Recommendations On Puncture Resistant Sport / Commuter Tyre?

Retrogamer

Looking for some advise once more from my fellow cyclists.

I'm going to be doing a 34 mile commute roughly twice a week shortly on my bike.

It's running 700cc, 28c Vittoria Zaffiro Pro which are feel fine, but i found out today how easy it is to get a puncture on them with some sharp stones on a cycle path. I realised they're a budget road tyre as well after checking online reviews and prices.

I've fitted some Slime tubes now and i don't mind a little extra weight for less punctures. I want to change the tyres as well but don't want to add anything with a bad rolling resistance.

I've heard the Gatorskins are good, but i'm a bit worried about the tread pattern (or lack of) for country paths and roads when it's wet.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/continental-gatorskin-road-bike-tyre/rp-prod18800

These Marathon Plus look better for me when it's mostly practicality i need more than weight / performance.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/schwalbe-marathon-plus-road-tyre-smart-guard/rp-prod24544

Just thought i'd check here though before buying in case anyone's found anything better.

brat

I can't give you any experiential advice on tyres for stony paths, but my two tyres of choice are the 28mm Conti gatorskins on the winter bike and Conti 4000SII tyres for everything else. They hardly ever puncture.

I've used both on cycle tracks with no issues, but if a significant part of my commuter route was off road, I would look for other tyres.

Retrogamer

How do you find the gatorskins in the wet?

It's mainly cycle paths i'll be using on my commute but there's some parts of them that are in a poor state of repair, and with lots of foilage growing around the edges but don't intend to be doing anything off road. Tarmac only.

Marco_Panettone

Gatorskins are fine in the wet. Road tyres don't need tread for grip. They're good enough for London's debris-strewn roads 99.5% of the time.


You can also get the Slime strips as an extra barrier, but I've never used them so can't advise on whether they're actually any good, or an added pain when you need to change anything.

TomJ

The Marathon Pluses are absolutely bomb proof. I had a set of Schwalbe Kojaks which I liked a lot, but the commute through Birmingham left them punctured on a fairly regular basis and eventually with a small slash. I went over to Marathons and nary a problem since.

benjus

TomJ wrote: »

The Marathon Pluses are absolutely bomb proof.

I second this - if your main priority is puncture resistance, M+ are the best I know of. However, there is a price to pay in weight/performance.

esuhl

I'm not a fan of that liquid Slime stuff. If you ever need to deflate the tyre (in my case because I still managed to get a puncture), you'll get sprayed from head to toe with green stuff and end up with a gunked-up valve.

armyknife

Just to play devil's advocate, when you have a bike puncture, try remembering some of the unsafe places you've had a car puncture/tyre problem, the possibility with your bike is your in some nice countryside or somewhere quiet. Even if you get at puncture in an unpleasant urban spot, you can invariable move you and the bike a few 10s of yards to a place of relative safety.

Balance that occasional 10-15 minutes with the day in day out, pedal stroke by pedal stroke, additional effort of rotating those extra 200-250g of higher puncture protection for each tyre.

I've had marathons on a folding bike and the added weight and stiffness, seemed to kill some of the fun in the bike.

Recently was using 28C greenguard marathons on my hybrid and whilst a very good tyre, especially in the wet and winter grime, I found dropping down to a cheap 200g lighter Schwalbe with a more giving, softer compound made a lot of difference in terms of handling and acceleration. It also helped to kill a lot of the 'aluminium frame vibration'.

AndyBSG

Usual recommendations are Marathon Plus and Gator skin.

Not used Gator skin myself but have had Marathons and they were very good.

However, I am now using Specialized Armadillo's and these things are pretty much impenetrable.

Commuting 18 miles a day, 5 days a week I was getting a puncture roughly once a fortnight on the(admittedly rubbish) standard tyres that came on my Giant Defy.

Upgraded to the armadillo's and have only had one puncture in 6 months.

They are pretty pricey though(you'll be lucky to get a pair for under £70) and they're also as rigid as hell which makes putting them on great fun!

bebewoo

Marathon Plus every time.
I cycle 20 miles a day along canal towpaths so suffer stones, nails, thorns etc etc and the Marathon plus is the only tyres I have found that can cope with it. Any old inner tubes will do on the inside.
I tried the slime inners once and discovered that they puncture just as often as regular inners and then fill up the inside of your tyre with a disgusting smelly gunk, avoid.
I got the armadillos too once when I had a specialized bike, and they were good, but so much more pricey than the Marathon pluses that I don't see why anyone would pay the extra.

Retrogamer

Good advise from everyone so far.

The bike has a fair bit of weight added to it already (sadly) with panniers, lights, full mudguards etc so the added weight from the tyres should be negligible. I'm far from slim myself as well so if weight needs to be cut to go faster the cheapest choice will be from me first.