How To: Prevent Punctures

CATEGORIES
July 26, 2021
Tom Cornwell

Ride your bike enough and eventually, you’ll get a puncture. And I think we can all agree, they’re a bit of a pain in the arse. However, there are a few secrets that can help prevent them. Here are our top 5 tips to prevent punctures…

1. Keep your tyres PUMPED.

A tyre at 90psi has half as much rubber in contact with the road as a tyre at 40psi, so it's less likely to encounter shards of glass or flint in the first place. When it does, the glass/flint/etc. is less likely to press into (and be picked up by) the tread of a firm tyre than a soft tyre.

Firm tyres are also much less likely to suffer snakebite punctures, where a bump flattens the innertube against the wheel rim so that it gets nipped between rim and road - looking like a snakebite.

Tyres have a pressure rating stamped on the side. Making sure your tyres are inflated within this range, will not only lead to optimal performance but also less punctures. It’s a good idea to check the pressure regularly as they do lose pressure over time, we advise checking skinny tyres every few days, medium width tyres every week, and fat tyres every couple of weeks.

Invest in a track pump (i.e. a floor pump) with a pressure gauge. This takes the guesswork out of tyre pressure checking and makings pumping much easier.

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