So, after 3 successive flat tyres whilst belting along the freeway on the pushie the I deemed it necessary to investigate some better options to protect those little tubes full of that glorious air that makes for a more comfortable and speedy arival to ones destination 🙂

Tyre liners, these are bascially strips of plastic/rubber that sit between the tyre and the inner tube, relatively cheap, 30 odd dollars for two and are pretty easy to fit, they seem to have very little, if any, detrimental effect to the performance of the inner tube and tyre. They are referred to as STOP Flats 2 by Brown, made in the USA.

So for many a month these little strips performed perfectly and I was flat tyre free! Until one day when I noticed a slow leak in the front tyre, I left this go for a few weeks since it did not really bother me too much, however shortly before the Creat Victorian Bike Ride I figured it wise to investiage the cause of the slow leak.

After pulling the tyre off and tracking down the hole in the inner tube I found teh culprit, a small tack about 5mm in length, this has lodged itself in the tyre and was just long enough to penetrate the tough strip! Crazy stuff ehh..I am still impressed by the perform of these strips, I mean at the end of the day, riding over a nail or tack is gonna cause any tyre problems unless its got chainmail or something! That said, I reckon I might take them up on their offer of a free inner tube if you do get a puncture!

I reckon that set of images pretty well sums up the issue!