherwise use dust.
• Push the tube back in
• Pull the tyre back on
• Turn your bike back the right way and ride on.

Before anybody says it, yes you can fit patches in the rain. I've done it many times. Obviously the tube mustn't be wet when you apply the patch, which is easy to avoid.

You can't fix punctures in the rain - oops, sorry.

As you say, you can provided the tube is dry.

If it's cold and wet the rubber solution can be reluctant to 'go off', so a self-adhesive patch is easier to use in those conditions.

 

[Mac_user82]

Marathon plus are great tyres and work well but of course they are not the answer for example a couple of weeks ago i had a massive thorn in my tyre
which coarse me to have a flat it was about a inch long the angle it went in
it coarse me to have a flat straight away

Lucky enough i had sealant in the tube to save me from taken the tyre off and putting a patch on a quick blast with the co2 cartridge and back on the road again got me home with no further problems

Depending on the rim some marathon tyres can be very hard to get on the rim and it nearly impossible to get them on the rim i did have the delightful experience of this about a month ago when i was installing winter marathon tyres to get me through the ice spell

i got that fed up of installing the marathon winter tyres on my rim i bought something could a Cyclo Tyre Lever which is made for a workshop environment but i would recommend it for a home use to make getting on and off tyres a breeze with very little effort

i have thrown all my other small tyre levers in the bin because nothing come close to using this tool

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyclo-Tyre-Removal-Fitting-Tool-x/dp/B0050VDUBK

 

[E-Wheels]

I've only ever once landed on an industrial staple!

Well I would say it's definitely bad luck to have landed only the one industrial staple if you consider you may have missed many more in all your years of cycling

 

[2Lazy]

Well I would say it's definitely bad luck to have landed only the one industrial staple if you consider you may have missed many more in all your years of cycling

lol thanks for spotting my typo

 

[flecc]

Marathon Plus are the best protection from punctures in my experience, sometimes able to go to end of tread life without a single puncture as one of my bikes has shown.

Before fitting them back in 2005 my worst trip suffered three punctures in a three miles each way trip.

On the way the left trailer tyre, on arrival at destination the bike front tyre going flat, and during the return the right trailer tyre. Not difficult though, the trailer stands up on its tail and has drop out QR wheels and the front wheel was also QR.
.

 

[2Lazy]

Marathon plus are great tyres and work well but of course they are not the answer for example a couple of weeks ago i had a massive thorn in my tyre
which coarse me to have a flat it was about a inch long the angle it went in
it coarse me to have a flat straight away

Lucky enough i had sealant in the tube to save me from taken the tyre off and putting a patch on a quick blast with the co2 cartridge and back on the road again got me home with no further problems

Depending on the rim some marathon tyres can be very hard to get on the rim and it nearly impossible to get them on the rim i did have the delightful experience of this about a month ago when i was installing winter marathon tyres to get me through the ice spell

i got that fed up of installing the marathon winter tyres on my rim i bought something could a Cyclo Tyre Lever which is made for a workshop environment but i would recommend it for a home use to make getting on and off tyres a breeze with very little effort

i have thrown all my other small tyre levers in the bin because nothing come close to using this tool

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyclo-Tyre-Removal-Fitting-Tool-x/dp/B0050VDUBK

The Marathon Plus tyres can be reluctant to sit on the rim. The set I recently put on my hybrid bike I purchased mail order and they had been folded in the box which made things even worse. What saved me was a technique I learned on a bike maintenance course that I attended last year. The technique is to get one side of the tyre fitted and then instead of pushing the tyre on with levers you pinch and push the tyre onto the rim using both hands in opposite directions from the bottom to the top. The wheel is rested against your belly and you pinch and push outwards with both hands from bottom to top until your arms are outstretched at the top of the wheel. This gathers all the slack in the tyre to the top which should allow you to just pop it onto the rim with your hands without the use of a tyre leaver. I tried this technique when putting on my new Marathon Plus tyres and it was a super tight fit but I managed to get both of them seated on the rim without even touching a tyre lever.

Not sure how well known this technique is so forgive me if I'm teaching you to suck eggs, and there is definitely a knack to it, but it's definitely worth a go if you've never tried it before.

 

[flecc]

Not sure how well known this technique is so forgive me if I'm teaching you to suck eggs, and there is definitely a knack to it, but it's definitely worth a go if you've never tried it before.

Agreed, in the trade I never used to use levers to fit a tyre and much of the time not even to remove a tyre.

I'm not surprised you had trouble with those MPs, they should never be folded. When buying online it's always best to check how the supplier sends them, many do bag tyres unfolded.
.

 

[E-Wheels]

Worth a watch

 

[Deleted member 4366]

The Marathon Plus tyres can be reluctant to sit on the rim. The set I recently put on my hybrid bike I purchased mail order and they had been folded in the box which made things even worse. What saved me was a technique I learned on a bike maintenance course that I attended last year. The technique is to get one side of the tyre fitted and then instead of pushing the tyre on with levers you pinch and push the tyre onto the rim using both hands in opposite directions from the bottom to the top. The wheel is rested against your belly and you pinch and push outwards with both hands from bottom to top until your arms are outstretched at the top of the wheel. This gathers all the slack in the tyre to the top which should allow you to just pop it onto the rim with your hands without the use of a tyre leaver. I tried this technique when putting on my new Marathon Plus tyres and it was a super tight fit but I managed to get both of them seated on the rim without even touching a tyre lever.

Not sure how well known this technique is so forgive me if I'm teaching you to suck eggs, and there is definitely a knack to it, but it's definitely worth a go if you've never tried it before.

That's the way to do it. I never use levers to put tyres on, but there is one exception. Try and get a Marathon Plus onto a Brompton rim (Sun CR18). I gave up on mine and took it to Halfords. They broke their lever on it and gave it back to me unfitted, so I took it to another bike workshop. The guy there had a really long thin toughened steel lever. With all his strength, he just managed to get the tyre over the rim. After that, we just have to pray that the MP does it's job in preventing punctures.